Social Networking

Facebook Returns to Roots with College-Only Space

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 09/14/20

Anybody who's watched The Social Network, the 2010 movie about the founding of Facebook, knows that the site grew out of a campus project undertaken by a handful of students. Now the company is returning to its roots with the launch of Facebook Campus, a college-only space to help students connect with fellow classmates over shared interests.

In a blog post about the launch, Product Manager Charmaine Hung explained that Campus is "a dedicated section" of the Facebook app, with campus profiles that are distinct from students' main Facebook profiles. To set up a Campus profile, the student needs to enter a college e-mail and graduation year. They can also add a major, minor, classes and hometown.

When the Campus profile is set up, students can discover groups and events that are unique to their schools and connect online with classmates who have the same interests. When content is shared through Campus, the only ones who see it will be other people within Campus.

There are three primary features:

• The campus-only newsfeed is a college e-mail-verified space where students can find updates from fellow students, groups and events for their specific colleges. Students can also create study groups, get advice and plan virtual events.
• The campus directory helps users find each other. Students can hunt down classmates by class, major, year and other filters.
• Campus Chats provide chat rooms, to enable groups of students to communicate in real time.

The company has rolled out Facebook Campus to 30 institutions. (Harvard, Mark Zuckerberg's own alma mater, wasn't on the list.) Students attending participating schools will find Campus within the Facebook app.