The ISU Atheist and Agnostic Society encouraged students to stomp on superstition by walking on the infamous zodiac at the Memorial Union Thursday.

At noon, members surrounded the zodiac for about 30 minutes trying to get passers by to get over their fear of walking on the zodiac.

“We want to show that superstition is not important,” said Kendra Essman, treasurer of the organization.

The superstition of the zodiac is that if a student walks on it, they will fail their next test. So it has been an ISU tradition to walk around the zodiac. Essman, freshman in linguistics, said she has a easier solution – studying.

“The four extra seconds you use to walk around the zodiac could have been spent studying,” Essman said. “You add all that time up over a year, you would have hours of study time.”

Dan Skinner, vice president of the Atheist and Agnostic Society, said people need to realize what they are doing when they walk around the zodiac.

“The point is people are altering their behavior for something that isn’t even true,” said Skinner, sophomore in mathematics.

But Eric Sheriff, sophomore in pre-business, believes the superstition is true.

“I’ve actually failed a test after walking on it,” he said. “That was before I knew about the superstition, though.”

Students still chose to walk around the zodiac, even as members of the group urged them to walk on it. Katie Halling, junior in psychology, kept the tradition alive.

“I don’t want to take any chances,” she said.

Carol Swanson, senior in English, said, for her, walking around the emblem has nothing to do with the superstition.

“It’s just a beautiful piece of art,” she said.

William Christopher, president of the ISU Atheist and Agnostic Society, said he just wants people to realize superstitions are silly.

“Walking over it has nothing to do with your grades,” said Christopher, junior in biophysics.

The group could not stay very long, however – after about 30 minutes they were asked to leave because they were “impeding the flow of traffic.”