Latest chalking drama shows unrest over election

Casey McAnarney, Editor in Chief

After controversy last week over “chalkings” on campus that some thought borderlined vulgarity, students unaffiliated with organizations continued to chalk over each other’s work as well as push their own agenda.

The day before Election Day, chalkings supporting presidential candidate Hillary Clinton were crossed out and written over with phrases in support of her opponent, Republican Donald Trump.

Some examples included “Vote 4 Hillary” being rewritten to say “Vote 4 Hillary 4 Prison.” Though these actions are not against the UNCW Code of Conduct when it comes to chalking, this frustrated many.

Three individuals who sought to fix the pro-Clinton chalkings that were written over sought to show a more positive message for the election.

Students Jade Spain, Grey Pearce and Kate Wise went around Chancellor’s Walk in order to rewrite some of the chalkings affected by the day’s drama.

However, things did not stay civil the entire day. Soon, a group of unaffiliated students including Spain and Pearce spray painted over the rock near Fisher University Union where the College Republicans had written pro-Republican candidate phrases.

The College Republicans were not involved in any of the activities with chalking this week and were upset that these individuals broke the 24 hour rule stating that a newly painted rock cannot be painted over until 24 hours after its initial painting.

College Republicans Treasurer Nick Cato said that he also saw these individuals pour water on chalkings currently being worked on for a TealTV segment by Jake Lampke.

With all of this in mind, Director of Campus Life Larry Wray walked around campus and requested the Physical Plant to remove some phrases from the pavement, but, in accordance with freedom of speech, most were left alone.