Alicia Meehan, Campus Carrier deputy news editor

Last month, flyers advertising a worship service to mourn the assassination of Charlie Kirk were posted without permission across campus. The flyers were posted and distributed on walls in Laughlin and McAllister and slipped under doors into dorm rooms in Dana and Thomas Berry. They were later taken down by the Office of Student Involvement (OSI). 

While educational flyers are welcome at Berry, they need an official organization behind them and a named individual or group to contact. 

Clubs or organizations must maintain recognition status each year to host events on campus. According to Lindsay Norman, associate dean of students, a student group is allowed to make reservations for events and advertise if they are officially recognized 
by Berry. 

Flyers are subject to certain rules and can only be posted by recognized student groups. The policy includes the fire code, which also does not allow the placement of signage on exterior or interior doors or the inside 
of elevators.

“In that case, it’s not just that the [Charlie Kirk] flyers did not have a responsible club, organization or department,” Norman said. “There were reports that the distribution of the flyer was under doors, and that’s absolutely not permitted in the policy.”

According to Norman, the instance concerning the Charlie Kirk flyers was not the only time that OSI took down flyers this semester. An example of flyers that violate Viking Code policy were infographics about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) placed around Evans in early September. Norman said that the content of the flyer was not the problem, but rather the lack of sponsoring group printed on it. 

“Sometimes flyers are about bringing about awareness, but a sponsoring organization at least gives the person an open dialogue,” Norman said. “They might now be able to say ‘Here’s where I can go to continue to have discourse about this topic’.”

Other times a poster from an official group may be taken down is because of the content of the event. Some years ago, a group organized an event that served alcohol.  Since Berry is a substance-free campus, this group was not permitted to keep the flyers up. 

“We want to make sure every event that we hold is open to everyone,” Norman said. “We wouldn’t want a club to promote an event where alcohol was the central element.”

Director of Student Involvement, Brittani Farmer, supervises the information desk, where students looking to hang posters in Krannert can bring them for approval. Any questions students may have concerning flyers at Krannert may be directed to Farmer or the Assistant Director of Student Involvement Ramsie Wright. 

There are numerous designated areas for flyers to be posted in Krannert. While any student can hang up a poster on the cork boards in the post office area, the display rails across from the Berry Bean’ry require permission from the Office of Student Involvement (OSI). Farmer said that students have tried leaving flyers on the tables of Krannert, which is 
not allowed.

According to Farmer, there have been instances where posters are hung in Krannert that do not follow the correct policy. In that case, the OSI will reach out and explain to the students why their posters must be taken down. Like most buildings on campus, Krannert’s poster policy is the same as the general policy stated in the Viking Code.

“If a student organization or other official student group wants to reserve a lobby display case, lobby banner space or outdoor banner space, they can contact our office about date and reservations,” Farmer said. 

Krannert will also post flyers that are sent in from the off-campus community if they believe it will be of interest or beneficial to students. Faculty might put a flyer up if the event is consistent with other activities they might host for students.

It isn’t often that Student Involvement needs to take flyers down, so the Charlie Kirk posters were out of the ordinary.  Norman, who previously worked at Residence Life for 11 years, said typically when she was sent posters to review, she almost never had to send 
them back. 

“I would [deny a flyer] sometimes for practical reasons, but it is very rare that a Berry organization would sponsor anything that we wouldn’t put up,” Norman said.