Alexandra Samuels

The University of Texas at Austin

If three is officially a trend, chalking is now a trendy -- and highly controversial -- way for Donald Trump fans to show their love.

This week, two schools -- the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga -- jumped into the chalking fray, joining the headlines made in March at Emory University with pro-Trump messages scrawled on campus grounds.

Following a now-familiar timeline, the chalked messages appeared and the storms followed. At UTC, it hit the student government.

Hailey Puckett, a member of a UTC student government coalition called Empower UTC who chalked "Trump 2016" on April 5, was asked to resign by fellow coalition members.

Empower's stance did not go over well with some students, who responded along the lines of this tweet.

The next day, EMPOWER UTC members Phillip Stubblefield and Mikayla Long posted apologies. Stubblefield noted that his words had been poorly chosen. "I fully support every individual's First Amendment rights and the senator-elect has every right to support any candidate of her choosing," he wrote.

Long apologized and noted that “Hailey was asked by EMPOWER to resign from SGA because she disregarded her responsibility as an elected senator to represent the students that elected her. Her statement, ‘Super proud of our art work, but I have a feeling half of UTCs campus is going to hate it’ does not show that she is currently prepared to represent students effectively. That is the sole reason we asked her to resign.”

Puckett's message was later washed off by students who then chalked the message, “Black UTC supports unity” in its place, reports student newspaper The University Echo. Since, then, the newspaper says, other messages have been chalked, ranging from “Power C 4 Trump,” to “UTC supports Hailey," "UTC supports Black UTC" to a “Trump 2016."

The school has released a statement saying in part,"Diversity — including diversity of thought — is a core value of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. This idea was put to the test when a question of free speech developed between several groups of students. ... The heated dialogue that resulted was unfortunate but serves as a teachable moment for our students and the incoming student government leadership.

"The UTC administration has not played a role in this debate.”

Also on April 5, chalk messages were written on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus. They included, “They have to go back #Trump,” “Build the Wall” and “Trump Deportation Force.”

The messages appeared near the campus’ Latina/Latino Studies building.

In an email sent to the school community and obtained by USA TODAY College, the school said in part, "We value discourse while also recognizing that offensive speech is protected by the First Amendment. The best recourse to speech with which we disagree is more speech."

In a statement to the campus, Jonathan Inda, chair of the Department of Latina/Latino Studies, called the chalking “unacceptable.”

“It is no coincidence that a ‘Trump’ message was scrawled in front of the Department of Latino/Latina Studies building. Such a message was not intended to advance political dialogue, but to psychologically wound, breed intolerance, and create an atmosphere of insecurity for Latina/os on campus,” he said.

At Emory, students claimed they were “in pain” after seeing “Trump 2016” tagged on campus. The drawings led a few dozen students to protest the school’s administration building, The Emory Wheel reported.



RELATED: Emory students protest pro-Trump slogans, say they don't feel safe

Students at various schools have expressed their concerns with the drawings

Alexandra Samuels is a student at University of Texas at Austin and a USA TODAY College breaking news correspondent.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.