The LDSSA fraternity Phi admitted to defacing the U last week.
Some of the fraternity’s members wrote the name and symbol of the group in chalk all over campus, inadvertently damaging the reputation of greek fraternities and sororities who were accused of doing the deed.
“When (people) see the Greek letters, they think of Greek Row,” said Tom Somphou, president of Sigma Phi Epsilon.
Matt Sweeny, Interfraternity Council public relations chairman, agreed.
“It tarnished our image at first. We got a lot of accusations that it was (Phi Delta Theta),” he said. “Our guys are upset that it came off that we did it.”
After the markings were found, Lori McDonald, greek adviser and assistant dean of students, called Joe Rodgerson, president of Phi Delta Theta, and asked whether his fraternity was to blame.
“It takes away from the greek system as a whole,” Rodgerson said.
Sidewalk chalking of any kind is not permitted on the U campus and is listed as “criminal mischief” in University of Utah Police Department reports.
Groups that use sidewalk chalk are usually asked to help clean up the mess, McDonald said.
According to Phi president Joe Martin, sidewalk chalking is something the fraternity pledges have done in past years, though on a much smaller scale.
“It was a miscommunication between (the) pledges and us,” Martin said. According to the police report, the chalk drawings were on sidewalks, signs, buildings and statues around campus.
“It’s something that got out of hand,” said Spencer Thompson, president of Sigma Gamma Chi, the collective organization of all LDSSA fraternities. “We feel awful about it-it wasn’t meant to be that way,” he said.
Phi has talked with the U administration about doing service on campus as a punishment for the incident.
“(They) have been contrite and are seeking to make reparations,” McDonald said.
Sweeney said he felt the administration was taking care of the situation properly and that there are no hard feelings.