This is the second in a series of interviews and conversations that North by Northwestern is conducting with campus personalities: the known, the unknown, the strange and the mysterious.
The landscape of anonymous Northwestern Twitter accounts is constantly expanding, especially with the popularity of Twitter as satirical literature, but few of those mystery handles bring actual facts to the table. Enter @NUtips, an account devoted solely to publishing bite-sized factoids about university goings on. We sat down with its owner — an open-eared SESP sophomore who loves being the one to break the news — to chat about life, the news cycle, the Keg and naturally, Deep Throat.
North by Northwestern: How did you get started?
Northwestern Tips: I just feel like I have a lot of interesting things to say about what’s going on at Northwestern, and I think everyone kind of does. Even though, because we have such a prominent journalism program here there’s an abundance of Northwestern news, there’s just so much stuff that gets brushed under the rug because it’s not a whole story, it’s just 140 characters. And I felt that it would just be kind of fun to explore that and try to leverage the things that I know about the university’s goings on. Add that to the fact that I think that Northwestern had a sort of underappreciated and complex history, and I felt I could capitalize on that and make a Twitter account for no greater purpose other than because I thought it’d be interesting to do as an experiment.
NBN: I’m interested in how the whole anonymous Twitter account thing gains momentum.
NU Tips: There’s not a real purpose in being anonymous. I’ve tried to be careful in thinking that everything that I’ve written, if it was known that I was the one publishing this, it wouldn’t get me in any sort of trouble. Because the last thing I want to do is create some sort of controversy. And I’ve tried to be conscientious in making sure that nothing that I write causes any sort of stir. In some cases it has, accidentally.
Clearly I had to get followers somehow. I have a Twitter that’s not anonymous, and most of the followers that I’ve received is because I followed someone first. So I went to two different Northwestern-related Twitter accounts, and I followed everybody. Which was like 600 people. And I realized a lot of them are totally irrelevant to Northwestern. It was like, either some random celebrity or some other university’s account. It started that way, and then a lot of my tweets got retweeted and it sort of spiraled from there. Although, in the scope of things, I don’t have that many followers. It’s about 400 right now. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not that significant, but what at least has been satisfying to me is a lot of the people that follow me are reporters, are student group leaders or other people that have a particularly high level of engagement with campus.
NBN: Yeah, I mean, I started following you just because the things you tweet out are things that I wouldn’t have seen anywhere else.
NU Tips: The standard that I use is that if I were on Twitter, looking at Northwestern related information, is this something I would be excited to see? And if the answer’s yes, then I try to write something about it. And again, what’s fortunate about Twitter is I don’t have to know all the details, or provide some sort of context, just know that I heard from someone reliable that Northwestern owns 58 acres of Lake Michigan that’s undeveloped, and that’s really cool. So theoretically with the proper levels of approval we could build a second lakefill. The likelihood of that happening is very slim, but that’s awesome and I think people should know that.
A lot of the things I’ve been tweeting are about the direction that the university is going in in terms of administrative priorities, or fun facts about campus groups, and I think that to be able to provide a level of condensed information on interesting subjects is really neat. Add that to the fact that I’ll hear about something – to my knowledge, I haven’t tweeted anything inaccurate. There was one time where I got it a little bit wrong and I issued a correction, but that’s one out of over 100. But to my knowledge I haven’t done anything wildly inaccurate or even a little inaccurate.
So anytime I hear something and decide to publish it, it’s because the source is reliable. But it doesn’t have to be reliable to the same standard that NBN, or The Daily or even NU Intel would use. I tweeted a couple things about Lodge that I heard from Lodge brothers. Or I tweeted a couple things about campus groups that I heard from members of those groups. So it’s always reliable, but I don’t have to go through the same proper journalistic procedures that other reputable publications might, which basically leads to a certain amount of immediacy. As far as I can tell, there were six or seven times where I’ve tweeted things that have later been published in either The Daily or NBN. Not to say that I was necessarily their source or their initial tip-off, but in any case I could get there first because again, I just had to write 140 characters.
NBN: Where do you go for information?
NU Tips: I think what’s amazing to me is the way that I’ve heard people talk about this, what I’ve seen people write to me on Twitter, or even just in conversations I’ve overheard, the question comes up a lot of the times, how do you know all this information? And the answer is as simple as saying, I don’t know, I just keep my ears open.
I have a feeling that most students on this campus could publish something equally interesting, it’s just that they don’t really take the time to do so. I have friends in a lot of diverse communities, and we talk about those communities. When I’m in Norris, I’ll talk to people about what’s going on in their student group, and then they’ll say something to me that feels like an interesting nugget that to them might seem insignificant. I’ve never really proactively sought out the information as much as I just feel like I hear it and remember it, or I write it down because I think it’s worthwhile and it’s interesting. A lot of them are sort of esoteric pieces of information but a lot of them I think are pretty substantial.
