When Cub Barrett plastered the campus with Dance Marathon fliers last fall, he found them stripped from the ground after only a day or two. In frustration, he e-mailed then-Vice President for Student Affairs Peggy Barr about his confusion concerning campus publicity rules.

Barr then formed a publicity committee to help clarify the rules and asked Barrett to hop on board. A pamphlet will be distributed to student groups at the Activities Fair tonight to explain the rules.

More and larger fliers will be allowed in Norris University Center, and the ban on painting the trees and the stone wall around The Rock will be enforced. New rules about chalking and fliering on the ground are under review, according to Mary Desler, assistant vice president for students affairs and a member of the university’s publicity committee, which Barr formed last winter.

With student groups constantly battling for flier space in Norris, the Norris Advisory Board last year stopped the war by ending the unlimited fliering policy and allowing only three, 8.5-by-11 inch fliers per student group. The new rule allows five, 11-by-17 inch posters, which is about the size of an A&O Productions sign.

Norris Director Bill Johnston said the increased publicity would help as long as there weren’t “whole walls falling down with fliers” like two years ago. But Johnston said he didn’t think the new policy would make a significant difference in attendance at a particular event.

Cindy Wu, co-president of AdShop, which designs advertising for campus events such as International Fest and the robot design competition, didn’t think so either.

“If they’re gonna get the word out, they’re gonna get the word out,” said Wu, a Weinberg senior. “Three to five isn’t a big deal. Three to 20 would be a big deal.”

With Norris fliering still limited, The Rock has become a more valuable canvas for ads. And that canvas became even larger last year, with ads spilling on to the wall and trees surrounding The Rock.

The publicity committee, however, wants to stop that spread of paint this year by upholding the existing ban on painting anything except The Rock.

The reasons for this, Desler said, include the cost and time of cleaning up the paint and the messy look of the area.

Tom Leoni from Facilities Management said sandblasting the paint off the wall takes more than a day and tears up the finish on the wall. Chemicals to remove the paint can cost up to $768.

“Turpentine won’t work,” Leoni said.

Students who paint beyond The Rock might face fines and be tried by administrators or the University Hearing and Appeals Systems, Desler said, though she acknowledged the difficulty in catching offenders. She said no one has taken the responsibility yet of checking the Rock area each morning.

“We’re trying to balance maintaining this beautiful campus and at the same time making it feel like it’s alive,” Desler said. “It’s beginning to look a little sketchy.”

The publicity committee also reviewed rules on fliering and chalking on the ground, although NU’s legal staff must review them before they become active.

Desler said some members of the committee did not want publicity on university grounds, but they compromised to allow taping fliers to the ground as long as they were spread out and chalking on sidewalks but not university buildings.

Associated Student Government President Adam Humann, who served on the publicity committee, said he is happy to see new rules that prohibit chalking on buildings.

“That looks hideous,” said Humann, a Weinberg senior. “There was something from Ski Trip ’98 on a building I passed a week ago.”