The Shoutbox, a popular Facebook group for public events, community announcements, lost and found, clubs and organizations and other aspects of life at Lawrence, will close on Friday, Feb. 17 after five years of operation. Senior Nick Mayerson, the group’s administrator and founder, announced on Saturday, Feb. 4 that they will be stepping down as admin and encouraged the Lawrence community to start a new communication platform instead of finding a new admin for the Shoutbox.
Associate Professor of Religious Studies Constance Kassor expressed concern that the Shoutbox’s closing will leave a void at Lawrence because she feels that it fostered easy communication between groups that usually would not interact with each other.
“There aren’t easy ways for students, staff, and faculty to easily communicate with one another,” said Kassor. “We’re all siloed into our own categories.”
According to Mayerson, the Shoutbox was formed in Winter Term of the 2018-2019 school year as a temporary solution to the lack of communication systems at Lawrence. Although it gained swift popularity and amassed over 1,300 members over the past five years, Mayerson believes that the platform is unsustainable because Facebook lacks the features of a true forum and is rapidly losing popularity amongst the next generation of college students.
Mayerson emphasized the importance of a platform where administration, students and professors can communicate with each other.
Mayerson argues that Lawrence’s communication platform should either remain fully independent from the university or become funded and staffed by the university’s bureaucracy. They also criticized Lawrence’s administration and Lawrence University Community Council (LUCC) for their lack of support for the Shoutbox.
“LUCC has not supported or utilized the Shoutbox fully since its inception, as has the administration,” said Mayerson. “President [Laurie] Carter said to my face that she would not let the ball drop on the Shoutbox, but has.”
Carter stated that she and other members of university leadership met with Mayerson during Spring Term of 2022 to explore options for the sustainability of the Shoutbox. She acknowledged the Shoutbox’s significance to the Lawrence community and expressed gratitude towards Mayerson for the work they contributed to the creation and maintenance of the Shoutbox.
“We provided a viable avenue of support that would keep the Shoutbox in the hands of our students, which Nick—while thankful for our support—declined to pursue,” said Carter. “Should Nick change [their] mind, my offer to [them] to identify a workable solution still stands.”
When asked about platforms for future communication, Mayerson recommended Discord due to its helpful thread systems. While there is a Discord server founded by first-year James Curry, Mayerson criticized the environment on the server as “gossip-oriented” and harmful.
Curry requested feedback from the server’s members in response to Mayerson’s post. He deleted the #vent channel and, although NSFW content was already prohibited, he removed NSFW emojis that were previously overlooked to reduce negativity on the server.
Former Shoutbox admin Ada Stelzer ‘21, pointed out that while Discord is popular and provides flexibility when setting up servers, it is a very different platform than Facebook and will require careful planning on how to best use Discord’s capabilities.
“There will probably never be a single communication network that fulfills all of Lawrence’s needs,” Stelzer said. “The problem is how best to complement the other systems that exist (email, physical posters, etc.) in order to get important information out to as many students as possible, and as the students change, I’m sure the solutions will change as well.”
She also pointed out that Lawrence first-years used to get informed about various programs and opportunities on campus via the CORE program, where small groups of first-years would meet with upperclassmen in person. According to Stelzer, the discontinuation of CORE forced students to rely heavily on social media to stay informed about campus events.
Mayerson urged the Lawrence community to find a new platform that will engage current students instead of merely attracting alumni.
“I do not want the Shoutbox to become a facade like the groups mentioned before,” Mayerson said. “This time, the hole left will be known, and that leaves an opportunity for the student body (and hopefully, this time, the administration) to innovate and collaborate to find a better solution than the one I had. If nothing else, it leaves a gap open for someone else to pitch an idea and push it to succeed.”
Read about the Shoutbox in Features.