When members of the WKU Lambda Society, a gay and lesbian group at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, took a box of Crayola chalk and wrote seven meeting announcements on sidewalks around campus September 13, no one thought there'd be any trouble. After all, the rugby team had done similar chalkings and the messages stuck around for two weeks, and an environmental group had created messages four times the size of Lambda's.

It's a practice from the Sixties that's still quite common on campuses nationwide.

But at Western, things quickly came to a head September 15 when Scott Taylor, building director at the Downing University Center, spotted two of the group's signs near his building. He informed them they'd have to be removed or the university would do it for them and charge them $600. He also barred the group from meeting at the center until all seven signs were gone.

Matt Leffler, Lambda's president, suspects that someone may have seen one of the messages and complained. "One individual walks past an announcement for an environmental club and thinks that's interesting," he surmises. "Four steps later they see a sign announcing a gay,les,bi,str8 club meeting and think it's graffiti."

In the group's defense, Leffler argued that chalk messages aren't specifically prohibited in the University Center's Policy and Procedures Manual and pointed to common school practice. "Chalk has been traditionally used all over campus to advertise an event that takes place in the spring called the Banshee," he says. "When chalk is put on the campus sidewalks, little effort from the school is taken to remove it."

But Taylor cited rules in a separate manual, Hill Topics, on damaging or defacing school property, which he felt cover chalk messages: an interpretation Leffler questioned. If it's school policy, Leffler asserts, the university needs to write it down if it hopes to enforce it: "I see a problem in enforcing rules that aren't written down."

A compromise was finally reached and the meeting allowed to go on that evening. In a show of good faith, Taylor approved the group's banner, which was hung in the main lobby of the student center between banners for the Campus Crusade for Christ and the Christian Fellowship. Shortly thereafter, the two Christian banners were taken down for reasons unknown.

Chalking Policy

Chalking at universities around Kentucky has been in vogue for years. Some schools have even developed specific policies governing it. Generally students may chalk at will, but some schools require students to obtain permission from the public safety office first. Most allow chalking in designated areas and with reasonable restrictions.

How long the messages stay down, however, depends on where or when they were written and who wrote them.

At the University of Kentucky, the length of time chalkings stay on a sidewalk often varies. Kevin Holmes notes that messages near the Patterson Office Tower generally don't last past 8 am, but if they're written later in the morning, they stay all day. Messages announcing events of recognized student organizations and/or fraternity/sorority functions tend to last longer.

Elizabeth Gilliam recalls problems with gay and lesbian messages at UK two or three years ago. When members of UK Lambda chalked various parts of campus for Coming Out Day, the messages were quickly removed. More messages were written but just as quickly disappeared. They encountered the same problem with flyers, which were sometimes torn down by university employees. She says rugby flyers, on the other hand, tended to stay up for at least a week.

UK policy seems to have waxed and waned over the last ten years. In the late 1980s, chalk messages seem never to have been removed, but now, Gilliam says, anything not associated with sports or Greek organizations doesn't last.

At Morehead State University, one student says she's never heard of anyone getting into trouble over sidewalk chalk. Dr. Patti Swartz, assistant professor of English, notes that chalk messaging there is quite prevalent. "The Baptist Student Union posted sidewalk messages from the dorm rooms to every major building in three-block intervals," she notes, "so that every four steps you'd take you would read something like 'Stop. Pray' or 'God's love is with you.'" One message even quoted the entire verse at John 3:16, she says.

Like Gilliam, she feels that how long a message lasts depends on who's posted it. "I doubt that anyone at Morehead would even attempt to announce a [gay] meeting with chalk," she says. "At the rate that flyers are torn down, the chalk would last about ten minutes." On the other hand, fraternities and sororities have never had a problem.

The University of Louisville's student organizational handbook allows chalk messages as long as they're written on horizontal surfaces where the rain can eventually wash them away. Chalking of seats, walls, textured surfaces, steps, handrails, the clock tower, and the ramp and entrances to the Student Activities Center is verboten.

But the school seems to take a casual approach to enforcement. Nearly every group chalks sidewalks routinely without question, but some groups aren't even recognized by the university. And one student says she's seen a chalked message from the 1996 Dole/Clinton presidential campaign still on campus. No one's ever come along to remove it.

The only problem related to gays came last spring when a member of Common Ground misunderstood the guidelines and chalked an announcement for a campus drag show in a covered walkway near the student center. The administration threatened a fine and asked the group to remove the message. The brouhaha was quickly resolved, but the school let the weather take its time on the chalk as best it could.

At the University of South Florida in Tampa, chalkings are common and sometimes encouraged by the administration. Contests are even held on special occasions. Because of the state's weather, the messages usually disappear in a few days, so no one considers it defacing property.

Was It Discrimination?

Was WKU Lambda singled out for discrimination? That might be hard to prove. Keith Elston, a former Lexingtonian now working with the ACLU in another state, believes the group may have a case if it could be shown that its messages were censored while others were not. But Taylor has denied any intent to discriminate and seemed eager to help the group resolve the chalking incident. Leffler feels the administration is receptive to working out any problems the group may have in the future.

He's especially encouraged by WKU Lambda's spirit, as evidenced by its response to an incident following the September 15 meeting.

As they were leaving the student center after the meeting, two lesbians were called dykes and otherwise verbally harassed by other students. They returned to the meeting room in tears and told the others what had happened. The rest of the group decided to go with them en masse to the WKU Police station and wait until they were done.

"We acted as a solid body. I am very happy with how WKU Lambda members reacted to this," beams Leffler.