Yik Yak tour stopped briefly at UNC on Tuesday

The Yak disappeared as quickly as he had arrived — a fleeting whirlwind of Yakarma.

Yik Yak’s “Ride the Yak” arrived at UNC Tuesday, the latest stop on a spring campus tour. The location-based social media application started two tours from Atlanta on Feb. 14, one heading to the Midwest, the other up the East coast.

Joe Barry, east coast tour manager, said Yik Yak ran a successful tour last fall and plans to cover 59 colleges across 34 states in 71 days, connecting with users and handing out merchandise.

“It’s just a great way for a social media app like ourselves to get in touch with our users,” Barry said. “It’s something that no other social app is really doing.”

From 11 a.m. to noon, the Yak and Rameses could be found racing around the Pit, Student Union and Undergraduate Library — battling with large cottons swabs and taking selfies with students.

The event continued at the Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity house on Franklin Street. Yik Yak contacted the fraternity on Monday, looking for both a space to hand out merchandise and a charity to benefit.

For every post about why students love UNC, Yik Yak donated a dollar to the charity of the fraternity’s choice — Camp Kesem.

“It was sort of a perfect storm,” said Tucker Morgan, junior and Lambda Chi Alpha member. “They mentioned they needed a place to pass out merchandise and a philanthropy to fundraise for. I just happened to have both.”

Morgan said 18 members raised money for Camp Kesem, a summer camp for children affected by parents with cancer. Morgan said the North Carolina camp needs $98,000 annually to run the camps, and they hoped to raise around $200 from Yik Yak.

Yik Yak had a controversial academic year at UNC. University administrators and students have grappled with some anonymous posts, including a bomb threat and racial harassment.

Barry said the anonymous aspect of the app is tough, and the company is working to provide better quality feed by banning Yik Yak from high schools and adding more trigger words, allowing them to delete posts more quickly.

However, he said, the anonymous aspect is also the best part of Yik Yak.

“You’ll see the person you would least expect to have the highest Yakarma score walk over and show you they have, like, 50,000,” Barry said. “I think that’s the coolest part of Yik Yak — everyone and anyone has a chance to have their voice heard.”

Senior Erin Jackson said Yik Yak often causes heated discussion with her classes and friends, unlike social media sites such as Twitter.

“With the idea of shutting (Yik Yak) down on campus, I see that as censorship, and I can’t completely understand that idea,” Jackson said. “It’s not the app, but the ideas presented on the app. Because it is anonymous, it creates a sense of community. It allows you to be whoever you want to be — to be yourself, to be whatever you want in that moment without being judged.”

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