Upon your college acceptance, you may find yourself deep-diving into the many Vandy Facebook groups exclusive to students and alumni. Facebook was largely considered a dead social media realm in high school, but college gives it a whole new meaning, making it a platform to find your roommate (R.I.P.) as a first-year or to sell your dorm furniture upon graduation.
However, the most important reason to have a Facebook in college is to access the infamous Dank New Rand Memes group. The page has seen a surplus of posts lately, thanks to the administration’s controversial action plan for the fall. After months of waiting, the most recent announcement gave our fellow meme creators plenty to work with. Read on to see our favorites.
The Towers debacle
By: Amanda Nolan ‘22
ICYMI, first-year students, athletes and those who opt to live on-campus this year will be spread out to adhere to social distancing protocol. All freshmen will live in singles, which means that Vanderbilt’s housing capacity just got reduced significantly. As a result, Towers (you know, the buildings that no one was supposed to ever live in again and whose counterparts got blown up), are back in business. In a shocking turn of events, students will be housed in Towers where they are to revel in the glory of Zeppos from afar.
While the housing situation is less than ideal, Nolan tries to find humor in the situation.
“I was shocked when I read the housing plan for next semester. However, humor helps me feel better about situations, and this was one of those situations I tried to get a laugh out of,” Nolan said.
Athlete housing
By: Auston Kim ‘22
The university made the decision to house all student-athletes together in Morgan and Lewis, given that they will be traveling off-campus to compete. While this policy makes sense since these students share similar lifestyles, some people are less than pleased. Forcing one group of students to live together can be isolating, especially since athletes have friends outside of the sport they play. Additionally, those who already found housing for the upcoming year will have to change their plans. Auston Kim, a member of the golf team, had planned on living in Zeppos with her best friends until Vandy made it clear that it had other plans.
The Jason Momoa meme refers to an iconic moment at the London premiere of Suicide Squad, which the two Justice League co-stars attended. Henry Cavill stands unassuming and turns to the camera while Momoa runs up from behind him and attacks (hugs) him.
“The post I made was mostly out of disappointment with the university. I was really excited to share a suite with my best friends in the new Zeppos residential college,” Kim said.
The joke that is housing in general
By: Jason Yang ‘21
Yet another housing meme. Yang used the beloved “Tom meme” from Tom & Jerry to capture the not-so-funny confusion around Blakemore House. While Highland Quad in general isn’t exactly the Ritz Carlton of Vandy housing options, Blakemore is notorious for its questionable living conditions and lack of a social atmosphere. The building will not be a housing option for students living on campus in the fall, instead serving as a student quarantine and isolation space (which, this meme argues, Blakemore practically was in the first place). While the dorm may serve as a reprieve from the doom of COVID-19, students may instead find themselves face-to-face with threatening mold in Blakemore’s halls.
Say goodbye to roommates, hello pen pals?
By: Rohan Chekuri ‘21
One of the biggest pitfalls of the COVID-19 protocol is that first-years cannot have roommates on campus. Before you think about envying their singles, picture how daunting it would be to show up to campus without any automatic friends to spend time with. To make up for the no-roommate policy, the administration will assign “virtual roommates” to all first-years. Poking fun at the university’s substitute for an actual roommate, Rohan Chekuri made this pen pal meme.
Problem-solve with sing-alongs
By: Grace DePietro ‘21
DePietro saw the meme-potential that came with first-year housing plans as well. As we mentioned, students’ first-year at Vandy will look very different from previous years. The administration recognizes that these changes can make the already daunting transition harder, so to make everything better, they plan on instituting “virtual sing-alongs” to comfort students. While Vandy had good intentions, it’s no question that these “virtual sing-alongs” missed the mark and are a laughable attempt at bringing new students into the community. If we couldn’t call ourselves “Camp Vandy” before, we most definitely can now.
So much information, so little knowledge
By: Valerie Kraft ‘21
Kraft’s “Elaborate on that” meme is something we can all relate to after being left in the dark with vague statements from the administration about this semester’s plan. A formal statement has been released regarding the fall, however it fails to explain how exactly all these plans will be executed. The university will not be releasing further information until July 15. In response to this statement, Kraft used a moment from an interview with David Lynch.
In the interview, Lynch made the bold personal statement that “Eraserhead is [his] most spiritual film.” However when asked to expand on his answer, he simply refused. We can all respect Lynch’s “I don’t owe anyone an explanation” attitude but when the lack of information may affect our studenthood, no thank you.
