Sidewalk Crest?
 

Someone remarked to me how odd it was that all of the houses here at Otterbein have their crests on the sidewalk. Some are inlaid and others are painted. It's tradition not to step on it, even during rush the PX's divert the girls around them. Anyone else do this?

I do not think I've heard of that before. Kind of interesting but I would not want my crest on the ground. :)

The good thing is that people do not step on them.

Ditto!
*hijack* am I going to see you in Philly?

Yes, ma'am. :)

Interesting thread...

Our former shelter at the University of Colorado had our crest in inlaid wood in the entrance foyer.

That's not uncommon. The CIA crest is on the floor at their headquarters, so people do walk on it.

I don't think it's thought of as a sign of disrespect.

I'm used to seeing crests on floors in fraternity rows on certain campuses. Some groups like their crests on the floors and being stepped on. Some don't. :)

In undergrad, every GLO had a trash can, painted with their name and crest.

all the fraternities painted their crests on the sidewalk leading up to each sorority houses' front door. there was no way to avoid stepping on them-i do not believe that the fraternities were concerned with that.

SAE has a crest on the ground right as you walk in the door here... but no other fraternity has it. However, our school's crest is right outside of the chapel and you are not suppose to step on it if you want to graduate. Its fun to push my drunk friends on it and then watch them freak out that they are not going to graduate

Two that I can Think of in LXA!

Un. Ark with a Badge in the floor of entry and Shippensburg with a Cross and Cresent!

Dont know of any with The Coat of Arms though.


Good question though!

That's like the M on the Diag at Michigan - if you step on it you're supposed to fail your first blue book. And people really really don't step on it :)

In terms of crests...I think that it is completely disrespectful for someone to walk on mine and would be very upset. But to each their own.

I agree with you and I dont... I can see both side... I mean, if your going to put your crest on a side walk... its kind of asking for it to be walked on you know?

but as a member of a GLO i wouldnt walk on anyones

during greek week, we were suppose to use sidewalk chalk to draw crests, well people were freaking out about stepping on them... so we ended up drawing them on butcher paper.

we won ;)

I agree with you 100%, but our chapters don't do the crest on the ground deal so that's where I'm coming from. But I am curious since this seems to be a chapter by chapter thing in some cases....do organizations that have their crest on the sidewalks have issues between chapters if they feel differently? I can see where this would become an issue if it's not explicitly stated in the constitution or whatever governing rules the sorority/fraternity has.

As far as walking on other crests...I never realized people did this and I don't recall ever seeing one in the sidewalk in undergrad...so I never thought about it before. The things you learn on greekchat...

What I've sort of seen in my travels is that Otterbein is a rarity. The crest thing is a pretty big deal here. Even non-Greeks know not to step on it ( I think the post man does as well!). It's usually on the walk leading up to the house. Ours gets repainted every year. For a while, there were no letters on the house, and I used to walk by and go, "What is that funny thing on the ground in front of that brown house?" (ahh freshmen year). I've been to places where groups have benches or something of the like painted with their colors/letters, or places where the pavement was painted for each group, but not a crest (I think that was Fisk, where the groups all had a section of the road in front of the student center/chapel). I know at my brother's college, they didn't do it. Just odd because I don't think this is an "Otterbein original"...just sort of wondering where it came from.