The most recent regulation enacted to monitor the use of sidewalk chalk advertising by the Office of Student Development has students puzzled as to why the administration would go to such lengths to prevent the promotion of campus activities. Instead of chalking freely, students now must fill out a form on the second floor of Dougherty revealing where and what they will write on the ground before they do so.

Student Development makes the claim that chalking may go overboard with the upcoming election, mostly likely because of the raucous of the Ron Paul chalkers earlier this year. Both the College Democrats and Republicans politicized the pavement when Michelle Obama and John McCain came to campus last semester. Admittedly, the chalk war did get a bit out of hand during the primaries, but the administration should not forget the period of severe political apathy that pervaded this campus not five years ago. Villanova students are now passionate about politics and the issues that affect them, and chalking has helped to provoke this proactive spirit.

However, chalking is not limited merely to political messages; many other student groups depend on this method of advertising as well. It is notoriously difficult to advertise events on campus. The Wildcat NewsWire is the only means by which a student group can reach the entire school, and the majority of students just delete it each morning, especially as it gets longer each day. This fact is especially unfortunate because there are a myriad of amazing events occurring every day on campus of which most of the student body is not informed. Because of this, student groups literally have to write on the ground in order to get people to know about their events. Chalking is a great way for any group to engage the community at the heart of campus, whether it is for a football game, a student play, Hoops Mania or a political event.

In addition, there really is no way to enforce the regulation unless Student Development warns Public Safety to patrol Main Campus for these “evil chalkers” and literally pry the pastel from their fingertips.

This bureaucratic effort enforced by Student Development essentially just places one more roadblock in the way of the activity of student groups and inhibits the creativity and community of this school.