The account administrators of "Where Y’all Goin" deleted the viral Instagram page earlier today after receiving serious threats when the identity of one of the account owners was exposed. After speaking to Campus Safety about the gravity of the situation, they said the threats made against them were serious to the extent that deleting the account was the best way to proceed.
One of the account's former administrators posted a heartfelt goodbye message in the Facebook group "Bagels Who Discuss."
“We disabled the account because of serious threats made against us," the administrator, who posted anonymously in the Facebook group, wrote. "The account itself was blown to a large proportion that made it impossible to monitor without serious implication on our mental health and safety. Additionally, so many people who were commending/DM'ing us we not even in the UNC community, which was not part of our original intention.”
Senior Molly Cummings said she was upset that Where Y’all Goin was deleted because she felt the page was one of the only ways students were held accountable for failure to follow COVID-19 guidelines. But she believes the administrators were justified in removing the page to protect themselves from potential harm.
“I think this account was the first time that students were seeing, ‘Oh, people are watching,’” Cummings said. “I think the students that don't care simply don't care. I don't think their actions are going to change unless the University does something, so with the account being gone, I don't know that things will change unless the University starts taking action.”
Rachel Maguire, a first-year graduate student pursuing a master's degree in social work, believes that as a student and a community member, the lack of action taken by the University to prevent or punish student partying has been disappointing. Maguire said she will miss the impact Where Y’all Goin had on campus.
“Where Y’all Goin was definitely raising awareness to students in the community of how many individuals are breaking COVID guidelines — gathering in groups larger than 10, not social distancing and not wearing masks,” Maguire said. “I've seen ‘Where Y’all Goin N.C. State,’ so I think it's also sparked an interest for other campuses to take a harder look at their own communities and enact the same accountabilities.”
First-year BJ Miles hopes the Where Y’all Goin page led to consequences for partygoers and was heartbroken when he learned the account was deleted.
“It made people scared not to break school rules and not be an idiot posting everything they did on social media,” Miles said.
