Report: The Fence

While working on my Computational Photography project, I needed to take some pictures of campus, so I headed over to "The Fence." When I got there, I decided that I could use the 3 guys there for my project, so while I was taking pictures of them I talked to them about this pivotal Carnegie location.

The Three gentlemen who answered my questions.

As per tradition only current CMU students can paint The Fence. Once you paint it you have to "gaurd' it. As long as you have someone with The Fence, no one else can take it. You have to hand paint it with normal brushes. No spray paint, no rollers, no sprayers. Generally students are free to put whatever they want on it. It has ranged from "Happy Birthday so-and-so," to a giant American flag (with hand prints for starts) for 4th of July, to Christmas themed, to a giant Buggy (another CMU thing... I will get there later), the Greek houses take it to announce new pledges, but commonly it is used to advertise upcoming events.  There have been times in the past where students have put not so politically correct things on it, so the administration white washed it, breaking all of he above rules. This apparently caused a huge fiasco, more so than the first issue of what was written. Generally students respect the fact that it is a central landmark on the campus (it is basically in the middle of the campus, everyone walks past it), and respect that it is a representation of the school. Generally you are supposed to just walk away when you are done, the next group has to be on the lookout for when this happens, but sometimes there is an unofficial 'call list' for people to call when your group is leaving.

Advertising. Notice the green pain on the ground, that was from the last guys.

At the moment it is held by a fraternity, Sigma Epsilon, they said that they are going to hold it until there large Labor Day BBQ, which they are using it to advertise. They said that a group of 80 or so people take shifts holding it. The group that had it the first week I was here had a little building set up next to it, complete with a AC unit for comfort.

Here are some pictures!

Notice the paint hanging down... it is a lot of paint.

For Detail. Again, note the layers of paint, and the paint on the ground.