(WLNS) – After recent bullying through whiteboards, MSU decides to erase them from acceptable items on dorm doors for coming Fall semester.
A long standing MSU and college dorm room tradition will soon be a thing of the past, as some say the once friendly white boards have become a tool to bully instead.
Their commonly used for writing messages, posting inspirational quotes, or asking questions, but recently these whiteboards that hang on the exterior of many dorm room doors have become a form of bullying.
“It had become more of a distraction that a helpful tool,” MSU Residential Services Communications Director Kat Cooper said. “Once in a while someone will write something that isn’t very nice.”
According to a Facebook post by the Lansing NAACP, a student recently had a racial slur written on her whiteboard. It’s just the latest incident reported, so in collaboration with the Michigan State University Police, the school decided the boards aren’t as useful as they used to be.
“Whiteboards have been decreasing in popularity since the rise of social media and texting and cell phones and all of those things,” Cooper said
Starting next year, Michigan State will be erasing whiteboards from the allowed items on dorm doors, a choice some students say is unnecessary.
“People are going to say things no matter what, whether its to their faces or on a whiteboard, its just something you can’t always control,” MSU freshman Sofia Sokansanj said.
Sokansanj says the boards are more of a way to encourage others, and bring lightheartedness to the dorm.
“Mostly I leave it up there for people to write stud its just kind of funny, it’s like an anonymous thing you can put whatever you want, I just do it for fun.”
But Cooper says there are other ways for students to connect.
“We’re going to encourage students to connect online.”
With Facebook and other social media platforms out there Cooper says students can help wipe away anonymous bullying from these halls.
