University Instagram deletes post after negative responses
By Salimah McCullough | Published by April 30, 2019
A post on the Kean University official Instagram account advertising a newly renovated and improved Miron Student Center was taken down by the university after it drew numerous negative responses.
The post on April 9 showed an artist’s rendering of a newly-renovated MSC and said the improvements will include a larger Greek Lounge, refurbished restrooms and an Asian food station in the Food Court.
However, the excitement wasn’t shared by all of Kean’s Instagram followers. Shortly after the post hit the Instagram feed of 12,700 followers, it was flooded with comments.
“Kean should prioritize its budget on student progress or at least student convenience,” said Morgan Petzold, a Fine Arts major. “Something like a parking deck or full-time advisors.”
The comments section was loaded with posts complaining about the dorm conditions, faculty and staff cuts and lack of on-campus parking, to name a few.
“I scoffed at the announcement of the upcoming renovations because, in light of the university firing a huge amount of professors for no good reason, I find it ridiculous that the university is so pompous to proudly post about spending money in unnecessary areas,” said Chloe Senatore, a sophomore majoring in both English Writing and Communication. “The fact that Kean chooses to post about renovations while they’re letting go some of the most positively influential professors is beyond ridiculous.”
The comments received likes and additional comments showing agreement.
One comment that brought a lot of student attention and agreement was about the condition of the older dorms and concerns about mold.
“Since this is a predominantly commuter school they have made it more than clear that living conditions for dormers are not a priority or a concern at all,” said Joe-Annah Jean Jacques, a junior majoring in Therapeutic Recreation and Biology. “Behind all these flashy buildings, you have mistreated and ignored students. It’s disrespectful at this point.”
According to Margaret McCorry, a spokesperson for Kean, the university is active on social media to engage with students and others in respectful dialogue and they “expect reactions to posts to contain both accolades and concerns.”
“In this case, University Relations made the rare decision to remove the post in question on that particular platform only because it contained profanity and other inappropriate comments,” said McCorry. “As with all of our posts, we reviewed the feedback and shared it with University leaders to review and act on as appropriate.”
Some students were even angrier that their comments were deleted.
“Kean deleting the post due to students commenting their true feelings blatantly showcases how the university is choosing to disrespect the voices of its students as well as suppress what the needs of the students are,” said Senatore. “I have never commented on a Kean University post before this one so the fact that it was deleted is very disheartening because now I know that the university really doesn’t care about what I have to say.”
One Kean junior studying Education told The Tower that she had to remain anonymous to speak her true thoughts.
“One of the things our school is known for is its education program and we have some of the best education professors, but they don’t have the proper resources to give us our world-class education,” she said. “We need updated technology in CAS, Hennings and Hutchinson. We need advisors that aren’t professors to make sure we are headed towards the right direction and we need classrooms that aren’t falling apart.”
According to an article on the university-sponsored Kean News page, posted on April 8, the renovations are expected to be finished by Jan. 2020 and will be designed to improve the facility for students.
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