Too often, event posters are left up for far too long; a stamp system might lead to cleaner boards.
A small, almost unnoticeable issue on TU’s campus is our handling of posters in the halls around campus. Full disclosure: I can’t really speak for Keplinger or Hardesty Hall in this article, as my travels usually don’t take me there.
I recently landed an internship that has me hanging flyers around Tulsa a lot. An easy and effective place for me to hit up is campus. When bringing these posters or flyers around, specifically to Zink, Phillips, Chapman and Oliphant — especially Oliphant — I find absolute messes on the bulletin boards.
There’s little moderation in these halls as to what goes up. In some ways, this is more convenient for me, as I can typically just tack them up and go on my way. In other ways, it’s an utter frustration, because outdated posters coat the walls and the boards of some of these halls. It’s a mess of paper and tacks, making it nearly impossible to read any of them. I never feel comfortable taking down old flyers, and perhaps that’s just my problem, but I never see anyone else doing it either. Flyers just stack up and up on these boards until it’s a nightmare to hang new ones.
I do have to give the university some credit, though: they really cleaned things up over spring break. Hanging posters up the other day, I was amazed at how clean the boards were in Oliphant particularly. There does appear to be some cleaning and updating, but it’s coming much too late. The boards are just unsightly most of the time; they hardly seem palatable and worth reading when walking to class.
OSU circumvents this issue bureaucratically, but effectively. To hang a poster in a hall, you need a stamp from that hall’s secretary or manager. They’re usually easy to find, and they dispense stamps pretty liberally. It might not be the worst idea to implement this at TU. True, it would make the whole process slightly more inconvenient at the outset, but I think flyer-runners will find their jobs easier overall when the boards come under stricter moderation and updating, thus offering more space.
