The Student Association brought color back to campus when it announced the new chalk policy at the Chalk It Up event on Nov.18.
About two years ago, students were allowed to chalk on campus, but then the advertisement policy changed – chalking on campus was banned in order to make the environment more professional. Since then many students have expressed how they missed chalking on campus and wished the policy was modified, said Vice President of SA Julianne Hart, senior political science major from Austin.
Chalk It Up was a series of events introducing the new chalk policy initiative. Hart made an announcement in chapel and explained how SA had the new policy passed.
“We want to make things easy for students,” Hart said. “We worked hard to be able to get this done, and I hope they will take advantage of it but not abuse it.”
The school board redrew the policy after petitioning of SA. Students are now allowed to chalk under specific rules, including no chalking on brick areas, covered places where rain cannot wash away the chalk or vertical surfaces such as the sides of buildings or concrete walls.
Students were given chalk after the announcement and encouraged to celebrate the change by drawing on school sidewalks.
Many student organizations, including the International Student Association, are pleased with the decision, said ISA President Veronica Whitt, senior family studies major from the Philippines.
“I think it’s a very unique way for students to express themselves on campus,” Whitt said. “It definitely helps a lot with advertising for events.”
Whitt said the Ethnos chalk advertisement caught people’s attention and was an effective way raise awareness on campus. She was thankful that SA responded to feedback from the student body. Whitt said she hoped students will not abuse the opportunities this policy grants them.
November and December are being used as trial months for administration to observe how students handle the new policy.
SA promised to help enforce the rules of the policy and be responsible for cleaning up inappropriate chalking.
Hart said students should be responsible with their new freedom.
“If everything goes well and people follow the rules then we can keep it,” Hart said. “But if we have a lot of problems with people chalking at places they are not supposed to or doing something inappropriate, there is a possibility of us losing it again. ”
Students can check out chalk from the SA office or use their own chalk.
