Douglas College embroiled in meme war

University-to-university conflict turns viral

By Katie Czenczek, Staff Writer

It was only a matter of time until UBC and SFU students took to social media to wage an all-out war.

What started out as a post on Facebook became a conflict between the two local university, as students from both schools began to post memes to insult the opposing university. Using Twitter and Facebook as their platforms, both the UBC Confessions group and the SFU Confessions group saw students anonymously post memes, tagging one another in jabs against the other school. The memes ranged in topics, each discussing the problems with either university. Some were more lighthearted, poking fun at the high tuition costs of UBC, or claiming SFU students are only at SFU because they weren’t admitted to UBC. Others discussed topics such as UBC’s alleged reputation for campus sexual assaults.

BCIT, UVIC, and other British Columbian universities and colleges were also mentioned in the flurry of memes posted.

Douglas College was also mentioned and thrown into the fire as a bystander of the war of memes. Douglas College Confessions fired back, posting memes with captions such as “watching your neighbours fight on the street,” accompanied by a photo of Homer Simpson looking out of his window suspiciously.

Amber-Rose Hemm, a Douglas College student who saw the events unfold on social media, said in an interview with the Other Press that she enjoyed watching the meme war from a bystander’s perspective.

“It was fun sitting by the sidelines watching with popcorn as the other schools fought each other,” she said.

When asked what she thought Douglas College Confessions should post in order to respond to the memes, Hemm said that she would like to see some posts about how UBC and SFU students are paying significantly higher costs for the exact same education.

“I just don’t get it. They pay ridiculously higher tuition fees for the same education. That’s the biggest thing [Douglas College students] have to shoot back at [UBC and SFU] is the stupidly expensive costs of going to either university,” Hemm said.

Stephanie Malundo, another Douglas College student, did not personally see the memes but said that she liked the idea of a meme war between the competing schools.

“It’s a harmless joke that can be something fun to do. Everyone loves a good laugh, especially at this time of the year with finals wrapping up. I wish that I got to see it while they were still posting a tonne,” she said.