“#119. I have yet to buy something at the Bookstore … five finger discount all day!”

This shocking confession about shoplifting, along with others, can be found on the Facebook page, “CSU East Bay Confessions.”

The page allows students to anonymously post their deepest, darkest secrets. Whether it is stealing from the Pioneer Bookstore, complaining about a roommate or getting advice about relationships, CSUEB students are going to the page to get secrets off their chest.

“I think the page has its pros and cons like every social media network,” says Jorge Martinez, 20, a Communications major at CSUEB. “It provides students with an outlet to have their voices heard anonymously; however, it opens up the doors for them to call others out publicly and rudely. It’s the Internet and not everything you read on it is true so I believe that some students post false confessions not realizing it is a poor reflection on our university.”

The Facebook page, which has over 1,000 likes and counting, is not the first of its kind. UC Davis and San Diego State University both have confessions pages with over 4,000 likes each. “San Jose State University Confessions” has reached 6,500 likes and Ivy League universities such as Harvard and Yale have their own confessions pages as well.

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, recently made a confessions page on Feb. 21, and in less than two weeks, the page already received more than 2,000 likes and countless confessions.

Although the confessions are anonymous, the amount of rule breaking these students confess to can be startling.

Confession 174 states, “I slept with my teacher to get an A. It wasn’t that bad she was hot.” For the student’s sake and the professor’s career, one can only hope that such a confession is not true.

“I believe there’s a possibility that this could be true,” says Ashlyn Garner, 21, a student at CSUEB who recently discovered the site. “It just feels like it’s not surprising anymore for teachers to have relationships with their students. Especially in college since we’re of legal age. It’s just happened so many times.”

Professors are not the only CSUEB employees who have wound up on the receiving end of these confessions.

“#126. I had sex with an RA [resident assistant], and snuck out of her dorm before she knew. A week later I got written up for having a guest (another girl I was sleeping with) and guess who wrote me up? Hahah.”

Other posts include people admitting to destroying personal property, school property and tampering with roommates’ personal belongings. Whether or not the allegations are credible, the truth will not be discovered due to the strict anonymity that the page allows.

“It’s not enough for us to take real actions on it. [We] couldn’t do something about it at the end of the day,” said a university police officer, who asked to remain anonymous. “The most we can do is extra checks around the areas [reported on the confessions page].”

Once on the Facebook page, students can click on the link provided in the “About” section. The link then opens a separate page that states, “Tell us about something that you did, happened to you, or witnessed while at school or whatever. Try not to call anyone out. That’s not the point of this. We would like all submissions to be respectful. Throw class out the window and just make us laugh.”

Aside from the jaw-dropping confessions, some are a little more comical.

“#28. One time I got a random erection in class and our professor told the class to stand up. So I pretended to tie my shoe until it calmed down.” And “#144. Girls who wear spandex at the gym… Keep on wearin em :)”

The Facebook pages are in no way affiliated with CSU East Bay.

UPDATE: As of yesterday the administrators posted on the page that they were considering shutting the site down.

The reason given is they have “been getting word that [they] as admins may get in trouble academically due to the page.”