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Greek Rock Tradition Painted Over
by Chip Oglesby
In the fall of 2002, someone covered one graffito,
But when the DOT came through, it proved a much much grimmer foe.
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There is controversy brewing on campus. Ask any Greeks what's going on and they'll tell you, "They painted over our rocks, man."
It all started a few weeks after school got back into session, right after they opened the "Scenic Interstate, Future I-26."
"I was riding down the road looking for the rock that my fraternity has (Delta Kappa Theta) when I happened to notice that it wasn't there," said Dustin McCue, a brother of Delta Kappa Theta fraternity. "I called my two roommates and asked them if they would go look at it to make sure I wasn't going crazy. Sure enough, when we arrived on the scene, our rock was completely painted over, along with Theta Chi, Sigma Alpha Chi, Delta Zeta and Delta Phi Zeta."
All of this was part of an effort to increase the beautification of Future I-26. U.S. Highway 19/23 has been designated a "scenic highway" for years under a law that restricts signs along the right-of-way. However, the law was not strictly enforced until recently when the new four lane section of U.S. Highway 19/23 was linked with I-26 at the Tennessee/North Carolina State line..
This has left many Greeks on campus, as well as alumni of different Greek organizations, outraged.
"When I realized that all of the rocks had been painted over, I was a little put out," said Austin Lee, a graduate of Mars Hill College who is currently enrolled in the Masters Program at North Carolina State University. "I thought that the rocks were a great way for the fraternities and sororities to have an identity outside of the campus. I remember when I came to Mars Hill to visit campus when I was a senior in high school thinking to myself that that was really neat how all the fraternities and sororities had painted rocks."
Asked how he felt about the idea of the college setting up rocks on campus for Greeks to paint, Lee said, "I feel that giving a rock to each organization will not be the same. The risk will be taken out of the painting."
Chelsea Long, a current sister of Gamma Chi Epsilon, also commented on the situation. "I don't like the fact that they painted them over...I think that they took away a part of the history of the college because fraternities and sororities have been painting those rocks for years now, and it was a way for people to know that they were coming into a college campus and town. Chelsea does feel differently about rocks being put on campus though. "I am glad that Craig Goforth is doing something to help out the fraternities and sororities"
According to Goforth, the State Highway department has the authority to paint over the rocks. "The rights of ways on the highway belong to the state. That means no littering, defacing or destruction of property. If there were any defacing of state-owned property, it would be against the law," he said.
He has discussed with the Facilities Department the feasibility of providing alternative boulders for campus organizations on campus property. One possibility would be to carve out part of the hill behind the large parking lot below the chapel where the farmers market is held every weekend. The idea would be to pour concrete into the shapes of all letters representing the organizations on campus. The letters would be three feet high by three feet wide. Gofoth added that all ideas would have to be discussed by the campus beautification committee and approved by the president.
Although many Greeks from past to present have spent many hours painting their rocks along highway 19/23, it looks like this tradition is coming to an end. For some people of the Mars Hill Campus and Community they were just rocks with some weird letters on them, but for many more they were symbols of the Greek organizations and a tradition that will no longer be.
For a gallery of bygone Greek rock art, go to a Hilltop story from September 2002: Rocky Problems Arise for Greeks
For a dissenting view from an alumnus/brother click here.
Side note: Reporter Chip Oglesby is a brother of Delta Kappa Theta Fraternity.
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