Many of the incoming students of the Class of 2010 have already joined Facebook.com, the popular college social network, even though their freshmen year won't start for another six months.
Sixty-five students now belong to the Facebook group, "AU Class of 2010."
Members of the new group said Facebook has allowed them to get to know their classmates and will help make the transition from high school to college smoother.
"It's really a safety net for us," said Von Gerik Allena, an incoming freshman in the School of International Service.
Elizabeth Ardagna, an incoming freshman in SIS, joined Facebook to keep in contact with her brother, who is already in college, and said she is looking to make new friends.
"Going to college is a little scary in the sense that you're going somewhere where you know no one."
Elizabeth Ardagna, an incoming freshman in SIS, who joined Facebook to keep in contact with her brother, who is already in college.
In response to the arrival of the class of 2010, some AU students created anti-2010 Facebook groups, and object to the number of students that joined the Web site so quickly.
One of the anti-2010 Facebook groups" suggests that high school students should "jump in the leaves and have pizza parties, not get addicted to Facebook. Comments on the site have sparked animosity between incoming and current students.
The group's creator, Peter Kirchausen, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs, left a comment that says: "Terminate your Facebook account, and we can all get along. When you come to AU in the fall, we can even cuddle."
Aulia Shariat, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, thinks that it is more appropriate for incoming freshmen to join Facebook after they graduate from high school in May.
Not all AU students are annoyed with the issue.
"I think people are just trying to find an excuse to be angry," said Samantha Kramer, a freshman in CAS. "It's a status issue. I think it makes the people who complain about it look bad."
Emilia Bohn, a sophomore at George Washington University, found four groups about the incoming class of 2010 on GW's Facebook network. The groups include another "Class of 2010: We Party Hard" group, as well as a Jews of 2010 group and a "People who know the Class of 2010 should be banned from Facebook (unless they are hot)."
"I think they probably enjoy it because they're getting connected to the college network early, but as a person in college now, I feel like your senior year of high school is too young to be on Facebook," Bohn said. "However, at the same time, it's just Facebook, so it's different from physically being here"
