Anonymous Twitter account parodies Drake Dean of Students, details hypothetical spring break

Story by Megan Ellis

Twitter controversy is not only reserved for celebrities.

The twitter account @SentwaliBacardi was created by a group of anonymous students to parody Drake University Dean of Students Sentwali Bakari.

The  @SentwaliBacardi creators parody Bakari’s administrative position. Even changing Bakari’s name to Bacardi plays into the parody.

“The creators are obviously playing off the fact that Sentwali is the person on campus who is charged with maintaining the university’s alcohol policies, right?” said Rachel Paine Caufield, associate professor of politics. “So by putting him in a situation where it is about alcohol, it’s, you know, meant to be funny and a juxtaposition on his formal role on campus mixed with this hypothetical side of Sentwali that people don’t see.”

The account began with the premise that ‘Sentwali Bacardi’ was partying on spring break.

The account appears to have been inspired by the fact that Bakari sent an email to Drake’s student body before spring break about safety.

@SentwaliBacardi has more than 200 followers.

The users’ tweets include comments like “Alchohol Task Force meeting, 9 p.m. tonight at Senor Frogs, South Padre. #WorkingVacation” and “Engaging so many citizens on this beach #LiveThatMissionStatement.”

Tweets continued after spring break.

Unofficial Twitter accounts are not a new concept for Drake University.

Although the focus is not always targeting a specific person, other ‘fake’ accounts exist online.

“There have been, I think, a fair share of fake accounts associated with Drake University that are out there where students are sharing information anonymously, some negative, some positive,” said multimedia professor Chris Snider.

“Drake encourages free speech among all members of its community,” said Drake Director of Public Relations and Media Management Aaron Jaco. “However, it is important that everyone be able to clearly identify Drake’s official communication channels and those communication channels used by administrators. In the case of parody accounts, we ask that students follow the policies set forth by the platform on which the account is created.”