Using Discord to Build Campus Community

This article will explore the basics of a Discord Server structure and some unique ways you can use this as a tool to build community within your college sphere.

By Justina Thompson — December 13, 2023

Tags: campus community, campus life, community building, digital community, discord, how to

One of the most exciting things about maturing and learning in such an adept age of digital technology means being able to use these as tools to organize and structure ourselves. Lots of college students these days for example, have to deal with the ethics of technology like generative AI! This is a powerful tool which can support initial research, first drafts, and other organizational computation which will likely make college learning much easier! However, academic curricula have not yet pivoted to account for this, and so its use is often discouraged by professors at this time. Practitioners are also still deliberating how generative AI bots cite their own sources and how their findings should be cited when used in research, a key part of the higher education journey. Other tools like GroupMe and Slack, which are used for casual forms of communication, are now being developed and catered to support communication and connection across organizations, college campuses included!

Discord is another example of digital tools/resources that can be used to connect students on college campus, at many different levels including across class years, majors, extracurricular activities, and even dorms! This article will explore the basics of a Discord Server structure, things to consider when maintaining this use of a digital space, and some unique ways you may be able to use this as a tool to build community within your college sphere!

Basics of the Server Structure

Introductory Channels

When someone is invited to join Discord, they will enter a main server! Within the server are many different channels, or subspaces for unique interaction. For example, one channel which users may initially interact with is a welcome channel! This can give introductory information about the server, its purposes, and an overview of the different channels so new users have an orientation. Another type of welcome channel used in discord servers is one for community guidelines or server rules. With these types of channels, users are required to agree to the rules laid out before they can view and engage in the other channels. Incorporating this into your server structure is a good accountability step, and shall any server members go against the community guidelines, reasoning for removal is clear and straight forward- since this is something they agreed to beforehand.

Selecting Server Roles

One last use for an introductory channel is for server members to select roles! Roles can be selected in-channel by a user or assigned to a user by moderators or server admins. In a college setting, roles may be helpful to distinguish professors from students, resident assistants from residents, or even to identify specific interests! Roles allow users' names to show up in the server in different colors and also grant special access to designated channels within the server. For example, if you created a discord server for your dorm and wanted a specific channel for the staff, they would be able to choose or be assigned the 'Staff' role and the designated channel would be access-only for those with the 'Staff' role. This provides a closed space for Staff to discuss any dorm or resident concerns, as well as coordinate rounds, dorm coverage, or plan dorm programming before they are public!

Each user can also hold many roles! For example, if there is a student who lives on the first floor of the dorm and is interested in dorm game nights, they'd have the option to select a 'first floor' role and a 'game night' role, in order to have access to specific channels for all first-floor residents, and all residents interested in game nights. This supports more intentional spaces for communication. If there were a leak or a maintenance problem with the first floor bathroom, the other floors wouldn't need to know! And if someone was really against playing board games or socializing with others (hey, it happens!), then they don't have to be tuned in to that specific game night channel. Additionally, those who don't want to be involved wont need their availabilities considered, which can make scheduling a little easier!

General Channels

Aside from the role-specific channels, there are usually a few general channels in any server that are helpful for all members to have access to!

Announcements:

This is a central place for all server members to share announcements about upcoming events, or semester schedule deadlines, or resources for support. The guidelines for this channel should be not to spam so all can have easy access to the information being shared.

General/Chat:

Now depending on how many people are in any given server, a general chat channel can be pretty overwhelming, but it is nice to have one key place where folks can have ongoing discussions, say good morning, check in with each other, and other social happenings.

Slow Chat:

And for those who may get overwhelmed by a fast moving chat, a separate channel can always be created for slower paces server members and conversations! Discord has a 'slow-mode' feature which can be enabled in specific chats, giving a 10-second cool down window between sent messages.

Random/Memes/Photos/Gifs/Pets/etc:

Everyone loves a good laugh or smile! It's also crucial that those don't interrupt the flow of necessary conversations or distract from important information. Tis the beauty of multiple discord channels. Via pinned message of channel description, you can set the rules for what can and can't be posted in the channel, and welcome giggles galore!

