A Tulane student said he was driving home from the movies Friday night when he saw two men sitting on the roof of a nearby church. Travis Quinsland, who is a student leader at the church, said the men were on the roof of the United Methodist Campus Center, which serves both Tulane and Loyola.
He said one was wearing an Alpha Delta Gamma T-shirt with the name Maverick on the back.
Sean Peacock, history sophomore and ADG member, said he wears a jersey that says Maverick but doesn’t remember whether he was on the roof that night.
He said the fraternity, which has a house across the street from the church, had a party that night. “I don’t remember much after that,” he said.
Quinsland said he approached the men and told them to get off the roof. He said he then called Tulane University’s police but that the men had left by the time police arrived.
The pastor of the church says this is not the first time that there has been trouble on the roof.
The Rev. Judy Shema said that on April 16, she discovered graffiti there. “Sig Eps suck” is written in yellow paint on the front of the roof. Shema said the church will not be able to repair the roof because a reshingling job would cost $100,000. “I have a $60,000 budget,” she said, “I don’t have money to make repairs like this.”
She said the best hope the church has is to paint the roof, but that the paint will fade and the graffiti will show through.
Shema claimed that the church has a history of problems with its neighbors. She said that she has caught men on the roof before last week’s incident.
She also said that she has found the flowers pulled from the church’s garden on the mornings after parties at the ADG fraternity house. Shema said that until the graffiti incident, she just tried to live with the various incidents at the church.
She said she has even helped her neighbors by allowing them to borrow her lawnmower.
“I have not been the big mean momma,” she said. When asked about Shema’s claims, Peacock said. “I’ve heard stories, but I’ve never seen anything.” At least a dozen other ADG fraternity members were questioned by The Maroon, but all refused to comment.
