Yik Yak has finally been banned on Dickinson’s campus, forcing many to find other outlets to share their insulting and bigoted beliefs in an anonymous fashion. This has led to an alarming rise in bathroom stall graffiti.

Facilities director Sam Griffins said: “I haven’t seen this level of bathroom stall graffiti since 2012, when Yik Yak was not a thing. I feel like we are back to square one in terms of bathroom cleaning.”

Also on the rise is classroom desk scribbling, with more than 74% of classroom desks containing at least three or more hateful pieces of writing.

Richard Seddies ’19 says that he has participated in this new trend of physically writing out hateful messages. Seddies claims that “[I] needed an outlet for all of the ridiculous and hateful things I wanted to say, but with Yik Yak gone, I felt lost. Luckily I have again found a way to express my unpopular views with no detriment to my social standing on campus.”

Sociology professor Sandy Erics has spent years studying anonymous outbursts of hate. She says that after years of research, this behavior can be easily explained. As she put it, “Haters gonna hate and don’t feed the trolls.”

As of right now, students were mulling a permanent ban on bathroom stalls or writing utensils in an attempt to curb this behavior.