Passing by the Dan Allen Drive gum wall, one is confronted with the issue of whether the display of pre-chewed globs is art or an eye sore.

“It’s certainly an expression. I don’t know what they’re trying to say, but it’s interesting,” Taylor Sams , a freshman in statistics, said.

The constantly morphing mass of pre-masticated mush resides on the walls of the tunnel under the train tracks on Dan Allen Drive. It’s exceptional, to say the least. And N.C . State considers it one of the artistic landmarks on campus.

“It’s somewhat of an icon as far as campus is concerned,” Kyle Burns, a freshman in political science, said. He said he wasn’t a huge fan of the gum, but he did think it added character to the University.

“I bet UNC doesn’t have anything like it,” Jaclyn Smith, a freshman in polymer and color chemistry, said. 

Nobody really knows how the gum wall came to be or why it was first allowed to exist. There isn’t any recorded initiating event or reason for the tradition.

“This was something that just sort of evolved; people started doing it and others started contributing to it,” Jack Colby, assistant vice chancellor for Facilities Operations, said.

But now that it exists, Facilities allows it to grow in the name of tradition, though it occasionally cleans it to keep it from getting out of hand.

Even so, it’s cleaned usually only when graffiti becomes a problem, according Bud Brannock , Paint Shop supervisor.

“It’s because of the graffiti, not because of the gum,” Brannock said.

Tradition trumps sour judgments, according to Colby.

“Periodically if it gets to be too much, [our grounds crew] will go and clean it off, and then everybody starts the process over again,” Colby said. “There’s no policy or anything else associated with it, it’s just one of those unique things about N.C . State’s campus, like the Free Expression Tunnel.”

Even some longtime Facilities staff don’t remember a time before the gum wall existed and plenty of students can supply dates to prove that it’s been here at least 20 years.

“I remember talking to my dad about it,” Andrew Finegin , a sophomore in mechanical engineering, said. “And my dad went here – he graduated in ’84 – and he said it was still here when he was here, so it’s been here for a while.”   Finegin found the wall gross, but rather humorous.

While it is a tradition, students debate the actual value of the wall. A few of them find it repulsive and unsanitary.

“Personally, I think it’s pretty unattractive, pretty disgusting—like a stain on our campus,” Zachary Cade, a junior in environment technology and recourse management, said. He advocates getting rid of the wall.

“I think it’s absolutely disgusting,” Sams said in agreement with Cade. “It can stay as long as it doesn’t get absolutely repulsive with stuff falling off on you.”

However, other students find it quirky and endearing.

“I think it is a valuable form of street art,” Garrett Zafudo , a freshman in English, said. “The first time I saw it I actually thought there were a whole bunch of gems on the wall and then I saw it was gum, but still, it’s pretty cool.”

“I like the big baseball mounds of gum that are on there sometimes,” Andy Joslin , a sophomore in computer science, said.

Other gum walls include one in Seattle, the Pike Place Market Gum Wall and one in California named Gum Ally, but their histories are muddy too.

“It’s fairly unusual—I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere else,” Colby said.