Sutton Bonington meme page deleted after uni threatens ‘action and investigation’

A Sutton Bonington Insta meme page has disappeared after the uni asked the creator to hand themselves in under threat of "action and investigation".

The head of the School of Veterinary Medidine and Science has emailed students at SB campus threatening to contact the account's followers in the wake of memes created by Instagram meme page sb_m3mes.

Adelle Bowden, Teaching Associate of the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, sent an email to all undergrads and postgrads on SB campus on the 20th March requesting the creators of the meme page come forward to talk to the school.

In the email, Adelle, who completed her PhD and now teaches full time on SB campus wrote in the email: "We have photographic evidence both of the account and content, and of the followers, many of whom are vet students who we will be in contact with should the need arise."

UoN have told The Nottingham Tab this was purely to discuss the page, remind the admins of the fitness to practice guidelines, and address the concerns raised through the memes.

However, the university also appear to have identified which of the account's followers are vet students through their social media profiles in order to aid investigation.

In recent years, a meme account created by an anonymous fresher on Facebook, Sutton Bonington memes for countryside teens, had amassed a large following by students on the rural campus.

The account, with their last post dating 13th December 2018, made fun of living in Leicester but studying at Nottingham University, seeing cows and chickens on the way to lectures, and being completely divided from students on University Park and Jubilee campus.

sb_m3mes, which was created by an anonymous fresher/s in September, routinely produced memes of the same nature on their Instagram page, until appearing to be deactivated.

A meme posted by the account following the decision by the School of Vet Med and Science to increase intake for this year's courses

Tensions in the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science have risen in recent months after Dr Karen Braithwaite, Director of Operations, had unveiled plans to accept two cohorts of undergraduate students: 150 students in September 2019, and a further 150 beginning their courses in April 2020.

When asked about the possibility of an investigation, a representative for the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science said: "All students sign up to a code of conduct when they arrive on campus and a social media policy which sets out expected behaviour online.

"In addition Veterinary students have a responsibility to behave professionally and responsibly at all times under the guidelines of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. They may put their registration at risk if they demonstrate inappropriate behaviour when using social media.

"After concern about an Instagram account was raised to senior tutors an email was sent to all students reminding them of this responsibility. At no point have staff asked for the account to be shut down, nor do they seek to, but a meeting has been set up to ensure any concerns raised through the account can be addressed."

Adelle Bowden was contacted for a comment on the story.