UW’s campus teemed with discussion on Friday over pro-life chalk messages drawn around Prexy’s Pasture by UW’s chapter of Student’s For Life (SFL).
As a part of National Pro-Life Chalk Day, the SFL chalked various messages into the concrete, including such statements as “a person is a person no matter how small,” and “real feminism empowers women to choose life.” SFL Secretary Hannah Cowan said the group faced anger and “assault” in response to the messages.
“We experienced name calling, intolerance and even assault,” Cowan said. “A man spat on me as I was writing one of our messages. We were expecting open mindedness and dialogue, but we faced fierce and mean opposition.”
Cowan said the group was expressing their First Amendment rights and encouraging discussion. UW’s Campus Activities Center (CAC) told the SFL to clean up the messages, and the group wiped away their messages Sunday. Chalking is prohibited by the rules in the RSO Handbook.
Cowan said the SFL felt targeted by the instruction from the CAC, as previous groups made chalk marks and did not remove them as promptly.
“I feel that we were targeted and acted against over our First Amendment rights. Freedom of speech should not end on a college campus,” Cowan said. “We saw the Black Lives Matter chalk stay nearly a week without any repercussions yet we were quickly told to take our own chalk down.”
Rob Essaf, program advisor for the Campus Activity Center said the difference between the two instances was notification.
“The CAC was not notified about the Ferguson chalk, but we were notified by a source that the recent chalk might have been put down by an RSO and we contacted Students for Life,” Essaf said. “If we don’t see it and no one says anything regarding it, nothing happens.”
Cowan said the SFL was unaware of the regulation against chalking and, had they known it was against the rules, they would not have chalked at all.
Josh Eaton is a sophomore in the College of Business and he describes himself as pro-choice, but only in extreme circumstances. Eaton said the chalk messages were a non-issue. “Everyone has a right to protest,” Eaton said. “Who am I to say you can or cannot say what you want to?”
