Paint the Rock

Pictured left to right: Sam Thiel ’26, Maddie Brown, Emmy Saarnio ’27, Lii Whitaker ’28, Leo Powers ’26, Shane Beckwith ’26, Trevor Arrigoni, Anna Loy, and Jack Calcut.

Students and faculty from the Department of Mathematics gathered at the rock in the southwest corner of Tappan Square for the department’s Paint the Rock event on May 7, 2026. The rock was primed white the night before, and participants spent the day covering it with mathematical objects, graphs, knots, equations, and theorems. Lii Whitaker’s “Oberlin Math 2026” design featured representations of 15 wallpaper groups. A few passersby also stopped to contribute artwork of their own.

The event brought together majors, minors, faculty, staff, and friends of the department for a celebration of mathematics.