ALPHABET SIGNS News

By DANIEL KEANE, Staff Writer

A mainstay of the American college campus has always been the enclosed bulletin board. Scattered throughout the campus and overflowing with announcements of student political organization meetings or job openings at the dining hall, students still use these seemingly archaic structures to alert the community of their all-important meetings, protests and book sales.

In recent years, high-tech descendants of the square, wood framed bulletin board structures have become slightly more common. According to ABC 6 News, the University of Minnesota, Rochester now uses a form of electronic bulletin board to alert students of important news. The newer models scroll through several messages and are easier to maintain. They've become popular with college students as they reduce the amount of paper used.

Meanwhile, university officials like them because students are known to remove announcements they take issue with. Students tend to think twice before ripping down a $200 piece of university property.

As political activism on college campuses becomes increasingly chaotic, universities have been forced to draft policies regulating outdoor notice board postings. Some schools now charge student organizations small fees to prevent frivolous posting from student organizations.

The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, announced a policy in recent years that mandated any flier posted near specific buildings on campus required a $1 per day payment to Campus Design & Copy, a student-run printing business.

Students are allowed to post freely on the outdoor bulletin boards throughout the campus. All bulletin boards at UMass inform students that all fliers will be removed at the start of a new month.
The policy has succeeded in eliminating paper waste on the campus and keeping the walkways of certain campus buildings clean.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, an organization supporting freedom of speech at American universities, spoke out against the fee.

"The policy is more insidious than just an old-fashioned money grab, however. What's really worrying about the pay-to-post system is that not only does it condition student speech on the ability to pay for it, but the system also quietly introduces an element of administrative prior review into student posting," the organization posted on its website when the policy went into effect.

Litter prevention is among the most common for wall mounted bulletin board regulation. The Daily Eastern News, the student newspaper at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois, reported Wednesday that a policy regarding the size of a flier and the pre-posting approval process has had very little effect on excessive posting in the year since its introduction.

"A variety of individuals assist in helping to clear outdated materials from notice bulletin boards. Some bulletin boards are used more frequently and heavily than others," Dan Nadler, ESU vice president of student affairs, said. "Students frequently discussed how the bulletin boards were ineffective as an advertising tool, especially in a free for all 'postings on top of postings' environment. We are now allowed to remove out of date postings after the 30-day period or when the event is over."

Nadler went on to say that EIU modeled its policy after those after other institutions in Illinois, and that the administration is willing to listen to students to make necessary adjustments to the policy.

Despite controversies and the influx of new technology, letter boards still represent an essential gathering place for campus communities. Students sell books, advertise meetings and find jobs using these boards.

There are instances of litter and anger caused by undesirable postings, but those few drawbacks are as much a part of college life as the boards themselves.