One square on Painted Street remains blank two weeks after street painting for Drake Relays concluded.

“It was discovered during street painting that there was a miscalculation and that there were two additional squares,” Vice President and Dean of Students Jerry Parker said in an email to The Times-Delphic on April 28.

Drake Political Review painted one of the empty squares, but the other remains blank. The Student Activities Board has not provided further details on whether the last square will be painted.

At the Painted Street Raffle on April 15, where student organizations receive squares on Painted Street, the Student Activities Board raffled off 54 squares instead of 56. There are 58 total squares on the street, and two are reserved for the Relays logo. This miscount resulted in the two blank squares.

Fifty-eight student organizations participated in the raffle. The four organizations not selected in the raffle were social fraternity Sigma Chi, Drake Hillel, Drake Political Review and Drake University Dance Marathon. 

After the raffle, selected organizations had to complete a Google Form to confirm their place on the street. If an organization did not complete the form by April 16 at noon, their square was offered to one of the four organizations not selected at the raffle. Sigma Chi, Hillel, Drake Political Review, and Dance Marathon were all offered squares because other organizations did not complete the form. 

Parker said that the Interfraternity Council and UNITY Roundtable did not complete the process to claim and paint a square. 

“It is my understanding that IFC and UNITY Roundtable intentionally did not complete the acceptance process so that their squares would go to Sigma Chi and Hillel,” Parker said.

After Drake Political Review was offered a square, Editor-in-Chief Norah Judson said she did not realize she needed to complete a form to confirm their spot on the street. When Judson arrived to paint her organization’s square during street painting, she was told that all of the squares were full. As the form was not completed, the square offered to Drake Political Review was given to UNITY Roundtable.

On Monday, April 20, Judson received multiple messages from DPR staff members saying that there were two empty squares left on Painted Street.

“After a bit of back and forth with Eve Loehrer, DPR’s assistant art director, we decided to email and inquire as to whether we could claim an empty square,” Judson said. “Shortly thereafter, [Loehrer] received an email back on a different thread. The email explained that if we wrote back accepting, we could head out and start painting ASAP.”

This email from Relays co-chair Ava Hulse was also sent to the Intrafraternity Council and social fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon.

“SAB offered the two open squares to the three remaining groups,” Parker said. “As far as I know, Drake Political Review is the only group who claimed an open square.”

Judson and the DPR staff were given a strict time limit to paint their square due to alumni events happening on campus for Drake Relays. 

“The timeline we were given stated that we must be done with painting by 6:00 p.m. on the Friday of Relays [April 24]. However, when I was out painting, I was informed by a man shooting video for the University that there would be an alumni event happening on Painted Street that same day, starting at 4:00 p.m., and that realistically, we needed to be done well before preparation started for that,” Judson said.

Judson and Loehrer received another email from Hulse on April 28 requesting that their square be completed by Sunday, May 3, adding that another organization would be painting the last square. Drake Political Review’s square had been completed on April 24.

Judson said she values the opportunity to be in this year’s Painted Street.

“While I wish we could have gotten the full Painted Street experience alongside all the other campus organizations with squares this year, I am very grateful that we get to have a square at all,” Judson said.

The Student Activities Board and the Relays co-chairs did not respond to requests to schedule an interview in time for publication.

Eve Loehrer is a Times-Delphic staff member.