The WeAreFGCU Instagram page has been inactive since a student takeover by Matthew Boggan during the general election was found to be controversial amongst students and administration. Students utilize this account to document a week in their life as an FGCU student. 

During his takeover of the account from Nov. 3-14, Boggan documented his many campus involvements, including his time at the Conservative Political Action Conference and as president of the FGCU College Conservatives.

At the time of the occurrence, FGCU received a complaint to the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance of posts including partisan activity, according to University Communications and Media Relations Coordinator Pamela McCabe. 

The account conducted a review, let Boggan continue his takeover through a university employee, and the account has been silent since.

The FGCU College Conservatives issued a statement on Nov. 8, 2022 about the situation and people continued to discuss it in the comments as comments were removed from the WeAreFGCU account.

“This is the sad reality of a conservative’s right to freedom of speech. Our voices need to be heard and this needs to change. They can’t silence us forever,” FGCU College Conservatives Vice President Madalyn Stonebraker commented under the post.

The post now has 58 comments of students going back and forth about the situation.

“I’m sure your president remembers how you can’t wear campaign attire inside Cohen during election time on campus. Why would you think you can post political messages on [a] university account during an actual state election week[?],” student Henna Gavem commented.

Since then, it has been approximately five months since the last post on the WeAreFGCU account. The account has been active since the first post was made on Jan. 17, 2014.

When asked about an update on the Instagram account, McCabe said they have been discussing ways to handle it for some time.

“It was always our intention to repurpose it. With the transition of leadership within the social media team, it’s unlikely we’ll have any direction or next steps until this summer,” McCabe said.

Until then, there is not going to be any activity on the account. There is hope for students that it will be restored, but there is not a known capacity as to which it will be restored to.