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Apr. 3rd, 2006 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ruOkay, I need to grouch for a moment.
My school has lots of wide open expanses of brick. Really big expanses, with huge brick pathways and the like. They are, in a way, really big canvases, and the student body likes to them as such, especially with the officially designated painting tunnel closed for rennovations. Upcoming events can be seen scrawled across the brick fields, sometimes sayings are seen, and so on and so forth. While these might be an eyesore to some, they are temporary, as they are always done in sidewalk chalk. Come the next rainstorm, they're washed away. Even in cases where chalk is used in places where the rain can't get to, it can still eventually be wiped away without much hassle. I think the usage of chalk is something of an understood, unspoken rule amongst the students, especially those involved with university-related activities, and I'm okay with that.
Imagine my surprise and outrage, then, when I saw that there were several messages on the brick expanses imploring us to vote for one of the candidates for Student Body President (seeing as elections are today and tomorrow) written not in chalk, but in spray paint. Not chalk. Spray. Paint. Now, while I admit I am no spray paint expert, I know that it does not wash away with rain (as the huge thunderstorm this morning pointed out), and is, in fact, a lot harder to get rid of, unless you paint over it. I am really, really, *really* bothered by this, as I'm pretty sure others are. For starters, this isn't some rogue vandal that did this. It was a Student Body President candidate, somebody who would be deeply involved with the school, someone who should be respecting the school. Well, okay, I don't know if the candidate necessarily sanctioned this or not. It could have been done by some overzealous supporters, or maybe somebody was trying to frame him, or something strange like that. Either way, though, the damage has been done, and knowing how slow the school can be with repairs, they'll probably be there quite a while, long after the election, long after many of us have left. Maybe it's pessimistic of me, but I wouldn't be surprised to come back a few years from now and still find the implorings to vote for a candidate that's long been graduated.
It's horribly frustrating. It's a serious eyesore. I guess theoretically, some of the areas could be repaired, since they were done on brick, and brick can be removed and replaced with fresh bricks, but some of it was done on concrete, huge expanses that would be tough to replace, some of it less than a year old. One of the most saddening ones was that they emblazoned spray paint right smack dab in the middle of a really nice and really pretty compass emblem outside the new zoology building that was put in along with it. Gods it makes me mad. I really hope the responsible party gets punished for this, whether it be the candidate or some other group. Needless to say, though, it was enough to compel me to vote just to make sure this guy gets one less vote. If this was an attempt to get me to vote for the candidate, it failed miserably. Vandalizing the school is not a good publicity tactic.
I was happy to note, though, that I'm not the only one upset by this. I saw some girls drawing messages around the spray-painted area pointing out that it's probably not a good idea to vote for vandals. I'm inclined to think they weren't allied with a particular candidate, since the messages weren't saying "Don't vote for vandals! Vote *some other candidate's name*!!" Still. They're making an excellent point. And what were they writing in? Chalk, of course.
On a happier note, Eien-chan pointed me to this site. The biology geek in me is squeeing with delight, especially at the species guide. <3 <3 <3 <3
My school has lots of wide open expanses of brick. Really big expanses, with huge brick pathways and the like. They are, in a way, really big canvases, and the student body likes to them as such, especially with the officially designated painting tunnel closed for rennovations. Upcoming events can be seen scrawled across the brick fields, sometimes sayings are seen, and so on and so forth. While these might be an eyesore to some, they are temporary, as they are always done in sidewalk chalk. Come the next rainstorm, they're washed away. Even in cases where chalk is used in places where the rain can't get to, it can still eventually be wiped away without much hassle. I think the usage of chalk is something of an understood, unspoken rule amongst the students, especially those involved with university-related activities, and I'm okay with that.
Imagine my surprise and outrage, then, when I saw that there were several messages on the brick expanses imploring us to vote for one of the candidates for Student Body President (seeing as elections are today and tomorrow) written not in chalk, but in spray paint. Not chalk. Spray. Paint. Now, while I admit I am no spray paint expert, I know that it does not wash away with rain (as the huge thunderstorm this morning pointed out), and is, in fact, a lot harder to get rid of, unless you paint over it. I am really, really, *really* bothered by this, as I'm pretty sure others are. For starters, this isn't some rogue vandal that did this. It was a Student Body President candidate, somebody who would be deeply involved with the school, someone who should be respecting the school. Well, okay, I don't know if the candidate necessarily sanctioned this or not. It could have been done by some overzealous supporters, or maybe somebody was trying to frame him, or something strange like that. Either way, though, the damage has been done, and knowing how slow the school can be with repairs, they'll probably be there quite a while, long after the election, long after many of us have left. Maybe it's pessimistic of me, but I wouldn't be surprised to come back a few years from now and still find the implorings to vote for a candidate that's long been graduated.
It's horribly frustrating. It's a serious eyesore. I guess theoretically, some of the areas could be repaired, since they were done on brick, and brick can be removed and replaced with fresh bricks, but some of it was done on concrete, huge expanses that would be tough to replace, some of it less than a year old. One of the most saddening ones was that they emblazoned spray paint right smack dab in the middle of a really nice and really pretty compass emblem outside the new zoology building that was put in along with it. Gods it makes me mad. I really hope the responsible party gets punished for this, whether it be the candidate or some other group. Needless to say, though, it was enough to compel me to vote just to make sure this guy gets one less vote. If this was an attempt to get me to vote for the candidate, it failed miserably. Vandalizing the school is not a good publicity tactic.
I was happy to note, though, that I'm not the only one upset by this. I saw some girls drawing messages around the spray-painted area pointing out that it's probably not a good idea to vote for vandals. I'm inclined to think they weren't allied with a particular candidate, since the messages weren't saying "Don't vote for vandals! Vote *some other candidate's name*!!" Still. They're making an excellent point. And what were they writing in? Chalk, of course.
On a happier note, Eien-chan pointed me to this site. The biology geek in me is squeeing with delight, especially at the species guide. <3 <3 <3 <3