“Snitch SCU” Speaks Out

Creator of the account discusses experience

Before the Jan. 23 California Phi frat party defied Santa Clara County COVID-19 health orders, an Instagram account known as @snitchscu merely existed.

Since the frat party took place, the account has rapidly accumulated over 400 followers and ignited a large amount of both praise and controversy among Santa Clara students.

The praise comes from students who have continuously been outraged by student parties taking place during the pandemic, while much of the criticism comes from the students who were out partying themselves, as they fear being “snitched” on by the account.

The distaste that specific students feel has gone far enough that some are trying to hack into the account. 

“We’ve been getting forgotten password [notifications]. I had to up the security on the account because they’re just trying a bunch of passwords to get in,” said the anonymous owner of the @snitchscu account in an interview with The Santa Clara. “Our email has been sent [to] many IP grabbers.”

There have also been two death threats and horrible comments made about the owner’s family members. 

The owner first created the account last spring after reading posts about parties at Santa Clara on a social media app called Herd, which serves as an anonymous discussion board for college students. Even outside of Herd, the owner consistently witnessed a large number of students disobeying county health and safety guidelines amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I’m based off-campus, and our house and just the people that run this [account] have watched this happening since literally the start of fall,” said the anonymous owner. “I would drive by on Fridays and Saturdays…and there would be people overflowing off of porches.”

Students critical of the account have sent messages to it attempting to justify the actions of the students partying this past weekend. Their sentiments include that these students are making the best of a bad situation, they aren’t spreading it to the local community and their actions are negligible to the overall pandemic.

“Yeah, it sucks that they can’t have that college experience. I’m not having a great time in college either with online,” said the owner. “But it’s just this entitlement. That they’re entitled to this experience and nothing, not even the pandemic, can stop them from it.” 

Since Sunday, the account has reported over 40 students who attended the frat party to the Office of Student Life. The process of receiving Instagram screenshots and then identifying students in the pictures who attended the party was enough work that two other individuals had to step in and help out the account owner send in reports.

One of them believes that if the @snitchscu account didn’t exist, there wouldn’t have been as big of an outrage from students, both from those in favor of the account and those opposed to it. 

“There wouldn’t have been someone actually directly against [the frats],” said the friend of the @snitchscu account owner, who also wished to remain anonymous. 

While there would still have been disgust from many students and community members about the disregard for county health orders, they believe it would have been less directed or less organized if the account wasn’t there to help. 

As the pandemic continues, students will likely choose to continue partying. The account owner plans on continuing to use the account to hold their fellow students and university administration accountable.