Rice issues policy for poster takedown, display spaces and content

By Hope Yang     3/19/24 10:51pm

Posters are now required to be taken down 10 days after they’re first put up or two days after the event they advertise, according to a new Rice policy. Administrators are working on additional guidelines for putting up and taking down posters in shared building spaces, Kelly Fox, the executive vice president of operations, finance and support, said.

Rice issued Policy 856 on Feb. 27. Previously, poster rules were loosely established across other policies and documents, according to Provost Amy Dittmar.

Dittmar added that posters now require certain pieces of information and must be in designated spots.

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“The poster policy now requires that posters clearly and visibly display the name of the sponsor, the date of postering and the email address and/or phone number of the sponsor,” Dittmar wrote in an email to the Thresher. “It also defines a process for designated spaces where postering is allowed … Posters may be displayed only on bulletin boards or other spaces … designated for postering.”

Adam Vuong, the assistant design editor for the Rice Campanile, said that when operating by the old poster policy, he would put posters around residential colleges where he thought appropriate.

“Some of the places [to put posters] you have to get pre-approved … like the RMC,” Vuong, a sophomore at Will Rice College, said. “[In residential colleges] I had to look for places where it’s appropriate to put a poster … like bulletin boards and doorways and [spaces] where there are posters nearby.”

Vuong said that the new policy would limit spaces for clubs to advertise, since there are already a lot of posters on bulletin boards. 

McKenna Tanner, managing coordinator of Rice Players, said she hopes that there will be an increase in spaces for displaying posters going forward. 

“I hope that Rice buildings put up more bulletin boards to give all organizations the ability to advertise according to the policy,” Tanner, a senior at Hanszen College, wrote in an email to the Thresher.

Katherine Jeng, president of the Rice Taiwanese Association, English Undergraduate Association and Civic Duty Rice and the publicity director for the Chinese Student Association wrote in a message to the Thresher that the policy may make it difficult to read events.

“Sometimes it is annoying when the bulletins are all filled up and you can’t find any specific event because there are so many, or if you can’t find a thumb tack,” Jeng, a junior at Hanszen College, wrote. 

Jeng wrote that the policy has not created much of an impact for her clubs due to other publicity avenues.

“Most of our club advertising is done through social media, Listserv, OwlNest or word of mouth, so it doesn’t impact us that much, but we’re still aware of the policy and will keep it in mind,” Jeng wrote.

Maximillian Knyazev-Julinski, a Brown College freshman, said that poster spaces in Brown were not very noticeable, and he liked finding out about events through posters around the residential college.

“The bulletin boards we have at Brown College are kind of tucked away; it’s not very obvious,” Knyazev-Julinski said. “We put posters everywhere, on doors where we enter, on pillars, [and] elevators … I feel like I’m part of something just by seeing them happen … and I might check it out. I would have never done it if it was tucked away on bulletin boards.”

Knyazev-Julinski said that organizations often leave their posters for Rice Housing and Dining to take down.

“I’ve seen H&D ripping [posters] down, and I’m like, ‘Oh no, you already have to clean Baker 13, not this too,’” Knyazev-Julinski said. “It’s kind of annoying for them at least.”

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