For the last seven years, fliers advertising fraternity parties, concerts and events have been continuously shoved under students’ doors against University policy.
Although new tabling policies were implemented this year, the fliering rules have been the same for many years, said Joe Gonzalez, associate dean for residence life.
New policies for tabling and a reminder of the existing regulations regarding fliers on East Campus were sent in an e-mail last month to students who hold leadership positions in student organizations.
Tabling at the Marketplace is now limited to four student organizations at any given time on a first-come, first-serve basis.
The flier policies stipulate that only one flier per event may be posted in each designated area, alcohol may not be advertised on East and quarter-sheet fliers may not be shoved under doors. The e-mail also encouraged students to take advantage of Residence Life and Housing Service’s flier-posting service. Students who use this service can bring up to 16 copies of a flier to the RLHS office, where an employee will then post the fliers in designated East Campus buildings.
Other advertising regulations are listed in The Duke Community Standard, including a list of where fliers cannot be posted.
The list consists of “doors, trashcans, entryways, exteriors of buildings, interior walls, stairway railings, floors, benches or ceilings... any tree or utility pole.”
Despite these restrictions, fliers are often posted in forbidden areas because students are generally unaware of these policies.
“I was vaguely aware of [the policies],” said freshman Ellen Paddock. “Fliers should generally stick to the major flier posts, but you see them so often in other places that I’m not exactly sure what the rules are.”
East Campus resident assistants are told about the flier policies so that they can ensure that unauthorized fliers are not posted in the dorms, said sophomore Ming Jiu Li, an East Campus RA. Multiple copies of unauthorized fliers, however, still cover student and RA bulletin boards, he noted.
“[Students feel] if you are limited to what RLHS says... you don’t know if you will get enough publicity for the event,” he said.
The main objectives of the flier-posting policy are to keep the fliers in a central area in each building and to prevent advertisements from being covered by multiple copies of other fliers, Gonzalez said.
Despite the intentions of the policies, many students find that improperly distributed fliers provide more effective advertising.
“Quarter-sheet fliers under doors and fliers on benches are the most effective because they’re noticed more,” Paddock said. “If they’re only posted on the flier boards, it won’t be effective, no matter how colorful they are. There are so many, you can hardly read them.”
Additionally, the policy prohibiting fliers advertising alcohol at events has proven largely ineffective.
“Although it’s not explicitly stated, the underlying implication for a lot of these fliers is that alcohol will be involved,” said freshman Ani Mohan.
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