Seemingly without warning, variously colored sticky notes with scrawled positive affirmations in different handwritings started popping up around campus. Some had general messages, like “You look great in that shirt,” “I care” and “Loving is a good look on you.”
The notes appeared mostly in academic buildings, and students, while appreciatory of the notes, didn’t know where they originated.

“I have no idea where they came from,” said Emma Testerman, a student sitting in Dewey Commons. “I think they’re very nice, but the first one I saw was when I just came in here.”
When asked about the anonymous notes, many departments and offices could not identify their source. Staff in both the First Year Experience and the Academic Support Services offices could only guess at their origin.

Some sticky notes had messages that seemed religious in nature, such as one attached to a trash can in Dewey with the note, “Love thy neighbor.”

“I wonder if they were placed by a religious group on campus,” said Isaiah Perry, another student in Dewey Commons. “It’s the ‘thy’ that makes me think that.”
After much asking around, several students suggested that the notes had come from the SERVE office.
SERVE Graduate Assistant Haleigh West said, “I’m not sure where these ones are coming from. The first round came from us but someone started writing more. We did that first round like a month ago, though. We did a tabling and people from campus were invited to write a positive note and we placed them around.”

West noted that they read through all the original notes to make sure they were all positive.
Rebecca Bingham, an undergraduate student in the office, said, “Ours were the pink, the blue, and the yellow: the pastel ones. These new ones are neon.”

Theater majors Katelyn Shaw and Caleb Eugley participated in the original round of sticky note messages. “We used gel pens for ours,” said Eugley. “These ones have sharpie.”
“We did them with SERVE,” said Shaw. “It was a while ago.”

Bingham, West, and other students in the SERVE office mentioned their discomfort with the content of some of the new sticky-note messages.

One message which was placed on the door to Stearns cafeteria read, “Why is my love so good for you?” This note was removed by a student who said, “I don’t feel bad about removing it. That makes me uncomfortable.”

West added that if students don’t like the content of a message, they should “feel free to take it down and come talk to [her.]”

Students are also encouraged to take sticky notes to the Dean of Students office in Dewey if they feel threatened by or uncomfortable with the content of a message.

After the rally on Mar 28 to support students targeted by anonymous hate speech, Jess Malskis, President of the SGA, told the crowd that SGA would keep the positive post-it trend going. Students can go to the SGA office in Stearns to write more wholesome stickies.