8- THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
COVER STORY
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2002
Aaron Showalter/Kansan
Desks inside Wescoe Hall bear the mark of banality. This specimen was discovered inside a classroom on the fourth floor.
Classroom desksetched in time
By Jenna Goepfert
jgoepfert@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
"One fine day blue ink will be green and what was said will not be seen."
It may not be the most profound statement, but it is forever etched into a wooden desktop in Fraser Hall — and in KU history.
The desktops at room 221 in Fraser Hall are a testament to KU students past and present.
They serve as autograph books for Bilbur in '96, O.W. in October 1980, and Satan in '01.
They serve as diaries and billboards, offering strong opinions, deep philosophies and professions of love. They display the names of bands its occupants have loved and insult the fraternities, sororities and sports teams they despised.
They are artists' tablets with drawings of pot leaves, depictions of obscene gestures and portraits of Mr. Potato Head and his sidekick Mr. Plate o' French Fries.
And they are eternal cheat sheets — Pythagoras would be glad to know his theorem withstands the test of time.
Classroom desks serve as diaries and billboards, offering strong opinions, deep philosophies and professions of love.
As the desks' occupants change, so do the ink colors and the messages they proclaim.
"Second chances," begins a blue-inked author.
"Never work out," finishes a blackinked follower.
Matt Unger, St. Louis junior, said he hadn't written on a college desktop but used to when he was in high school.
"I notice a lot of Greek letters, but I see more art than words," he said. "I don't think it's nearly as bad as chalk graffiti. That's annoying. They're ruining the materials here."
But defaced sidewalks don't cause the bulk of problems for Facilities Operations which maintains academic buildings on campus.
Lorene Damewood, assistant director of housekeeping, said she didn't know that any desks had been removed from academic buildings, but the most frequent graffiti problems were in campus bathrooms.
"I really don't think there's anything in place to do anything to anybody who does any graffiti anywhere," she said of potential consequences. "I wouldn't encourage people to do it anymore.
Dave Trotter, St. Louis junior, said he didn't think classroom graffiti was a problem.
"I don't know that we are even able to spend any real time cleaning it off desks," Damewood said.
She said crews checked the restrooms every day to clean and removed students' insights, painting over the more permanent ones.
"A lot of it is non-publishable," he said. "But I think they do it because they're bored in class."
A former occupant of 221 Fraser agrees: "This class is boring."
Edited by Christina Neff
Aaron Showatter/Kansan
Aaron Showalter/Kansan Another desk inside Wescoe Hall shows scribbles and messages of the ages.