That and I read all campus media. My initial goal was to not only publish information that hadn’t been published yet, but also to curate the information that had been published already. So if I’m following x Northwestern sportsblogger and he tweets something interesting, retweet it, giving him credit but publishing it to my followers, and I think that’s the whole beauty of Twitter. There will be a quote buried in the middle of a Daily article and I’m thinking to myself “wow this is really interesting.” For instance, that happened when I tweeted that Kellogg had raised over 20,000 dollars at the Keg.
NBN: How often do you tweet?
NU Tips: I try to make sure that I have at least three per day. So before I go to bed, I sort of sit down and I try to sift through everything that’s happened in the past day and figure out three things I can write. If I don’t feel like I have three pieces of new information, then I’ll just try and reflect on pieces of Northwestern’s history that I know. Because although I may not hear three news tips, there’s an infinite source of Northwestern archival information. And then I add on to that things that I hear throughout the day. If they’re timely, I tweet them immediately, and if they’re not, I save them for the next days.
NBN: What are your favorite publications?
NU Tips: I must have 10 to 15 Northwestern websites bookmarked, including Northwestern News. I have bookmarked just NU Google news, the Chicago Tribune Northwestern, ESPN Northwestern, and certainly NBN, NU Intel, The Daily, NNN, WNUR. There’s so much media about Northwestern. We can thank Medill for that.
NBN: What about professional publications?
NU Tips:Professional professional publications? I read the New York Times, I read Politico, I read ESPN, are probably the three most common sources of news for me. And honestly Twitter’s a fantastic source for news. I read Tech Crunch every day too. Tech Crunch and Politico, they’re both sort of straddling the line, but so is NBN, so...
NBN: Who’s your hero?
NU Tips: I’d say my father, but if I’m going to be anonymous that doesn’t mean anything, does it? I really appreciate what Steve Jobs did for the world in terms of design and in terms of communication, in terms of affecting our lives in tangible ways. So he’s definitely one of them, although he’s not the best values-based person. But he was certainly good at what he did. I’m pretty idealistic. I was pretty into the Obama thing in 2008. I’d still vote for him.
NBN: What is the most important life lesson you’ve learned?
NU Tips: That everything that you do should be grounded in a core set of values and beliefs. It’s very easy in a place like Northwestern to get caught up in the competition, and the game and the race to a better job, to a better grade, to a better something, but I think it’s really important that we reflect on what’s important to us and I’ve certainly learned that lesson the hard way. There are a few very superficial things that I really, really want and it’s really easy to sort of make sacrifices in order to get them, but it’s really important to make sure for me that I’m attempting to achieve my goals and objectives but doing so in a way that’s consistent with my values.
NBN: Who would be your dream Dillo Day act?
NU Tips: I don’t have a very sophisticated taste in music so I would defer to Mayfest, because I think they’re much more effective at determining how to best spend their budget than I would ever be. I’ve been very satisfied.
I think whenever I go home and people talk to me about Northwestern, and ask me “what’s your favorite part about it?” I always refer to the student group culture because I think one of the most incredible aspects of Northwestern and to many students, one of the most underutilized aspects of campus, is the student group scene. There are so many amazing organizations on campus that are really good at doing what they do, and what’s more really good about teaching students how to be successful in a certain set of tasks. Why are you giggling?
NBN: It’s weird that we have a student group “scene.” But it’s totally true.
NU Tips: It is true, right? The third floor of Norris definitely has its own flavor. I hang out in Norbucks a lot because there are people I see at Norbucks that you don’t see outside of Norris. Or that I don’t see outside of Norris, because they don’t run in my social circle but they run in student group circle.
NBN: Do you have a favorite class that you’ve taken at Northwestern?
NU Tips: History of Higher Education. It was amazing. Life changing.
NBN: If you could describe your hometown in three words what would they be?
NU Tips: I don’t want to be too mean. Entrepreneurial, innovative and a bit opulent.
NBN: How would you rate your experience at Northwestern so far?
NU Tips: I love Northwestern. I love everything about Northwestern.
NBN: Everything?
NU Tips: I don’t love the weather. I’m from California. No, I really do think Northwestern is an incredible, incredible place. And it presents so many amazing opportunities to students. Academically, it’s rigorous, but I think there are so many engaging courses, and even those classes that I slack off in, and I don’t mean to pretend that I never do that, I feel like there’s just so much to gain from the academic component.
I think that student group opportunities are unique and robust and amazing, for me in an unexpected way. It’s its own little mini operation that goes on. There are hierarchies, there are groups that are more respected than others, and there’s this 4 year cycle that’s really cool. Every year there’s new leadership, there’s new cultures that are instilled. I love the athletics, I love the Greek scene. I’m very optimistic about Northwestern, and while there are definitely moments that I’ve wished that I went to x or y school, I think at the end of the day there’s a component of Northwestern that is magical. I know that sounds lame.
NBN: How did you feel about the Keg?
