Following two cases of vandalism, the university administration decided to cover the Boulder in plastic in order to hinder further efforts.
On Sunday, a group of individuals who have not been identified poured red paint on the boulder. Within 30 minutes the paint was removed and the boulder returned to its normal state. Tuesday, another unidentified group recreated the act.
These instances led administrators to take preventative measures against further vandalism.
"They did that in an effort to keep it from being defaced," said Director of Public Safety Angie Nally. "They already had an incident where some red paint was poured on it, but they were able to wash it off and preserve the boulder, so they put plastic over it to keep anyone from vandalizing it."
Executive Director of Media Relations Ken Owen said the administrators involved in the decision to cover the boulder thought the mixture of probable darkness at the time of attempted vandalisms and probable inebriation of culprits would keep them from noticing the plastic.