Maria Garcia-Mugg dropped to her knees and began to cry when she observed the rock on Farm Lane early Friday morning.

The entomology sophomore spent most of Thursday night helping to paint the rock as part of Culturas de las Razas Unidas’ celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

But as she passed the rock on her way to class Friday, she saw a sight she called “disturbing.”

“The rock had been painted over by the same fraternity that had given me their word that they would not do it since this was a cultural event,” Garcia-Mugg said Sunday.

The heritage month began Sept. 15 - with the independence days for Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala. It ends Oct. 15.

Garcia-Mugg said pledges from Sigma Alpha Mu came to the rock and insisted on painting over it while CRU was painting that same night.

While she tried explaining the significance of CRU’s event that night, she says, the pledges were “rude and weren’t willing to listen.”

“We tried to be cool and talk to them first to see what they were up to,” Garcia-Mugg said.

“I told them that this isn’t just about one organization, it affects a whole community. A couple of them kept insisting, ‘We’re painting the rock,’ and another one got in my face.

“They just didn’t seem to care.”

She said she later spoke with a member of the fraternity who told the pledges to leave out of respect for the heritage celebration.

Friday morning, Garcia-Mugg said she could see that the fraternity had painted over CRU’s display. She could also see that someone had painted over the fraternity’s display and painted the word “racists” next to its name, insinuating the fraternity’s paint-over was done out of spite.

But Sigma Alpha Mu President Ryan Beale disagrees. He confirmed pledges were told to paint the rock Thursday night, but also said had he known then what he knows now - that the rock was being painted to observe students’ heritage - the fraternity would have not painted the rock.

“We would never try to disrespect heritage,” Beale said. “We do respect any minority.”

The pre-law junior said his fraternity members, many of whom are minorities, tried Friday to paint the rock back to CRU’s heritage display.

But another fraternity was already there.

He said he would like to meet with CRU and repay the group for the trouble that’s been caused.

“I’d love to repay them and show them that we respect them,” Beale said.

CRU’s executive board members declined comment Sunday.

Chemical engineering junior Brian Schneble, vice president of Sigma Alpha Mu, said the fraternity will take steps to create awareness about the incident among fraternity members.

“It’s going to be brought to the attention of the entire fraternity so that we can discuss how to handle things like this in the future,” he said.

But while he feels the incident was the result of unfortunate circumstances, Schneble said racial tension could be handled in a different manner.

“It’s not good that this happened to CRU, but at the same time, it’s silly for it to have escalated into this,” he said. “You would think that they might try to talk to our president or our fraternity about the subject.

“But to call us racists is a big skip, hop and a jump away from what was the original intention.”

Although Garcia-Mugg says CRU members only stayed until 3 a.m. to guard the rock - rather than staying all night - she felt “there was just a lack of respect and ethics involved here.”

She also likened the event to an incident in which sorority members painted over the rock and knocked over commemorative crosses during a 1998 Dia de los Muertos celebration - a religious holiday celebrated by the Chicano community.

Garcia-Mugg said she hopes the fraternity pledges will face punishment for painting over CRU’s Hispanic Heritage Month display.

“They lied to my face and disrespected us,” she said. “It will really disturb me if they allow them to continue pledging without any repercussions.”

Meanwhile, Schneble said he hopes the actions of the pledges don’t ruin future events for the fraternity and other members of the greek system.

“I would hope that the pledges didn’t do this on purpose,” he said. “But I just hope that there’s no further implication for other fraternities and sororities on campus. Painting the rock is a neat little tradition and I would hate to see that ruined by a misunderstanding.”

Sheena Harrison can be reached at harri188@msu.edu.