Facebook on Thursday launched a dedicated college-only space called ‘Facebook Campus’ designed to help students connect with fellow classmates over shared interests.
This platform makes it easy for the students to find and start conversations within their college community.
“This year, students across the country are facing new challenges as some campuses shift to partial or full-time remote learning, so it’s more important than ever to find a way to stay connected to college life. College is a time for making new friends, finding people who share similar interests, and discovering new opportunities to connect – from clubs to study groups, sports, and more.
In the early days, Facebook was a college-only network, and now we’re returning to our roots with Facebook Campus to help students make and maintain these relationships, even if they’re away from their college,” Charmaine Hung, Product Manager, Facebook Campus said in a news release.
This dedicated section on the Facebook app, designed for students, is a Campus profile that’s different from their main Facebook profile. In other words, they can hide or change information such as profile picture, residence address, etc.
To create a Campus profile, all students need is their college email address and graduation year. Other information such as their major, classes, hometown, and minor are optional.
Once a Campus profile is set up, students can discover Groups and Events that are specific to that community, and connect with classmates who share similar interests. When content is shared on Campus, only people within Campus will see it.
Below are the key features of Facebook Campus:
Campus-Only News Feed: Campus is a college email-verified space designed for students to get updates from classmates, groups, and events in a college-specific feed. Students can create study groups, plan virtual concerts, or ask for advice with college-only Groups and Events.
Campus Directory: This is a classmates directory that makes it easy for students to find and meet new classmates by class, major, year, and more.
New Ways To Chat: Campus Chats are real-time chat rooms. Students can create chat rooms for their dorm, clubs, or any other groups they are part of within Campus.
Currently, the feature is only available in 30 universities throughout the U.S., including the California Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern, University of Louisville, Vassar, and Virginia Tech.
For more information on how privacy and security were taken into consideration while building Campus, you can visit here.
