HANDS OFF OUR POSTERS, GROUPS SAY

By Jann Lee

Ryerson’s Campus for Christ group spent $500 dollars in advertising its January 2007 event, “Qrious?.”

So it’s not a surprise that Stephanie Bourque, the event’s planner, was upset when some of the group’s expensive posters were torn down ahead of schedule.

And it is not the first time something like this happened, she said. Last semester, 200 posters advertising an upcoming “C4C Halloween” event, were torn down the day after they were put up.

Typically, custodial staff takes down outdated posters on the 1st and 15th of every month said Adrian Williams, manager of custodial services. “We do make mistakes,” said Williams. “But we make sure that we replace the posters if we take them down too early.”

The only complaint they had received recently, he added, was from the RSU. Accident or not, posters torn down too early is costing Bourque’s group. “It is frustrating because we’re spending a lot of money,” Bourque said, adding that 60 per cent of the people who end up coming will probably find out through the posters.

Campus for Christ isn’t alone in this: Dozens of ads and flyers fill Ryerson’s halls and many campus groups have problems putting their posters up and keeping them there.

Armen Shahnazarian, who has been RyePRIDE’s outreach coordinator since last semester, puts up most of his posters in the Library Building and Kerr Hall.

And so far, every advertised event that has had its posters taken down too early. Two weeks ago, RyePRIDE put up 150 posters for a Thursday movie night.

“The morning after we put them up they were all gone.”

He adds that putting up posters in that area is almost impossible because the bulletin boards are often filled with events — even with ones that have already passed. “So we (have to) put the posters around them,” he said.

Creating more space for posters came up in an RSU meeting, said RSU president Muhammad Ali Jabbar. But there are no formal plans yet. Jabbar, who was unaware of RyePRIDE’s problem, says that “posters get taken down when they’re not on designated areas.”