For a number of Marquette students, their social media diets do not just consist of the “Big 4” of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and X. They also include an app whose icon is a cartoon yak head on a seafoam background, known as Yik Yak.
The platform allows users to post messages anonymously within the Marquette community, letting students scroll through posts about Marquette basketball, dining hall food and campus life without knowing who started the conversation.
However, on an app designed to be anonymous, there is one person that chooses to have his identity known. Andy Hendrix, a senior in the College of Education, navigates the app throughout the day under the username “muyikyaks,” upvoting, commenting and interacting with other users— all of which are hidden behind the veil of anonymity.
“If I’m the person behind the actual Instagram account, why not be public with it? Why not stand behind what I’m proud of, and the account is definitely something I’m proud of,” Hendrix said. “It’s a passion project.”
From the beginning of his tenure in February 2022 to March 2024, the identity of muyikyaks was a mystery to Marquette. Finally, on April 1, 2023, Hendrix and his signature mustache were revealed.
“I got a few texts personally from people that didn’t know and were like, ‘Dude, what are you talking about? This is you?’” Hendrix said.
Most nights, Hendrix then takes the most popular posts from the day and compiles them into a post on his Instagram account under the same “muyikyaks” username, set to music with a caption underneath. When he took over the account in 2022, it had under 500 followers. Almost three years later, it has amassed a fanbase of over 3,700 followers.
The routine Instagram posts summarize what Hendrix considers the most important events and conversations of the Yik Yak community on a given day, often making the days of students that see their posts jump from one platform to the other.
Originally, Hendrix took over the account from a friend that wasn’t interested in maintaining it long-term. Knowing he was active on Yik Yak, his friend asked if he wanted to run the show.
The rest, as they say, is history.
“It’s a pretty easy Instagram account to run. I just find my favorite posts of the day, post them on the Instagram account, include a cute little caption, a song that I think either fits the theme or something that I’ve been listening to a lot lately, and once I’ve gotten to this repetition, it’s actually pretty easy. I don’t feel a whole lot of pressure,” Hendrix said.
So, what is the criteria for posts to be featured on the illustrious account?
According to Hendrix, the most-upvoted posts often get the spotlight. But on slower days, he looks for posts he likes that may have slipped through the cracks.
“I definitely try to reward a lot of the ones that do really well. It’s a lot of what I think are funny, what other people thought were funny, appreciated or liked,” Hendrix said.
While dependent on their content, the success of posts is also tied to accounts that have established themselves with alternate usernames, including the official Marquette University Yik Yak account.
“Our social media team utilizes the Marquette Yik Yak account to keep a pulse on the conversation and discussions happening in the campus community, while allowing for playful interactions. The official account also exists to provide accurate information when rumors or speculation mounts on social media platforms,” the university said in a statement.
The playfulness of the app was exemplified in recent efforts to get a live mascot at basketball games. As part of the Marquette social media team’s promotional work around National Marquette Day, a user posted on Jan. 28, “upvote for a real eagle at home games.” The official Marquette University account then reposted it, saying the idea would be brought to the desk of President Kimo Ah Yun if it received 300 upvotes.
Over 500 upvotes after the initial teaser, Valkyrie spread her wings at the National Marquette Day outing against UConn on Feb. 1
“There’s a community behind [Yik Yak],” Hendrix said. “There’s a community enjoying it, and there’s a good receptive audience as well.”
From 2022 to early 2024, Hendrix had the opportunity to expand that audience, partnering with Yik Yak itself as part of an advertising and marketing platoon as the company assembled a team that included managers from other universities.
As part of the deal, the first day of school in August 2023 was spent handing out donuts, cookies and Yik Yak-branded socks.
“I’ve got a pair of Yik Yak socks somewhere in my drawer,” Hendrix said. “And that’s exclusive— they don’t make those things anymore.”
The manager program dissolved in early 2024, and while the small paychecks stopped reaching managers, so did access to their Instagram accounts. Many managers were locked out without a way to regain access, losing their ability to share their favorite posts— but muyikyaks persevered.
“It’s something that the Marquette community loves, so I fought for it back early on in that process,” Hendrix said.
Two days later, the account information was returned, and Hendrix changed the password instantly to make sure Marquette’s beloved profile wasn’t taken away again.
Even without deals from Yik Yak itself, he has still managed to find ways to engage the community, including with giveaways of cash and chocolate.
“What I’ve really realized is even if you’re not forward-facing, doing the most you can with a club, organization, any of those things— you can still make an impact,” Hendrix said. “You don’t have to be on the basketball team to do something important. You don’t have to be on the volleyball team, on any sort of sports or athletics teams to do something important. You don’t have to be in a sorority, you don’t have to be in a fraternity. You can just be an everyday joe and do something cool and do something important within your community.”
Recently, Hendrix has taken his desire to give back and build community at Marquette out of the virtual world. He held the inaugural Marquette Community Hour on Feb. 19, which was an opportunity for students, faculty and staff to gather in the Lemonis Center for Student Success and discuss their thoughts on current issues to better understand perspectives.
“I talked with some professors and talked with some friends about some ways that we can come up with something where it’s within the Marquette community and people can really come together and be like, ‘All right, enough aside. Let’s actually talk about these issues,’” Hendrix said. “If it’s not completely eye-to-eye and [bridging] those gaps in perspective, let’s at least start the bridge. Let’s build a hill a little bit so we can see each other on where people are coming from.”
The first installment had a limited attendance but still produced constructive conversations about the selected topic: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The discussion, led by Hendrix, moved from national founding principles to DEI initiatives to immigrant backgrounds, all in the name of broadening perspective within the campus community.
“You never see anything but a smile on his face no matter what you’re saying, even when he’s asking difficult questions,” Julianne Browne, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences and attendee at Marquette Community Hour, said.
The in-person event created a space for a community that largely discusses issues online to speak with one another face-to-face. Hendrix cited tense political discussions on Yik Yak as part of his motivation in creating the Marquette Community Hour, which aims to foster real, productive conversations.
“[Being] anonymous is nice because you can say those very difficult things without being tied to them, but also be able to create face-to-face relationships and network with people who hold different ideas [and] who hold the same ones,” Browne said. “That’s even more important, because being able to actually sit down and have conversations with someone goes beyond what you can say in just stating your opinion on Yik Yak or any platform.”
Ultimately, the Marquette Community Hour and muyikyaks pages work to build Hendrix’s vision of fellowship at Marquette, idealizing cura personalis– caring for the whole person— as a community.
“Yik Yak is its own community that I’m very happy is built into what it is today,” Hendrix said. “But at the end of the day, it’s an online platform— someday it’s gonna go away. But the skills we learn and the community we can build in-person and as a school, that’s something that can have a lasting impact.”
This story was written by Lance Schulteis. He can be reached at lance.schulteis@marquettte.edu.
