UTSA parody accounts: Gingers, Chap Cat and Overheard

Admins share their thoughts on running popular Instagram pages for UTSA students

Riley Carroll, Staff Writer

Continuing through the multitude of UTSA parody Instagram pages, we found diverse content with a niche scope for every user to enjoy. Featured on this week’s UTSA parody accounts are the three female owners of @chap_cat, @utsa.gingers and @utsaoverheard.

Every student on campus, or at least in Chaparral Village, has grown to love Harry, the orange tabby that roams the dorm buildings. Since 2014, the Chap Cat’s Instagram account has been passed down through generations of feline-friendly students. The anonymous owner receives direct messages daily from curious cat-lovers sharing photos of them enjoying Harry’s company, asking care-based questions and some asking for information in search of Harry’s whereabouts.

“ … seeing how much people love Harry is very heartwarming. I’ll get DMs asking how he is, where he is today, etc. People even ask about the other cats on campus, which is so sweet,” she said. “Harry is the most friendly for sure, but quite a few cats live on campus. Feral cats need love too. If someone smiles when doomscrolling in JPL cause of a cute photo of a Harry, that’s all that matters.”

While some students love to see their daily dose of the campus cats, others prefer to indulge in rare redhead sightings at school. The UTSA gingers page was created primarily to highlight our beloved redheads in a comical fashion. The owner said that the connections made between gingers on campus have made her laugh.

“I think with UTSA’s commuter history, there’s a missing sense of belongingness. I’m not saying that the ginger’s page single-handedly is creating community, but it’s kind of become a big UTSA inside joke. I’ve heard people in my classes talk about it or even talk to me about it without them knowing I’m behind the page,” the account owner said.

Other specialty parody accounts focus more on what occurs or what is said across campus. The UTSA Overheard account does just this by exhibiting overheard conversations between students. The most recent post features a student overheard in the student union expressing that they were so hungry their stomach was “beatboxing.”

“I think it’s a very common feeling to feel like no one is listening or like it’s difficult to speak up about opinions, but the fact that people are hearing each other talk about something that happened with their roommate or arguing about keeping a lobster as a pet or admitting that they don’t know how to do CPR despite being certified [is] a simple testament that people are listening to you, even if it doesn’t feel like it,” she expressed. “I’m usually sitting on campus for 6 hours at a time, and naturally, you hear some funny things being said back and forth.”