By Michael McFall, Staff Writer

The U Paint Shop slapped the Kappa Sigma fraternity with a $500 fine Tuesday for painting the “ASK HER” messages on campus.

For three consecutive days last week, the words “ASK HER” were painted and chalked in hundreds of places all over campus. According to Gary Forrest, supervisor of U Paint Shop, the total price to clean up the mess ultimately came to a little over $1,800, as compared to the original estimate of $3,000. Kappa Sigma will cover approximately a quarter of the bill. Forest said the students weren’t fined the full amount because they weren’t aware they had committed a violation.

The messages were the first phase of a Greek recruitment campaign. The second phase began on Monday, when female students wore T-shirts that read “ASK ME,” and passed out fliers advertising Kappa Sigma events. Kappa Sigma President Griffin Jones claimed responsibility for the messages Monday.

The Kappa Sigma fraternity had no idea the messages were a violation of campus property, said Jay Wilgus, assistant dean of students. Members of the fraternity came to Wilgus’s office Tuesday afternoon, holding the first article about their messages that ran in The Chronicle. Wilgus said they were ashamed to discover their recruitment campaign was a violation that costs the U money.

“They very much had their tails between their legs,” Wilgus said.

Kappa Sigma members approached Greek Row Adviser Lori McDonald last year about a co-campaign with a sorority to encourage recruitment. At the time, the Kappa Sigma men only mentioned the T-shirts, and said nothing about paint or chalk on the sidewalks, McDonald said.

Wilgus called the U Paint Shop and clued them in that the vandalism was nothing more than a Greek campaign. A deal was made that the Kappa Sigma men would help clean up some of their lower campus messages on Wednesday night. It was the same night they left approximately 147 new messages around the Residence Halls, according to a police report.

The greeks might also have to do some community service for the U Paint Shop in the near future, but a definite chore has not been decided, Forrest said.

“What’s important is that they know not to do it again…without permission,” he said.

Campus police won’t be pressing charges against the fraternity, since the paint was water soluble and left no permanent property damage, said Sgt. Arb Nordgran.

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Lucas Isley

The ?ASK HER? paintings seen around campus last week turned out to be a recruitment campaign headed by Kappa Sigma Fraternity. The campaign came with an expensive clean up bill.