When a student takes to social media to vent their frustrations with The University of Memphis, the last thing they expect is The University's president, Shirley Raines, to read it. The real Raines may not respond, but there's a good chance that her online impersonator might.
When health administration and accounting student LaWanda Graham vented via Twitter this summer, saying the U of M needed to stop playing with her money, an anonymous user under the handle FantasyShirley replied.
"My Bentley doesn't pay for itself," the faux Raines replied.
The response was no less sardonic when soon-to-be freshman early childhood education major Amanda Yates vented her frustration with The U of M's admissions office, tweeting that she was "about to go ham."
"I went ham on my bagel at lunch," FantasyShirley replied.
Yates said she didn't think much of the response.
"I frequently get spam tweets from Twitter accounts I don't follow, and I generally don't pay attention to them," she said. "When I received that tweet I didn't realize it was supposed to be The U of M president, and I disregarded it as another spam tweet."
The anonymous tweeter isn't the only one who has taken to impersonating University administration on the social media site. Any one of FantasyShirley's 623 followers knows that she often corresponds with imitators of U of M football coach Larry Porter, basketball coach Josh Pastner and athletic director R C Johnson.
In fact, several Universities, including Columbia, Georgetown, Brown and the University of Texas at Austin, have discovered fake accounts satirizing their presidents. In the case of Georgetown, UT-Austin and Brown, administration contacted Twitter officials and had the accounts removed under Twitter's no impersonation policy.
Most posts by such impersonators are intended to be humorous. Raines' online imitator frequently takes jabs at her trademark wardrobe, including the blue blazer she wears in some U of M advertisements.
"Whoo hooo. Blue Blazer and Broach Bonanza at Bloomingdales!! Gotta stock up for fall," FantasyShirley recently tweeted.
Two users manage the fantasy account.
Though the two men wish to remain anonymous, they granted an interview to The Daily Helmsman via email, saying that they're U of M business and a political science graduates in their thirties. They said the razzing of Raines' is not meant to cause any harm.
"First and foremost we are just trying to be funny and keep it light for followers," they said. "We have never been malicious with it and never intend to do so. I think we both respect Dr. Raines and her support of the academic endeavors of the school."
Blue blazers and tuition are common subjects on the account, but sports are the users' topic of choice, they said, an interest that spawned the account in November 2010.
"There seemed to be a growing sentiment that Dr. Raines wasn't particularly interested in athletics and found little value in supporting them," they said. "Both of us being huge Tiger supporters (season ticket holders, money donors), we thought it would be fun to feed into that perception and humor ourselves at the same time. We were not sure it would catch on, but in a small way, it has. It adds another level of depth to Dr. Raines persona that Tiger supporters and students wouldn't ordinarily get."
The undercover duo also takes pride in adding their snarky U of M twist to current events. Last month, when Memphis City Schools decided to delay opening until they received overdue money from the city, FantasyShirley was quick to respond.
"Students must be paid in full or in a payment plan by day 1 of school…maybe I can pull an MCS, pocket the $, & lockout coeds," they tweeted.
Linda Bonnin, Associate Vice President of the Division of Communications, Public Relations and Marketing, and also the woman behind The University of Memphis' official Twitter account, said her office and President Raines, who doesn't have or plan on getting her own Twitter account, have "been aware of FantasyShirley for quite some time" and they check it occasionally to monitor what is being said about The University.
"We don't know who created FantasyShirley, but he or she appears to have a lot of time on their hands. Some of the tweets are incredibly creative, but they all are totally fiction," Bonnin said.
"They are clearly meant to be humorous and we think anyone reading them will know it's not a legitimate account, especially with the name FantasyShirley and the disclaimer that is on the page."
The real Josh Pastner said he, too, was aware of his Twitter copycat, but he isn't offended.
"I actually thought it was funny," Pastner said.
