Posters torn from Street lampposts

By Sunday evening, all the posters hung on Prospect Avenue by University Health Services peer education groups had been removed, as had most of the posters hung at other locations across campus.

Posters were put up around the Street on Sunday between 11 a.m. and noon, and at other locations between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Monica Wojcik '07, one of the peer educators who coordinated the campaign, said in an e-mail.

"It seems surprising to me that we had the entire street covered at 1 [p.m.] today [and] that all of them were down by about dinner time today," Josh Goldsmith '07, former president of the Sexual Health Advisers, said.

Goldsmith said that he suspected the tearing down of the posters was "a concerted effort," though he did not accuse particular individuals. "I have no idea why they would have been torn down," he said.

"Obviously, we are disappointed that they have been removed," Wojcik said. She added that the act was "unethical" and a violation of University regulations.

Wojcik said that the peer education groups would probably order more posters to replace the ones that were removed, and the poster campaign would continue throughout the week.

The posters were geared toward raising awareness about "a wide range of topics that were relevant to the general health issues ... for the entire student body," Goldsmith said. These include sexual harassment, assault, alcohol abuse, forced behavior and eating disorders, he added.

"We would hope that people who disagree with the message of this campaign would find a more constructive method to express their objections," Wojcik said.

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Though some of the posters specifically referred to Bicker and initiations, Wojcik said they "were designed to apply to numerous scenarios at Princeton, not just those that involve the Street."

"The reason the campaign was timed for this week is that incidences of the risky behaviors we're targeting tend to increase around this time," she added.

Quadrangle Club president Scott Syverson '08 said in an e-mail that the eating clubs and the University strongly support the aims of the poster campaign but questioned the content of the posters.

"My reaction to the methodology of the postering campaign was mixed," he said.

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Syverson suggested that information on how students can prevent and report unsafe behavior might be more useful than the "frightening scenarios" on the posters.

The quotations displayed on the posters were gathered from anonymous but "trustworthy" sources, Goldsmith said. Gender and other identifying details were removed.

"I made some girl give me a lap dance and it turned out she was my roommate's little sister," one poster reads. "He broke my nose and my Playstation but at least she was hot."

A disclaimer at the bottom of each poster reads, "This is not an anti-bicker or anti-eating club campaign. This is a campaign about respecting yourself and others."

Some of the quotations on the posters were compilations of quotations received from different sources, and some "had a little bit of snap added to them," Goldsmith said.

"They're either true stories or modified based on true stories," he added.