On a typical walk to class, the average UW-Madison student may stroll past political messages, walk over student organization meeting invitations or saunter around announcements for kick-off meetings.
However, some schools have begun regulating campus sidewalk chalking.
Minnesota State University-Moorhead and the University of Nebraska have both limited chalking to specific locations not necessarily frequented by students.
Additionally, MSU-Moorhead now requires that student organizations obtain a permit to chalk.
\It's a way for the people who do the chalking to make themselves known so we don't have to have anonymous hate speech,"" Doug Hamilton, a spokesman at MSU-Moorhead, told the Associated Press.
Counter-chalking, or refuting chalk messages with additional chalk messages, has also been banned at MSU-Moorhead.
However, chalking regulations have not been addressed at UW-Madison. In fact, a number of students and faculty members said they see chalking as an efficient form of communicating.
""[Chalking] is a really good grassroots way to get out to campus, because it isn't that expensive and you can get a lot of visuals on the ground that people walk over and you get a lot of turnout from it,"" said Austin Evans, shared governance chair for Associated Students of Madison.
Furthermore, Evans said he believes the existence of chalking on campus is important because it increases school spirit.
""At other campuses that ban [chalking], you're not going to have that atmosphere of student involvement and student power on that campus, like we have here,"" he said.
Donald Downs, a political science professor at UW-Madison, said he agreed, noting chalking is a valid form of expression.
Downs said he supports counter-chalking under the condition that it does not physically alter the original message.
Recently, there have been several counter-chalkings on campus responding to messages supporting various political candidates.
However, the College Republicans at UW-Madison have never encouraged counter-chalking among its members, according to Benjamin Krautkramer, first vice chairman for the group and UW-Madison law student.
While the idea of limiting chalking to a public forum area is reasonable, Downs said he believes limiting chalking to remote locations is oppressive to free speech.
""You can't turn the public forum into something that's non-public. You've got to give it room,"" he said.
Furthermore, Downs said regulating chalking to avoid cluttered sidewalks is unnecessary.
""I'd rather have the marketplace determine [chalking],"" he said.
