The Collegian

Issue date: 9/24/09 Section: News

Media Credit: William Clayton Senior Taylor Gage braces for impact at the Paint-A-Classicist event held Friday.

Students lined up on the quad to on Friday, where they hurled sponges soaked in brightly colored water-based paint at members of Eta Sigma Phi, the classics honorary.

Junior Theo Harwood, president of Eta Sigma Phi, said the "Paint a Classicist" event was like a dunk tank, in that students were willing to pay to indulge in a little aggression.

"Who doesn't want to throw paint at someone?" Harwood said. "It's a primal human urge."

Students paid $1 for two throws. The honorary also accepted donations, though they were rare; as a rule, people were thrilled to paint a classicist, senior MaryBeth Banovetz said.

Harwood came up with the idea at the start of the semester, when the honorary was dis-cussing fundraising plans for the year, he said. Along with junior James Banovetz and seniors Sean McDermott, Lauren Gribble, MaryBeth Banovetz, James Bild and Taylor Gage, Harwood volunteered to strip down to swimwear and a makeshift toga to raise money for members of Eta Sigma Phi to go to the honorary's national conference at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in April.

At last year's conference, MaryBeth Banovetz was elected national president of the orga-nization. Her duties as national president include promoting and presiding over the honorary's national convention, and representing Eta Sigma Phi at the American Philological Association's conference in January.

The fundraiser ran from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and netted $164, about $163 more than members of the honorary expected.
Harwood said the busiest time was around noon, when students were on their way to lunch. Set up in an inflatable wading pool, plastic sheeting taped to the sidewalk to contain the mess, members of ESP taunted passers-by or promised them a chance to throw paint at Gage.

"Do you hate western heritage? We're the reason you have to take it," McDermott yelled at students approaching Grewcock Student Union. "We're glad you failed. Take out your aggression on us!"

"Hey Catholics - we're Anglican!" Harwood added. "Sola scriptura, baby!"

The next Eta Sigma Phi event at Hillsdale is the annual Homerathon, where students read a work of Homer over the course of 24 hours.

"I think the honorary is only going to get bigger this year," Harwood said.

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