All The News That is Fit To Print at the University at Amherst
Richard P. Leader reporting

Gay Pigeons Come Home to Roost: The History of Graffity at UA

Amherst, NY (CC)-- SUNY Amherst has been a home to graffiti writers for nearly three decades. Not to be confused with graffiti artists, these students had no artistic aspirations, but saw themselves as professional sociologists--not just anarchists, anti-Nicaraguans, and bad poets. Most of their work was done in the South Campus tunnels that connected the Harriman and Squire halls to the dorms in Goodyear. This was not a static environment, but one that called for audience participation as well: A large graffito proclaiming, "Eat the rich," was answered with another writing which warned, "Don't be a hostile cabbage"--a sentiment which has yet to be memorialized in an Aerosmith song.

While these monuments of student expression were whitewashed when Squire Hall reopened under its current name (it was formerly Norton Union, our then student union), students received another chance in 1986. The Kappa Sigma fraternity and their "Make A Difference" committee decided to add a dash of Romper Room fun to the corridor leading from the Student Activity Center (which is now part of our Student Union), by adding a giant "Choo-choo-train," which was to be known as "Time Tracks." Knowing that the hallway would soon be repainted, students felt free to express themselves on the corridor with markers and crayons and thus the issue of graffiti took center stage at the university.

A group calling themselves Students Against Growing Apathy (SAGA) was formed and proceeded to engage in random acts of wall defilement, as well as publishing articles in Generation and the Spektrum, explaining their bad behavior as revolutionary. Though most disagreed with SAGA's methods, Generation's own back page columnist, Bitter Twisted, stated, "you have to admit that the walls of the Knox-SAC tunnel do look a teensy-weensy bit like they are asking to be defaced." But the question remained, if these SAGA kids were so freakin' advanced and had a plethora of student publications to get their message out, did they really need their spray paint and Crayolas? Though the ultimate goal of SAGA was gaining a student union (which the university then lacked), ironically, students were never more united than they were without one. Neither SAGA nor "Time Tracks" still exist (except for a plaque commemorating the "success" of the Make A Difference committee) and the only foothold graffiti has on campus is the sexual imagery on Lockwood cubicles and some random anarchist crap at the top of the stairwells in Clemens.

The first group to try to reintroduce graffiti as a means of political expression to the UA community was the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Alliance (LGBA). In conjunction with other "Coming Out Day" activities, members of the student group used chalk to write various "pro-gay" messages on the ground and walls of North Campus and Ellicott, as well as messages stressing environmentalism, indigenous people's rights, and other kinds of "bleeding heart liberal" sentiments. Some of the messages however could easily be read as "anti-heterosexual," however, asking students to reevaluate their own sexuality or mocking them for their bourgeois "hetero" sensibilities--and many of the messages were clearly anti-carnivore.

While defenders of "chalking" say that it is easily cleaned up and will wash away naturally under the elements, much of the LGBA's chalking persists throughout the year as it is done in locations covered by walkways, such as outside the Student Union or in the Ellicott tunnel.

A group of students who felt insulted by the LGBA's missives (most likely a group of red meat-eating, male heterosexuals, whom--as we all know--are the root of all evil), decided to launch their own campaign to deface public space. Though most messages were simply expressing the joys of straight people getting it on, a few messages were clearly expressing their opinion that gays and lesbians getting it on was sort of "icky." The Campus Police were called upon to catalogue the graffiti before it was cleaned up.

Al Davis X, a student at UA in the 1970's, who was described as a real "hell raiser" back in the day, had this to say about the situation: "These kids are sad--Governor Patacki was right, UA protesters are nothing more than "amateurs." Don't they know that if they cover their chalk with clear deodorant, that it's damn near impossible to wash it off? You kids couldn't protest your way out of a wet paper bag with this sorry kind of civil disobedience."

When asked if his own efforts were more successful, Davis X replied, "We got you the Student Union--it ain't our fault if you can't keep it."