One of the great things about Facebook is that one person's idea, in the form of a group, can get the attention of potentially thousands of people and become a movement. Locally, we're thinking of State Patty's Day where a couple of people's idea to move St. Patrick's Day from the week of spring break to the following week sparked the interest of thousands of Penn State students. Hundreds (thousands maybe?) of people flocked to the bars to celebrate St. Patrick's Day on a day other than March 17. But what happens when this is used in a calculated manner to look  unplanned? What happens when a university uses it to block some bad PR? And what happens when the e-mail asking students to be "spontaneous" gets out? Yea, probably not good.

The CDT, Collegian and Safeguard Old State (which has the entire e-mail) have the story of Penn State's attempt to quell the fervor that was building last week when pictures surfaced of two Penn State students dressed as Virginia Tech "victims." After "getting hammered by the Virginia television station" over the pictures, as Penn State spokesperson Lisa Powers put it in her e-mail, Powers asks Gail Hurley, Robert Orndorff, Joe Puzycki, Philip Burlingame if it would be possible to get student government leaders "to 'spontaneously' put together a Facebook site for Penn Staters to go to and show their support for Virginia Tech" (her emphasis, not ours).

Although, in her e-mail, Powers suggests the name "Penn Staters who care about Virginia Tech," no group with that name appears on Facebook. But, right now there are three separate groups titled "Penn State still supports Virginia Tech," with this one created by UPUA internal development committee chairman and ex UPUA president Jay Chamberlin. According to the CDT, Chamberlin confirmed that the group was inspired by a university staff member.

Now, we're not saying that the final result - students showing support for Virginia Tech - is a bad thing. But, it is disconcerting that Penn State would attempt to create a "spontaneous" group to encourage students to show support. Various groups showing their support for Virginia Tech were created in the aftermath of the pictures, and many of the members of those groups were Penn State students. It seems logical that a Penn State student would have created such a group without the nudging from the University.

We have to agree with SOS when they say: "Next time we see some “spontaneous” display of student pride, we’ll unfortunately be wondering just how genuine that display of pride really is." Or, you can just ignore the man (or woman) behind the curtain.