Rosemary Raths
rnr002@marietta.edu
Marietta College first launched a school Twitter account in 2008. Eight years later, in the summer of 2016, another notable Twitter account emerged. @fuzzy_ruud first appeared on Twitter shortly after his owner announced as the new Marietta College president. His profile picture was actually taken from the initial photo announcement, and shows him lying in his mother’s arms. The young dog has tweeted everything from live presidential coverage to how “squirrels now Pokémon” are in his yard. He also makes sure to keep the campus updated on graduation dates and available programs.
As far as who is actually hitting the keys for him, no one can say for certain. Fuzzy’s parents, Bill and Judy Ruud, are adamant that they do not want to know. Professor Judy Ruud is quick to stop anyone from even making a guess. Any information on the author is requested to be kept private.
It was in May, 2011, that the first recorded Marietta College parody account appeared, according to Tom Perry, the Executive Director of Strategic Communications and Marketing. The account, @TheRockatMC, is still up today, but has been inactive since June, 2012.
In its hayday, however, people really got a “kick out of it,” said Perry. It touched on topics relative to campus like Dooh Dah Day and campus admissions, but also slipped in pop cultural references ranging from Jersey Shore to drunken McDonalds trips.
“It seemed to be well received,” said Tom Perry. He also admitted that the author was clearly someone on campus, even going so far as to suggest it may have been a faculty member. He does have an author in mind, but was reluctant to disclose his opinion.
Around the same time as The Rock another account appeared pretending to be the Marietta College flagpole, according to Perry. “There were times when they would talk back and forth to each other,” he said. The flagpole, however, was unable to be located on Twitter and may have been deleted in recent years.
These parody sites, including @TheRockatMC, @fuzzy_ruud, and the little-known @MariettaBanana, are one way to keep up to date with school culture. Many of these accounts exist when there is a need for them and then “just die,” said Perry. The school offers multiple accounts, such as @MariettaCollege and @mariettapac, that offer similar information with a little more transparency and reliability
