Gregory Szorc's blog

Case Stole My School Spirit

The university recently installed a huge boulder to be used as a spirit rock. I decided to be the first to show my school spirit. Read on to hear the whole story.

About a year ago, Case decided it wanted to be like other universities and give giant rocks to the students for painting. They installed a relatively small half a year ago. This past weekend, they took the plunge and put in a GIANT boulder by the freshmen residential village, near where I live.

I saw the rock on my way to the quad on Tuesday and immediately had the grand idea of being the first person to paint it. After asking fellow in-the-know students whether they knew if it was OK, I was unsatisfied with answers, so I searched online. I found the press release on Case's news site. It said the following:

Case has established a Spirit Rock next to the Silver Spartan Diner near Juniper Avenue and 115th Street. Details are forthcoming. Go to http://housing.case.edu/

I went to the web site, but could not find any information about the new spirit rock. Because I wanted to make sure it was OK if I painted it, on my way back to the house, I stopped in Housing's satellite office on this side of campus. I asked the student employee working there if she knew anything. Although she didn't, she checked with her supervisor, Megan. Megan looked to be at least 30, so I assumed she is an appropriate authority figure. The student conveyed her answer to me. Although she was initially unsure, after I asked her to confirm Megan's response, Megan said it was probably OK. Before I left, I specifically asked. "If I paint the rock tonight, I won't get in trouble, will I?" To that, Megan responded, "no."

Elated at this apparent approval, I rushed home to find paint and draw out a battle plan. Around 4:15 PM, Chris Parker and myself headed out to paint the rock. We had been painting for about 30 minutes when a protective services SUV pulled up. He asked us if we had permission to paint the rock. I said yes and dropped Megan's name. He left without saying anything. 15 minutes later, he came back. He told us that he contacted Megan and that she had no recollection of giving me permission to paint the rock. He called up his supervisor. Together, they both accused us of vandalizing university property. To be fair, they were just doing their job, but I thought accusing me of lying to them was one step too far. The officers took down all of our contact info, which is standard operating procedure here.

Although I wanted to argue with them, it was in my best interest to just comply with their wishes. As soon as they were done taking info, Chris and I packed up and walked back home. As soon as I got back, I sent a quick e-mail to Joel Kraft, an employee of Housing, who I know because he was my ENGR 131 instructor, asking if it was OK to paint the rock. Knowing Joel, I was expecting a reply within an hour. Unfortunately it never came.

It has been almost 24 hours since the ordeal started and I have not heard anything back. Even if I did get a confirmation to go ahead and paint it, it has been raining all day today and any attempt at completing the paint job would be futile. I am confident that no punishment will come out of this "vandalism." The circumstances leading up to it were, in my opinion, appropriate and do not merit any sort of punishment. Time will tell, however. Lately, Case seems intent on punishing people for what I consider to be, by-and-large, college fun. Students have been referring to the whole system as a "Case Patriot Act." It sickens me that a university, especially one as small, prestigious, and expensive as Case thinks they can afford to dick around with the student body. Fortunately for the reader, I don't feel like diving into that topic at this time.

I will be sure to post any updates when I hear about them.

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