NU Tips: Tragic. I tweeted this — Max Brawer wrote a piece on the Keg that summarized what I believe to be its significance. But it really was a social melting pot, and it was a great way to run into people that you don’t run into otherwise, to interact with people in a sloppy, fun, ridiculous manner. That said, I think Mayor Tisdahl made the right decision, because let’s be honest: You don’t go to the Keg if you’re over 21, and that’s not OK.
So as much as the student in me and the Keg-heavy-user in me loves everything it had to offer, I’m exactly what was wrong with it. I’m 19 years old, and I tried to go there most Mondays.
NBN: I only went once, after I turned 21, and I left after 5 minutes. Now I kind of regret it.
NU Tips: A lot of people are that way. I went there as a prospie, and had a conversation with the bouncer about why I should come to Northwestern.
NBN: Did that have anything to do with the fact that you came to Northwestern?
NU Tips: I’d love to say it did, but not really.
NBN: Do you have a specific tweet you’re most proud of?
NU Tips: I think the Lakefill thing is pretty interesting. I don’t know why more people don’t talk about it, probably because there’s no way we would ever receive the proper authority to actually build a second Lakefill. I think I was ahead of the game in talking about the developments with housing in terms of the administration’s strong desire to increase upperclassman housing and delineating their plans to do so before it was on the front page of The Daily. I was retweeted the most when writing about the events surrounding the Keg’s closing. And I did use original sources for that. The Daily for obvious reasons beat me to publishing that it was closing, but otherwise I read the report, I even called the owner of The Keg, the owner of EV1, to talk about some stuff before The Daily got their exclusive interview.
NBN: When you call the owner of The Keg — my struggle as a journalism student is always sounding legitimate enough.
NU Tips: That’s the whole beauty of it. I didn’t call as a journalist. I called as student. I said “What’s going on?” I called the owner of EV1, I said “Is it true you’re going to buy The Keg?” and he was sort of like yeah, yeah then I called the next day and he denied it. The other day I heard EV1 was getting shut down, and then I called and there was no truth to that, so I just called as a student. I didn’t call for an interview. I’m proud of the amount of Northwestern information I know.
NBN: As an anonymous tipster, how much do you want to take part in a Woodward and Bernstein/Deep Throat situation?
NU Tips: Not much. I think one issue I take up with the way that campus media operates — and this is representative of the way news media works in a more broad sense — you have like the rooting against the university, and I think that’s sad. I don’t doubt the huge amount of value added in investigative journalism, and in activist journalism, and I also don’t pretend to purport that The Daily should become Northwestern’s extended public relations department, but I just think there’s a way to talk about issues while still respecting the institution that’s giving you so much. Every Daily reporter is also a Northwestern student who chose to come here. And so their reporting is perhaps indirectly improving the university by critiquing it, I think there’s something to be said for just celebrating the good that’s going on.
And there’s not really a place for that in the media. And that’s not to say what I’ve been tweeting has done that, but I think just as a person, as someone who aspires to be a student leader…I guess what I’m trying to say is that our ownership of this university should trump our pre-professional goals of getting a story that works well on a resume.
But that’s easy to say because I’m not a journalist, I don’t want to be. I was the editor of my high school paper and had that problem a lot, because it’s really fun to be an investigative journalist. I wrote this really cool story about this SNAFU that happened with our student handbook, that once faculty had seen it just caused this enormous amount of controversy over nothing. And the administration changed it almost immediately. But I had a lot of fun sort of calling them out on it, and that’s not really appropriate, in my mind. Because it’s blowing things out of proportion. And the worst thing that I think that journalists can do is create controversy instead of reporting on it, and that happens a lot here. It happens a lot in the world.
NBN: Do you have any trepidation about the things that you’re publishing creating controversy?
NU Tips: Definitely. There have been two instances where I’ve been contacted by student group leaders saying “Can you please take this down, this is confidential.” Now in one instance I sent back the group’s president an email, using my real name, saying "Here’s why I think what you’re saying is wrong and deserves to be public, but that said I respect what you do enough to take this down." That may have sacrificed my pseudo-journalistic integrity, but again that’s not really my point. It’s these two conflicting forces – one that’s like, publish publish publish because this is fun, I know this is going to cause some stir and that’s kind of sexy and cool, and this other side that’s trying to ensure that everything I do is up to the standard of I would be willing to say I was the one who wrote this, if push came to shove it would not damage my reputation and it certainly would not damage anyone else’s. And I hope that the latter force always wins out, even though it’s tempting. I think that’s the same type of thinking that journalists need to do in general and don’t always do.
NBN: That’s all for my questions, unless you have something else you want to expand upon?
NU Tips: I don’t know how much longer this is going to last, because it’s a lot of work. More so than I thought. It’s not easy to come up with these things to say and I’m running out of things that I knew in the past, so I’ve been relying more recently on people telling me things and sort of probing a bit, and I don’t want that to be the way that it is.