Voice Channels

While digital spaces can be great for a lot of things, it does have its limitations. Especially when it comes to nuance in loaded discussions, the changes in tone in body language are key to effective communication and delivery of a message. All of the above channels mentioned are text and photo based, and include the options for uploading photos and voice notes. In addition to that, Discord offers voice channels where individual server members can hop in at the same time, unmute, and chat with each other. This is great for a conversation which may want to happen in real time over voice rather than via text in a channel. Voice channels paired with scheduled programming can also be great spaces for community building! As students are on campus, it may be just as easy to knock on someone's door or invite them the dining hall. However for the purposes of exploring Discord's features in this piece, voice channels are a great place to host game nights, campus discussions, guest lectures, or even to stream movies and music! Voice channels can also feed in video from shared screens and live camera feed, almost like a mini Zoom in a server! The only difference is folks in the voice channel/on video would need to access to be a member of the general server before engaging in any specific channels.

Discord also has a pre-set selection of games that server members can play as they are in the voice channels.

Bots

Remember how we were discussing the different roles that can be assigned to users in the beginning of this piece? Well, that feature is supported by bots which can be integrated into into any Discord Server! When folks hear about bots, the automatic association is a buddy or spammy tech that disrupts the flow of what is meant to be going on! However, with careful curation and programing, bots can be super helpful in automating repetitive and necessary functions within the server to save time! Mee6 and Carl bot are two Discord favorites which can be used to assign those roles, and create polls for server members to choose their roles from! Any other polls that may be needed (perhaps to choose a theme for an upcoming movie night/marathon) can also be facilitated through these bots! These bots can also provide a base level of moderation support when it comes to monitoring for appropriate language and providing warnings to users. The main difference between the two comes down limitations based on price (because everything has a cost-) Luckily there are also many online guides to help you decide which bots may be best suited for your server based on type! Some other categories of bots include:

Music:

Music bots can be assigned to specific voice channels to allow server members to listen to and share their favorite songs, set a vibe for study hour, or whatever other space they'd like to enjoy. To suggest one music bot would be difficult considering they all have many different functions and limitations. Across the different options, they have abilities to read commands from users like 'm!play Never Gonna Give You Up Rock Astley' and then pull from platforms such as Apple Music, Spotify, Soundcloud and YouTube. As individual platforms grow, explore new monetized collaborations and update copyright procedures, some bots get taken offline or lose some features, which is why it's best to know your options!

Rankings:

In instances where it's helpful to encourage or track engagement in the server, ranking bots can be used! With the option to reset at any point (e.g. monthly or at the beginning of a new semester), these bots can give XP and levels to the different server members based on their interactions within the server!

RPG / Games:

Just as the list of the kinds of games folks can play with each other in person is endless, so are the kinds of gaming bots you can use in a Discord server. Generally, RPG bots will create a storyline for members to follow and respond to, similar to how a DM might function in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, but with more automation (although DMs are using ChatGPT to help write draft their campaigns now, too!) Other game bots use randomization and fun characters to pass the time and make for good!

Etc: (HaikuBot)

As those with tech or coding experience may know, the customization ability for every bot is wide-ranging! So when it comes to bots that do one or two specific things really well, there is no shortage. Wanna flip a coin? There's a bot for that. Wanna roll a die? Well you get the point. Another example is the HaikuBot! Throughout the server (with the channels its been given permissions to access), any 5-7-5 syllable patterns detected will prompt the HaikuBot to re-present the text as a haiku. Hai-cool is that?!

Scheduling:

Bots also come with practical resources too, like coordinating schedules and availability to suggest aligned time for meetings, study sessions, homework review, whatever may be needed in the dorm.

While these are just a few bots and features, be encouraged to explore and see what other options are available, especially as you consider building your own server!

Other Maintenance & Moderators

Now, while bots are great for automating common processes and repeated functions, they alone cannot be trusted to run your entire server! Just like the maintenance of any good, curated space, it requires a team! A lot of Discord servers that come to life from online communities have volunteers step up to moderate or folks who have a lot of practice and expertise in an area may gravitate towards moderation roles. One of the great things about college campuses is that there are natural leadership positions sprinkled throughout, and those can translate to moderator responsibilities within a server of this kind without too much figuring out. Allowing moderation responsibilities within a campus server can also support deeper community engagement for a few students and help harness leadership skills which they can transfer to other spaces across campus!

