Chalking allows passersby to read while they walk

"Where is the Love?" is etched out in green sidewalk chalk in front of the Chemistry Building on campus. Giant purple question marks float beneath the message.\nLetters written in green chalk spell out the phrase "My Man Mitch" in front of the Arboretum at Fee Lane, where a group of students shake hands and pass out green T-shirts with an identical message.\nThe yellow chalk is fading in front of Ballantine Hall, but the advertisement scrawled out in tiny letters is still readable: "The Flat 5 Funk Soul, Wed., Oct. 20, Bear's Place."\nWalking down the sidewalk from the Xpress bus stop to Ballantine, any student can see the word "Sex" spelled out in white at intervals of three feet.\nThe chalk is everywhere. \nStudents are encouraged to use chalking as an essentially free and effective way of advertising, according to the Student Organization Handbook.\nFraternities and sororities use the chalk to recruit members during rush; a variety of clubs and intramural sports hope to gain membership by advertising on the walkways; and individual students write personal messages, such as "Happy Birthday," in hopes their friends will notice on their way to class.\nBut this practice is relatively new. Sidewalk chalking is not something a student at IU would have witnessed 20 or 30 years ago, said Dean of Students Richard McKaig. The norm then was tacking posters to the trees. The result was that trees were being damaged and the administration was finally forced to put a stop to the students' actions.\n"It was an environmental eyesore," McKaig said.\nEvolution quickly took place over the years. Bulletin boards were set up around campus to solve the issue with the trees. This medium of advertisement went through two or three different versions before ending with the present day kiosks set up around campus, McKaig said.\nBut where does the chalk come in?\nUsing chalk as a means of communication was present on other campuses before it showed up at IU, McKaig said. It was not until the 1980s or '90s that students started using it as an advertising technique. In its primitive form, "chalking" might have existed as little messages written on corners of the chalkboards in different classrooms in hopes that faculty wouldn't erase them, McKaig said. \n"People had the feeling they were being ignored," he said. "On a college campus, the question is always: How do you get the attention of the student body?"\nBut how successful is the chalk in catching the eyes of each and every student? The issue is like any other. If a particular student is the only one on campus using the chalk to advertise an organization in which he or she is involved, it is a very effective tool. It is unique and different. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Any student can walk to class and observe the chalking over chalking over chalking. \n"It's reaching the stage of limited effectiveness," McKaig said.\nSome students agreed with McKaig's assessment. \n"You get a million different things going a million different directions," said freshman Scott Branson. "It gets a little ugly sometimes."\nBeing bombarded with dozens of chalk messages is not the only drawback. \n"I do pay attention because it keeps the walk to class interesting," sophomore Mike Flores said.\nThere are some students, though, who feel like they have the solution. Sophomore Josh Noble said the presentation of the messages on the sidewalk is all wrong. \n"They need to change the order of the information so you can read bottom up," he said. "Read as you walk."\nSenior Leigh Gambill finds the chalk writing to be much more effective than posters stapled to the kiosks. "It's bigger and brighter," she said. "It's right there. You can't avoid it."\nWhat lies ahead for advertising via sidewalk chalk remains to be seen. Most students agree, however, that chalking up the walkways around campus is here to stay, regardless of the form it may take in the future. \n"It's not something that people can rip down or delete easily like posters and e-mail," Gambill said.\nMcKaig said he believes chalking will not phase out in the near future either. Chalking as an advertising medium is inexpensive. It is also labor-intensive, but college students are able to gather a lot of people from their organization to do the job, McKaig said.\nWith the information age upon us, however, he does see the possibility of other forms of communication emerging. More and more listserves are appearing, McKaig said. But with excess amounts of junk e-mail, these things tend to be ignored. \n"I do believe that eventually we will start using lasers to write on the sidewalks," sophomore Ravi Patel said.\n-- Contact staff writer Brad Keist at bkeist@indiana.edu.