<p>But when Facebook was built around networks, then all Barnard students on Facebook were listed in the Columbia network (and those whose facebook entry dates from that time still show up that way.) Back when my d. started college, you couldn’t even get onto Facebook unless you had a *.edu email. Barnard students have dual emails – that is, they will get an email that looks like –> <a href=“mailto:xy1234@barnard.edu”>xy1234@barnard.edu</a> that will work equally well if addressed to <a href=“mailto:xy1234@columbia.edu”>xy1234@columbia.edu</a> – so they used to sign onto Facebook that way. So it wasn’t that Barnard “didn’t exist” or that it was a “subset” – in the world of Facebook, it was merged into Columbia.</p>
<p>Under the way Facebook was originally set up, that made sense. It used to be that people could see others on their own network automatically, but only “friended” people on other networks. The idea was to provide a tool for enhancing real world social connections – so that students could easily find others at their own school. Given that Barnard & Columbia have shared student activities & organizations, as well as shared course enrollment – it made sense in that context to set up one unifying network rather than several.</p>