With interest in dining services table tents piqued after recent anti-abortion postings, one organization may have broken the rules by placing unapproved placards on tables.

Sally Deters, residence life coordinator, said a campus organization recently violated residence hall rules requiring authorization of all table tents.

Deters would not disclose which campus organization put out the illegal tents, nor would she specify exactly when the tents were placed on tables. Deters would confirm the violation occurred within the last couple of weeks.

Dining center staff members discovered the violation when they noticed a suspicious table tent in Friley Hall, Deters said. She said it was evident the tents were not approved.

Carol Petersen, Friley Dining Services manager, said she was not exactly sure what happened, but it appeared the tents had fraudulent stamps. All table tents must be stamped and approved by residence hall officials before they are placed on dining hall tables.

“It looked like after they had their copy date stamped, they cut and pasted it on a different table tent,” she said.

Petersen and Deters both said it appeared that the organization had one table tent approved and then pasted the stamp onto a different tent.

“On a day their tent was supposed to go out, we found theirs and one they had put a stamp onto,” Petersen said.

Petersen said the tents were taken off the tables as soon as staff became aware of the switch.

Deters said the organization will be disciplined, but she was not sure in what manner. “There will be further action taken toward the organization,” she said.

Petersen said she has been at her job for 20 years and has seen thousands of table tents come and go, but this was a unique situation.

“We’ve had some table tent issues over the years, but none where they’ve actually copied off the date stamps,” she said.

Some organizations or people put out tents that are not approved, Petersen said, but this is usually only because they do not know the process.

Students who have had experience getting table tents approved had mixed reactions about the violation.

Jami Hagemeier, executive director for the 1999 Dance Marathon, said she had table tents placed to publicize her organization last year, and she understands why some people might get confused with the rules concerning the tents.

“So many people who are inexperienced or new to organizations are the ones who usually do table tents,” said Hagemeier, senior in political science and history. “They do not always know to get it approved by people above them or by the residence halls.”

Heather Kliebenstein, producer of Stars Over Veishea 2000, said she does not think the offending organization should be punished as a whole.

“It’s not the whole organization who is at fault,” said Kliebenstein, senior in environmental science and political science. “Sometimes things slip by, and it’s the person’s fault and not the organization’s. There are so many people in an organization that it’s hard to blame them all.”

However, Brandon Schaefer, president of the Freshman Council, said the unnamed organization should be punished.

“I think the organization should be banned from doing table tents until next fall,” said Schaefer, freshman in agricultural business. “First impressions are a big thing, and if that’s the first impression, then it’s going to hurt.”

All three students said table tent fraud might make it harder for them to get their tents approved in the future.