Chalking sidewalks on campus is an essential activity for many student organizations to raise campus awareness, but few groups realize the possible danger for those chalking late at night.
Last Tuesday, Oct. 12, a student chalking with Students for Feingold was physically attacked at about 10:30 p.m.
Casey Brown, a UW-Madison senior and member of Native Americans for Kerry, said he was walking near the Union when he saw a student chalking approached by an angry passerby.
\There was an older man, longer hair-obviously not a student-and he runs out and starts yelling at the chalker and swearing at him and he tells the chalker that he's making graffiti and that's illegal,"" Brown said. ""He walked up to the chalker and pushed him over.""
Brown said he then intervened, trying to calm the man down.
""This guy was belligerent and not really listening to reason,"" he said. ""He decided to take a swing at me; at first he just kind of pushed me, but then he came in for an attack.""
Although Brown had never experienced physical violence while chalking before, he said he had encountered verbal opposition many times.
""There have been people who disagree with what you're chalking about ... and it can get verbally pretty intense, but I chalk quite a bit and I've never had an occurrence like this before,"" Brown said. ""We were both just flabbergasted.""
Jordan Burghardt, UW-Madison junior and student coordinator of Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group's New Voter Project, Vote 2004, said her group takes precautions by only chalking in the morning and targeting specific areas.
""We only chalk in the morning and we usually chalk in pairs or triplets,"" Burghardt said. ""So I've never had any problems reported to me, but we never let people be by themselves while chalking.""
UW-Madison senior and chair of Students for Tammy Baldwin, Jesse Walter, agreed that chalking in groups and only in the early evening is key to students' safety.
""So far the chalking has been really positive,"" Walter said. ""We're just trying to keep it really 'pro' and not get negative ... I think it's just kind of unfortunate that we're letting everything get to such extreme measures. It's political expression and it's not like this is something we need to be screaming at each other about.""
