As many American universities continue to scale back their social activities, Facebook has launched a feature called Campus, giving students a dedicated space to chat and organize events with fellow students.

While Campus may seem a lot like what Facebook offered when it launched in 2004, the features take on new meaning in a year when several college campuses are increasingly relying on virtual learning and fewer opportunities to make friends during school activities.

“For beginning students, logging onto a familiar platform like Facebook to find potential classmates with similar interests or backgrounds can be a godsend during this time of COVID-19, especially when there are fewer opportunities to spontaneously meet people ‘in the hallways’ or at organized events,” Linda Charmaraman, director of the Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab at Wellesley College, told Lifewire in an email.

Facebook Campus combines familiar features like groups and chats and reframes them into an environment that only students at a specific college or university can see. Students use their ".edu" email address to access this environment, which creates a separate Campus profile with their graduation year (a required field) and optional information like their major and hometown.