Communi-Tea: The wholesome new group for lonely Notts students

If you are part of any page linked to UoN, then you’ve probably already heard of the new and super wholesome group that is Communi-Tea.

Starting up in lockdown, based off a string of Nottsfess posts of students expressing their loneliness or hatred for current housemates, Communi-Tea is a group designed for second and third year students to make new friends. With 680 members already, without having held any in person events due to lockdown, it’s obviously doing something right.

A small team of students about to go into third year saw a growing number of anonymous posts via Nottsfess and similar groups about people feeling lonely or experiencing serious FOMO.

As a result, Communi-Tea was born, with the intention to help older students who are living out make new friends without the formalities of joining a society or sport – which can be pretty daunting on your own.

Through a number of group chats, weekly themed zoom calls and a Minecraft sever, students from across Notts have come together to form new friendships. Whilst lockdown has put a hold on the never-ending list of potential social plans they speak of, they’ve helped people find houses for next year and encouraged people to try a new society next year.

The first first zoom meet-up

It has definitely been a way to help students stuck in Nottingham find each other and make the most out of this situation. The self-named ‘Teabaggers’ have been meeting up for socially distant picnics and drinks in an attempt to make life seem a little more normal.

With promises of everything from movie nights and pottery painting to bar crawls and club nights, it seems they are ditching the ‘one size fits all’ approach in hope of finding something for everyone.

The other good thing about this group is that they are choosing not to be SU affiliated – this offers them a range of freedoms that may otherwise be restricted due to the Student Unions’ links to preferred suppliers.

Whilst Communi-Tea is already pretty successful, the plan moving forward is the imaginatively titled ‘Meet Mates’. The official description claims that “all you have to do to find lifelong friends is fill out our short form with your personal interests and values; we’ll match you up with a small group of like-minded people within a month.”

The founder of the group, Charlie O’Neill, a second year Geography student, explained how surprised she was that something like this hadn’t already been initiated and how impressed she was with the growing numbers: “I’m so proud of my not-so-little Communi-Tea, they grow up so fast!”

Many a wholesome meme has been found about the group.

With daily challenges, weekly quizzes, zoom calls and even a virtual disco, Communi-Tea seems like the place to be whilst you can’t be anywhere else. Who knows, they might be able to find you those ‘friends for life’ we’ve all been promised throughout our uni experience? If you’re bored in lockdown and want to make some friends ahead of next year, you may have found your new group.