By Heather Monahan
Assistant Features Editor
St. Bonaventure is no stranger to social media. With multiple parody Twitter accounts and last year’s infamous BonaMemes Facebook page, students can easily stay up to date campus happenings. However, two students decided to focus their efforts on a social media page aimed at spreading kindness on campus
SBU Compliments, a Facebook profile launched last week, is run by two students, who wished to remain anonymous. The page facilitators wanted to give students the opportunity to compliment their peers without having their identities revealed.
“You can message your compliment, and we’ll post it right away on the page and tag the person it’s about,” they wrote via Facebook message. “It’s completely anonymous in case people want to thank or compliment someone, but don’t necessarily want them knowing.”
After seeing friends from different colleges joining similar Facebook pages for their own schools, one of the creators approached her best friend at Bonaventure to begin SBU Compliments.
“Once the account was made, we began adding everyone we recognized as current students at SBU,” they wrote. “A lot of the people who accepted our friend requests were really supportive and told other people to add us too, which was very helpful.”
While the compliments remain anonymous, the creators of the page still believe it will help promote kindness on campus.
“Getting a compliment unexpectedly is always a nice feeling,” they wrote. “We think reading the wonderful things other people say about their friends is worthwhile too because it shows you’re part of a community filled with such great people.”
Lilly Whelan, a junior math major, said the anonymity is the best part about the page.
“No one feels obligated to say something kind, but rather they feel free to,” Whelan said. “I hope more people reach out and leave compliments because a person never knows what a small act of kindness can mean.”
Whelan received a compliment on the page last week and said she feels blessed.
“It felt genuine and gave me a greater sense of hope at Bonas,” she said. “I’m most happy with not knowing who wrote it. It reminds me that this person didn’t have to say anything they didn’t want to. They wanted to make me feel happy, and they did.”
Ashley Joseph, a junior Spanish major, also received a compliment on the page. She called the small form of recognition humbling and powerful.
She thinks the page has had an impact on students whether they have received a compliment yet or not. With finals around the corner, Joseph said the page came at the perfect time.
“This is the hardest part of the year for most students as everyone is eager to go home and enjoy the holidays or spend time with family,” she said. “It’s great to be able to pick yourself up with a simple compliment – something that might not seem to be anything special, but is actually nothing short of incredible.”
Joseph also said using Facebook for the compliments page is a great idea because of the site’s popularity among students.
“Most students procrastinate through Facebook,” Jospeh said. “Why not use that time to write something nice about a friend or read about a peer?”
Greg Faughnan, a junior chemistry major, agreed the page should give students a boost during finals.
“Everyone is really stressed out with end of the year papers, projects, tests and finals,” Faughnan said. “Little things like (SBU Compliments) really help people get through this stressful time.”
While the page has surfaced at a very stressful time in the semester for students, the creators said they didn’t intentionally plan it that way.
“It just kind of happened that way. But finals week is approaching, and it’s an exhausting time for almost everyone, so we’re hoping this page can just spread some happiness even when studying gets overwhelming,” they wrote. “Even if it wasn’t purposely made during finals, it’s still a way you can brighten someone’s day.”
Although the general response to the page has been positive so far, Faughnan said he does have some reservations about the page.
“So far the response to the page seems to be fairly positive but it does look like some people are using it to post in a sarcastic manner,” he said. “It wouldn’t be cool if that’s what it turns into.”
Faughnan also said he hopes students will be encouraged to give compliments beyond the computer.
“Giving compliments in person is important too,” he said. “There’s something to be said about that, but overall I think it’s an awesome idea.”
The creators of SBU Compliments said so far, they’ve seen a great response to the page and hope to see it spread across campus.
“It’s actually funny walking around campus because we’ve been hearing people talk about the page and we just play along as if we don’t know who’s running it,” they wrote. “But we think people are responding to it really positively and we’ve received a lot of positive feedback and a decent amount of compliments.”
