Officials are developing plans to revamp Norris University Center’s stairwell advertising space.
The student center recently replaced its walls of fliers leading down to the ground floor with signs reading, “No posting. New look coming soon to stairway.”
Although students can still post fliers on the board at the top of the stairs, the stairwell will no longer be a designated area for students to promote campus events and organizations.
Amy White, Norris’ interim executive director, said the area is being converted into something that will “brighten” the stairwell into a “space that feels like Northwestern.” Although a final decision has not been made about how exactly the space will be used, White mentioned pictures of students and the use of school colors as potential ideas.
White said the large number of postings was rendering the area ineffective.
“There were literally hundreds of competing pieces of paper up there,” White said. “It was hard for people to stop and look at what was going on. It was more of a mess than a useful place for publicity.”
Weinberg junior Sean Widjaja said the cluttered nature of the space made it difficult for individual ads to stand out.
“You would have to create a very visually appealing flier to catch people’s attention,” he said.
But some students are unhappy that the space is being removed.
Bienen and Weinberg sophomore Lara Saldanha said she had previously posted fliers on the stairwell walls to promote the literary magazine Helicon, for which she wrote last year.
“I definitely noticed the absence of the fliers,” Saldanha said. “I’m just curious for what they’re going to be using it for because I felt it was a useful space.”
Norris is now encouraging students to purchase ad space on one of the eight TV monitors mounted throughout the center. White said the Flash capabilities of the TVs will allow students to create more dynamic, eye-catching advertisements.
“We are moving in the right direction of paying attention to our natural spaces and how we want our campus to look and where are the effective places to publicize events, versus what we’re used to or what has worked in the past and might not today,” White said.
