Quinnipiac alumnus Mike Germano has launched a Web site called LoudCampus.com that he hopes will complement the Facebook and MySpace sites. Germano, who graduated in 2005, was approached by two Cornell students with the idea for LoudCampus. They chose Germano’s Web-design company, Carrot Web Design LLC, to create the Web site. One of Carrot’s other projects includes QUReview.com, where students can anonymously rate Quinnipiac professors.
LoudCampus has launched the site at 12 schools and the group plans to add more by the end of the school year. Germano said that he wants the site eventually to represent all major schools but has been striving for diversity with the current 12 schools. Among the schools that have a version of LoudCampus are the University of Connecticut, Brown University and Boston College.
The Web site encourages its users to discuss topics and post reviews in 15 categories, including Campus Life, Politics and Sports and Recreation. Although a person must be a member of a supported school to register and post, anyone can view the discussions.
“The first school that we launched LoudCampus at was Hamilton College in upstate New York,” Germano said “We then launched at Cornell and later Quinnipiac.”
On March 23, Robert Gaafar, co-founder of Carrot Web Design and director of business operations for LoudCampus.com, sent out a campus-wide e-mail to Quinnipiac students calling for them to register and participate on the site. Gaarfar also graduated from Quinnipiac.
“Let’s face it, Quinnipiac is full of students who have some pretty strong opinions but have never had a place for them to be heard. Well, now you don’t have worry about this kind of stuff anymore.” Gaafar wrote in the e-mail.
Germano also enlisted the help of fellow Quinnipiac alumnus Christian Shaboo in launching the Quinnipiac section of the Web site. Shaboo sent out an e-mail to current orientation leaders to inform them of the site.
“Thus far, Quinnipiac has been the most intellectual of campuses, responding to one another on issues that truly matter,” Shaboo said in an e-mail correspondence. As of press time, the top three discussion topics in Quinnipiac’s section of LoudCampus were the War in Iraq, Campus Diversity and University Professors.
Germano reported that Quinnipiac’s level of participation is not as high as that of other schools thus far, but he is optimistic that number will continue to rise. Even so, students are aware of the site and some, like junior public relations major Sharon Schwartz, use the site regularly.
“LoudCampus is very informative of things going around on campus and in the news,” Schwartz said. “It’s entertaining to read the postings and is also a learning experience.”
Germano has similar expectations for the Web site. In the future, he said that LoudCampus would make an effort to appeal to high school students who need help in choosing which college to attend.
“Since all of our content is generated by actual students, it could provide more honest viewpoints of the school than a prospective student might otherwise get,” Germano said.
In addition to adding a number of supported campuses next fall, Germano plans to integrate YouTube capability into LoudCampus. Also, links to the popular networking sites Facebook.com and MySpace.com will be added.
Though LoudCampus is geared toward a similar demographic as popular networking Web sites available today, Germano dismisses the thought that LoudCampus will ever achieve the same level of success.
“LoudCampus will never be as successful as Facebook or MySpace,” Germano said. “But it has potential to grow and be something entirely different.”
