Middlebury Confessional fad hits campus

Author: Kathryn Flagg

For students hovering near the "Middlebury PostSecret" bulletin boards in the New Library, news of the latest in on-campus confessions may drag them back, at long last, to their carrels and computers. MiddleburyConfessional.com hit campus early this week, and though the Web site's launch was accompanied by little fanfare, the site - designed to catalogue the anonymous, innermost divulgences of College students - is already gaining traction among on-campus surfers.

The Web site, modeled after similar forums at Oberlin College and other universities, allows visitors to submit anonymous messages and comments that are then immediately visible online. Current postings run the gamut from the baffled ("What is this site??") to the baffling ("This school is a giant barrel of lolsauce."), and from apparently earnest queries ("Are you happy here?") and hesitant admissions ("I play football and I am bisexual, and no one knows the truth.") to the requisite dose of post-coital regret ("I can't believe I had sex with you. What was I thinking??").

Behind the Web site's launch is Oberlin College senior Shibo Xu, who currently maintains the Oberlin Confessional and 10 additional "confessionals." The Middlebury Confessional is the latest addition to a suite of Web sites modeled, to some extent, after the Facebook phenomenon. Xu created the Middlebury Confessional after a friend at the College asked him to launch the forum. The idea appealed to him because of similarities between Oberlin and Middlebury, Xu said.

"I think it's very successful at small colleges," he said.

Like the confessionals at other colleges, Middlebury Confessional functions as a closed community. Confessions posted on the Middlebury site are accessible only to visitors surfing from the physical campus.

"I don't want this to be like Juicy Campus," said Xu, who moderates offensive comments for all of the confessionals but does not keep records of the IP addresses of posters. "This is your business," he said, "your community."

Though Middlebury Confessional is currently innocuous enough, the Web site's predecessors - including a similar site at Amherst College, for example - allude to what could be the uglier face of the Confessional spree. Xu acknowledged that when students disregard the Web site's requirements to refrain from using names, the banter can turn ugly.

"The confessionals can be a place for controversy," he said. "I'm okay with that." He continued, however, "You shouldn't be mentioning names. You shouldn't be attacking people anonymously."

Two weeks following the launch of Amherst Confessional this March, The Amherst Student reported that the Web site had devolved into a forum for exactly this sort of gossip mongering. As the site tallied a surprising spike in activity, with submissions numbering in the thousands, students and administrators alike responded with concern.

"It is appalling," Amherst College Dean of Students Ben Lieber told The Student. "I opened it up and I was back in junior high school." Like Middlebury Confessional, the Web site did not fall under the jurisdiction of the institution, and Lieber told The Student that blocking access to the site would violate Amherst College's policy on the ability to freely access information. According to the student newspaper, however, President of Amherst College Tony Marx planned at the time to draft a letter to Xu, requesting that Xu close the site for the good of the Amherst community.

Administrators at Sacred Heart University went one step further last week. "I was threatened with suspension and forcible removal from campus if the site wasn't shut down by midnight tonight," claimed Sacred Heart student Nicholas Dileso on a Facebook group devoted to "The Confessionals" on April 17. Xu confirmed that Sacred Heart Confessional was subsequently shut down late last week, though Xu said he would consider reactivating the Web site after devising a better system for moderation.

Despite these potential pitfalls, Xu emphasized that the forum can have vast benefits for communities, allowing unique space for candid discussion.

"I do believe in free speech and I fundamentally believe that things are better said than unsaid," Xu said. "The space the confessional provides isn't really available anywhere else."

How are Middlebury students using this space? Visit MiddleburyConfessional.com to see the site in action - for better or worse.