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First, a few definitions of terms:
Facebook: A global social networking website
Viral: Information that rapidly propagates from person to person
Frogurt: Frozen yogurt
So there's this new student, Lillie Berry, who met some awesome Whitworth freshmen on Facebook during the summer and just couldn't wait until Orientation Weekend to meet them in person, so she sent them a Facebook invite to get together at Didier's on Friday night, before move-in day, for conversation and frogurt, and the invitation went viral and Berry's new friends invited their new Whitworth friends, and 40 eager, smiling frosh (plus a handful of parents) showed up.
"I got to meet a lot of great freshmen from other dorms and even my own dormmates and hallmates," Berry says. "Spending some time together before all the craziness started was really beneficial and made us all a lot more excited – if that was even possible."
After polishing off their frogurt, the gang took a self-led campus tour and made stops at each other's dorms. "The RAs setting up for the next day were surprised to see so many freshmen walking around and checking everything out," Berry says.
Berry may well have established a new Whitworth student-bonding tradition akin to Mock Rock and Birdie on a Perch. The wired freshmen, however, weren't the only networking Whitworth contingent. As they established a new community, their tech-savvy parents posted cathartic status updates via Twitter. "We're packing up our son to take him to Whitworth this weekend. He'll be a freshman. Fun, but stressful...."
Whitworth delved into social media in spring 2008, when the communications office launched a fan page on Facebook where followers can learn about notable campus happenings, view videos, and take quizzes that are tied to upcoming events. The university's dearly departed founder, George F. Whitworth, even has a profile page (www.facebook.com/george.f.whitworth). Other Whitworth-related Facebook pages have sprung up in recent months, including athletics, the MIT program, alumni, theatre, volleyball, and The Ten.
Want to get connected? Visit www.whitworth.edu/socialnetworks to become a Whitworth fan on Facebook; view our photos on Flickr; engage professionally on LinkedIn; follow us on Twitter; and watch our videos on YouTube.
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