If you are not a member of Greek life the painted rocks around campus probably don’t catch your eye. The rocks are big blobs of color that change frequently and usually include illegible writing. If you weren’t taking part in the rock painting you have probably never seen them being painted. To Greek life, these rocks are a competition, a bragging right, and a way to make you feel like a badass vandal at 3 in the morning.

Any chapter in Greek life can paint the rocks. Groups of member’s head out with their spray paint cans in the early hours of the morning and spread out around campus. Chapters see this as a marketing opportunity but mostly an opportunity to spray paint over another chapter’s letters and boost their ego.

Greek life is a constant competition of popularity, reputation, and looks and none of this can come about without a little backstabbing. Every chapter tries to be Panhellenic on the outside, but on the inside there are always the bitter members who want nothing more than to throw another chapter under the bus (just check Yik Yak). The rocks are a way to fuel the fire of anger in another chapter’s eyes when they see their letters have been painted over. 

During Greek Week the rocks will have guards from other chapters who hide in the bushes and as soon as someone paints over their letters they attack and change it back. Maybe the rocks are healthy competition, but the whole idea is extremely ridiculous.  

The worst part about rock painting is how it must be done in the middle of the night without another soul around. There is no better way to get a sorority girl up at 3 or 4 in the morning than handing them some spray paint and sending them out into the night. This causes them to a have adrenaline rush as they imagine themselves as vandals who are secretly going to piss off another chapter. “The look on their faces when they see we painted over their rocks will be so wonderful” is something frequently heard doing these fiascos. 

So what is the real point of rock painting? Most of the rocks look awful and you can’t really tell what chapter painted them anyway. This is especially true when fraternities write their personal scroll numbers and nothing else. That number can really only mean something to them, and means absolutely nothing to anyone else. Every rocks is painted in seconds and is not an art project by any means. 

The moral of the story is Greek life feeds off competition and any way that allows chapters to secretly terrorize each other will be taken full advantage of. When a student joins Greek life, they also join a team of brothers and sisters who want to be the best on campus. There isn’t anything wrong with being the best, but as a member of Greek life myself- please chill out about painting the rocks.