FARMINGTON -- The student who installed a brief but controversial art display at the University of Maine at Farmington Tuesday by placing replicas of the American flag on the floor of a corridor in the student center said she wishes those who berated her had instead listened to her.

"I wish people paid attention to the project for what it was -- a social experiment to see who respected the flag," Susan Crane, 40, an education major and a special education teacher from Auburn said Wednesday.

"The thing is, I was not disagreeing with them," she said. "It broke my heart when I saw people walking on the flags. But these were not real flags and I had the right to do what I did."

The UMF College Republican chairman, Keith Mahoney, issued a statement Wednesday condemning Crane's project and calling it a "disgrace."

"To display such a thing as the desecration of the American flag is shameful. That flag is a symbol of everything this great nation is about," he wrote.

He also criticized the administration for allowing the project to take place.

"The flag of the United States is everything that our veterans have fought for. It symbolizes the freedom that men and women have lost their lives for and are fighting today to preserve," he wrote. "To put it on the floor in violation of United States Congressional Code is shameful and should be condemned, not promoted."

The Flag Code establishes advisory rules for display and care of the flag, including the prohibition of placing a flag on the ground. Although it is a federal law, there is no penalty for failure to comply with the rules.

The U.S. Supreme Court has twice struck down federal and state statutes prohibiting flag desecration, finding those laws infringed on the right to free speech and expression under the First Amendment.

Crane's project, done as an assignment for associate art professor Kate Randall, consisted of five large flags made of red tape and white vinyl with unattached stars scattered on a piece of blue plastic. They were placed in a winding pattern with room for people to walk around them. The project was approved by the administration.

Crane, the daughter of a 25-year military veteran who describes herself as a conservative Republican, said she wanted people to think about how they felt about the flag when faced with either walking over or around one placed on the ground. Most people avoided stepping on the installations, she said.

"The project was supposed be about respect versus disrespect," she said.

The art project was part of Michael D. Wilson Symposium Day on Wednesday where UMF students presented their undergraduate research and creative achievements in venues across campus.

The appearance of the flags Tuesday brought out angry veterans and groups of students, including members of the UMF College Republicans, who objected to flags being on the ground. Supporters of the project said it was a question of the Constitutional right of freedom of speech and expression.

One veteran, Charles Bennett of Farmington, risked arrest by campus and town police when he attempted to pick up the installation.

Bennett, the commander of the Franklin County American Legion, on Wednesday said he regrets he didn't challenge the police to see what they would do. Calls from veterans groups around state support him, he said.

"I should have had them arrest me," he said. "I am still fuming. I understand this was an art project but (Crane) should not have put those flags on the ground. The flag is sacred."

Strong reaction to the project did not surprise Randall, who said she assigns students to come up with ideas that take art out of the gallery and into the public.

She said she prepared Crane for the probability that she and her flag project would be attacked.

"There is no more powerful a sign than the flag in our culture," Randall said.

"The more we talked about it, the more upset Susan became about the idea of censorship and the stronger her convictions grew about freedom of speech and expression," she said.

Betty Jespersen -- 778-6991

bjespersen@centralmaine.com