The Department of Residence is waiting for students to settle a dispute over a mural in the fifth-floor Willow Hall kitchenette deemed offensive by a group of female students.

Kate Bruns, communications specialist for the DOR, said the department has the ability to make a decision but would prefer to let students reach a compromise, providing mediation if necessary.

The mural depicts three men in army fatigues. One of the men is carrying a woman dressed in skimpy clothing, and a second man carries a keg.

Four of the group of eight women, who have written two letters to the DOR, attended a Schaefer House meeting Sunday to discuss what could be done with the mural they say is offensive.

“It went OK,” said Samantha Sexton, freshman in pre-advertising. “We were mainly there to give what our goals were for bringing this whole subject to view.”

Sexton said she and the other seven women involved are working toward a compromise with the men of Schaefer House, where the mural is located.

Adam Heathcote, vice president of Schaefer House and sophomore in animal ecology, said the house members bought paint with their own money to cover the obscenities but the girls were still offended. The mural has been in the Schaefer House kitchenette for several years and originally the word “roofies” appeared on the keg and the word “tool” appeared on the female’s forehead. The words “Date Raper Extraordinaire” also appeared in the mural.

The eight women met again on Tuesday evening to discuss whether the changes are satisfactory.

Christy Page, senior in nutritional science and group member, said a letter that details two compromise options has been sent to Schaefer House. The women want the female in the mural to be dressed in more clothing or be in a different position, “so it couldn’t be interpreted as her being carried against her will,” Page said.

Schaefer residents understand some concern about the mural, to some degree.

“I understand wanting to remove the graffiti,” said Nicholas Schlesser, fourth-year resident of Schaefer House and senior in animal ecology.

Now that the mural has obvious changes, Schlesser said, it looks like “the classic rescue scene,” and removing the entire mural is not necessary.

“We are not supporting aspects of violence toward women,” Schlesser said.

Heathcote said the letter has not been received, but when told about the request, he said the decision is up to the house but, “what she is wearing is not offensive — you can see it anywhere in catalogs or magazines.”

Schlesser said with the concessions that have already been made it would be going too far to take the mural off the wall. Schlesser said he was under the impression the graffiti has been there for several years before his first year on the floor four years ago. Since his freshman year “nothing that is on [the mural] is new,” he said.

Heathcote said the floor feels like they are being targeted to look bad because of the 400 flyers that were put up on campus early last week by the group of women.

Jenny Vandevoort, member of the group and junior in ecology, said the group took a picture of the mural and put a statistic about rape on college campuses a poster.

“Our job is not to make anyone look bad. We just wanted to raise awareness,” she said.

Vandevoort said the group had heard about the mural through friends and decided to look at it for their “outrageous acts project” in a Women’s Studies 201 class.

Department of Residence Director Randy Alexander said he thinks there is a lot of learning that could go on from the situation.

He said his preference is to see the students work the issue out themselves instead of administration intervening.

“These are real world issues,” said Alexander, “[the students] might come up with something totally different and better than what I could.”