Moderators can help new server members get oriented to the space by answering any questions they may have and also giving them a welcome/orientation to the space! Moderators can also monitor for any behavior which may be alarming, whether it poses harm to an individual/group or even just disturbs the primary purpose of the server, which is to share resources and build community across campus spaces. It's also important that moderators are grounded in their actual responsibilities, and not just the idea of power. Moderators have the ability to mute users for a designated period or remove them from the server entirely, and when these actions are taken should be clearly laid out and agreed upon by a full moderation team. Taking one step further to lay out these guidelines with all server members supports transparency and trust in community building as well. It also supports peer accountability so users know what may be taking something too far. A moderation team (vs just one moderator) for a server is helpful as is distributes leadership and assists in removing bias from decision making as it pertains to the server! No one human should be expected to monitor an online space 24/7, especially as they are balancing classes, studying, and any other campus obligations. Sharing the load is the best way to get it done!

All About Scale

How many moderators you may need on your team depends on the size of your server. The size of your server will depend on which scale you hope to engage the campus community. A single discord server can have up to 500,000 members with 25,000 simultaneous online members and 500 channels at a base level server space. Including graduate students, my first institution had no more than 15,000 students enrolled at a time. My second institution (in a much larger city) has about 27,000 students enrolled as of last year. An institution wide Discord Server would take much organization and moderation and would certainly not be MY recommendation for starting out. As the scale gets big like that, it's important to ask what value each member would have in that space, and since the answers may vary for each student, the space may not be able to serve them all. However, here are a few other scales at which Discord servers may be effective:

Program wide:

The first school-based Discord server I joined was one for my Design Major! This was a way to connect students across the four class years (+ graduate students!) with professors, staff, and alum! With channels like a job board and announcements, students were able to exchange career advice, invite folks to attend upcoming symposiums, and share general program announcements (like new course offerings!) Other design resources and news also circulated in this space. For a program/major/or other academic based server, this may be a great place to use the channels for different classes! Additionally, spaces to share study habits and coordinate homework groups would fit perfectly within the server! It can also be used to host and coordinate test reviews, sharing class notes, back tests, and textbooks!

Dorm Wide:

When students first settle onto campus for the semester, community building likely happens first within the dorm! Using a Discord server to support, accelerate, or amplify this is a great use of the tool! In a general chat channel, students can share introductions with prompts (with selfies shall they choose), play games of I Spy or 'As Seen Across Campus', and share music with each other! Especially for first-year students, the transition into a new space can be very difficult. Even just having a space where server members can share gratitude for others and things they're grateful for can be uplifting and supporting for the greater community! Coordinating extra curricular activities within this space can also be very helpful! Whether it's putting together the initial team, coordinating schedules for a quick pick-up practice, getting others to support their peers at games, or even a few steps back to let members know what options are available to them- Discord is another great tool to use here. An announcements channel is perfect for sharing information about the big club fair, signup timelines and interest meetings. To keep track of all the fun activities and recap at the end of semester or year, a specific channel for photos can be utilized here as well! As you may have picked up by this point, the possibilities are TRULY endless!

Year Wide:

On the note of looking back on photos, how amazing would it be in your Senior year to go back in your Discord Server and see all of your freshman year memories?! I know nostalgia would get me every time! It's important to consider data and storage capacity within the server so the best memories don't get lost, but that is all in the magic of the archive, whose nuances span a but beyond just the functionalities of a server. However, one of the final ways you can curate your server is across class years! When there are class specific events, resources, and opportunities this is a great way to keep them all in one place!

Closing Notes

Just as the servers have different scales they can be implemented at, levels of engagement within a server may also very— from year to year, from day to day, etc! Additionally, every individual will not engage in the same ways within the server— that is okay! Some folks will have spent years in other Discord servers before arriving to college and just have familiarity. Others may just prefer engaging and interacting in person! The primary goal is to create a welcoming and helpful environment so that members feel invited to engage and have the tools they need to do so. The rest of it all? Is in the magic of the server itself! Be encouraged to let things evolve into their own and even branch off as necessary. Especially as a moderator, server owner, or space curator more generally: although the time and energy poured in is so valuable, do not mistake that with ownership over the energy and people you've invited into the space.

Justina Thompson

Justina "Farmer J" Thompson is the Farm Education and Volunteer Manager at Urban Creators, Philadelphia, PA. Justina intentionally attended school in Philadelphia so she could “connect her passion and experience to the ongoing environmental justice work in the area.” As a speaker, educational curriculum designer, program leader, and community organizer, Justina possesses extensive knowledge on urban farming inspired to work in the field of environmental justice from a young age.

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