The “Rock on, KE” rock, formerly located near the Knollcrest East (KE) apartments, was relocated to a spot in the middle of campus in between several academic buildings last week. After moving, the formerly maroon slab of concrete was painted green and sporting a new message: “Introducing the Rock.”

The rock is a project of the freshman council, which is a division of student senate. Katherine Benedict, the student in charge of the project, aims to create a fun space for student organizations to post announcements so that students can be more aware of some of the events going on around the campus.

Relocating the rock is fulfilling one of the freshman council’s goals for this year, which is to increase the feeling of community on campus. The KE rock was selected because it is budget-friendly.

“This is only a pilot program. Using the KE rock has kept costs down — to $0 to be specific,” Benedict said.

Sophomore Liv Deliyannides said, “The rock needed a place to go, and instead of wasting it, they did something that could be used creatively. I think it could be an effective way of getting news out.”

However, the rock has not been embraced by some members of the student body. A few different counts of vandalism were reported, which led to the rock being painted over again.The Freshman council asks that students get approval before painting something on the rock.

Senior Emily Grubbs said, “I think that the rock is a change, but change isn’t always bad. People just need to give it a chance to be useful. I feel like it is a creative way to communicate with students.”

Any student organization wishing to have the rock painted with an announcement can request permission online through Calvin’s website under ‘publicity policy.’ Once permission has been granted by Campus Leadership and Involvement, students will be given a start date for publicity and the message will stay on for the next three days. Users of the rock are responsible for supplying their own paint and brushes as well as painting over any previous messages.