UNC Campus Story has become #goals

For some, being featured on Snapchat’s UNC Campus Story is a pipe dream, like living in the tunnels under campus or streaking across the field at Kenan Memorial Stadium.

For first-year Eunice Kim, it’s happened three times already. She has been featured singing Elton John and Amy Winehouse and also playing with pompoms at the football game.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, 7,000 people listened to this,’” she said.

The Campus Story is the college version of Snapchat’s Live Stories, which cover well-known national and global events. Campus Stories include videos and pictures of students in their natural habitat: complaining about studying, hosting karaoke sessions and capturing athletic and social events around campus.

But first-year Matt Bravante was featured for another reason.

“The fire alarm went off in my suitemate’s room, and I guess that was popular enough to make it on the story,” he said.

Bravante said he thinks that the app’s campus story feature is a positive addition to campus.

“It’s a very student-driven vision of how life goes on at UNC,” he said. “It’s very raw, I guess you could say.”

The story is filtered — just not by UNC.

Introduced in Nov. 2014, the Campus Story is managed and supervised by Snapchat personnel, who check content.

The exact guidelines for what does and doesn’t make it on the story are unknown, but Snapchat has stated that it checks content before making it public on all live stories.

Natalie Vizuete, director of social media for UNC, said that although the University isn’t in charge of the campus story, it is still aware of it.

“I like how we can use Snapchat to portray student life, and for the most part we haven’t seen many things that cause us concern,” she said.

Vizuete said she appreciates that Snapchat allows users to report concerning content on the story.

Students aren’t the only people who contribute. Computer science lecturer Kris Jordan was featured last week.

'while' looping in the real world #comp110 #activelearning #whip #naenae /cc @unccs @UNC https://t.co/oE5C2L6zly

— Kris Jordan (@KrisJordan) September 17, 2015

“As a professor of computer science, it’s a lot of fun to engage with students in my class through social media, and being able to talk about how things like Snapchat and Instagram are actually created and how they work under the covers,” he said.

Three snaps from the lecture, taken by Jordan’s students, made it onto the story.

This is the positivity we all need in life @KrisJordan pic.twitter.com/Ig2MBId3fm

— Roshni Verma (@roshniverma_) September 24, 2015

Jordan is thrilled with the multimedia presence his classroom has and plans to teach classes how to make a Snapchat filter.

Although it’s almost impossible to get on the story, Kim offers some advice for those who’d like to try.

“You have to make it a video. It increases your chances, rather than a picture. And it should be of something you’re doing that’s funny, like being active, dancing — and singing usually gets on.”

Here's a collection of some of our favorite snaps:

@rachelisbeyonce

arts@dailytarheel.com