UMD Squirrels
CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, this article incorrectly stated how the creator of Maryland Compliments came to the idea of creating the page. This article has since been changed to reflect this correction.
They are famous on campus, but they remain anonymous in their day-to-day lives as students, much like Peter Parker.
They aren’t superheroes. They simply know how to create Facebook pages that bring a smile to your day. They are the creators of Umd Squirrels and Maryland Compliments.
Four female junior students, all roommates, spontaneously created the Umd Squirrels page in October, but they are sworn to silence to their identities. They also have squirrel decorations in their apartment.
“It’s completely secret. We all live together, so it’s a pact,” one said.
“Whenever we walk around campus, we always would just observe [the squirrels],” another added. “We realized that a lot of other people also enjoy the squirrels, so we decided to make a Facebook page for them … Also, we were really bored staying in one Thursday night.”
Umd Squirrels now has 2,757 Facebook friends, all joined in their appreciation of squirrels both on and off campus. Most recently, the creators posted a photo of a squirrel wearing flip flops and a Hawaiian print shirt sitting in a beach chair and wishing students to have a good spring break.
For one page creator, the most enjoyable part is the event invitations.
“Just the thought of squirrels showing up to an event, I don’t know, it makes me laugh,” she said.
After they graduate, the creators plan to pass on the page to someone else who enjoys squirrels. In the meantime, they just hope students at the college of the turtle have a little room in their hearts for the bushy-tailed acorn lovers.
“We hope they’re as nuts about [Umd Squirrels] as we are,” they said.
As for the Maryland Compliments page, the creator – a male student – heard about the concept of such a page in November after some students launched a similar initiative at Columbia University. As a two-year employee of the Help Center, he thought it would be a neat way to improve morale on campus.
The page allows students to send in anonymous compliments for their friends and the creators would tag that friend and post it to the page. Some of the creator’s coworkers at the Help Center also jumped in to help him manage the account, which receives about 25 entries a day.
“I really like the completely anonymous ones,” he said. “It’s just so obvious the person has so much care for whoever they’re writing it about and they’re not trying to be recognized.”
There has been one major obstacle, however. Because of the high volume of interactivity, many university compliments pages have been marked as spam and asked to convert to a “page” instead of a personal account. University Compliments has created a petition on change.org to help them remain as personal accounts so that they can tag people in their posts.
The anonymous creator said his favorite part of running the site is facilitating happiness.
“I get the notification that someone’s like, ‘Oh my god, this just made my day or made my week,’ and I don’t know, it just makes me feel good to help other people feel good,” he said. “This is what my dad always says: ‘Most people most of the time are doing the best they can with what they’ve got,’” he said. “I think [Maryland Compliments] helps facilitate that view.”
And interestingly enough, one of the page’s most popular posts is dedicated to Umd Squirrels:
“Umd Squirrels: you make me smile every time I see you. My day gets a little brighter whenever I pass you on my way to class.”
