Engineering students looked like tiny specs at the top of Prospect Point, more commonly known as K-Hill, this weekend as they cleaned and painted the white letters for engineering honor society Tau Beta Pi.

The society polishes the letters every fall, Ryan White, senior in mechanical engineering, said.

"It's kind of fun," he said. "It's an interesting perspective on the top of the hill, and you feel like you're helping the community."

Members of the organization climbed down parts of the hill to clean up weeds around the letters.

Some wore belts with ropes attached so they could be harnessed while standing on the letters.

Others mixed the whitewash paint that was tossed onto the letters.

Maggie Lock, senior in mechanical engineering, said the project has been a Tau Beta Pi tradition for years.

She said the letter K was built in 1921 by an engineering honor society, and the S came in 1930.

At the time, the letters stood for the abbreviation KSAC, Kansas State Agricultural College.

The original plans were to construct the rest of the letters, but the university's name changed to Kansas State College, and finally to Kansas State University.

Richard Hayter, dean of the College of Engineering and chief adviser for Tau Beta Pi, said hee does not anticipate the addition of the letter U to the hill.

Hayter said the part of the hill where an extra letter would be constructed is too unstable and rough.

With the funding it would take to prepare the terrain for construction, it would not be practical, and the letter would likely deteriorate quickly.

Hayter said the Manhattan Fire Department brought a water truck and donated all of the water needed for the project.

He said the county also helps with the project by picking up trash that is left after the cleaning of the letters.

Lisa Linck, occupational safety officer, was at the hill with the students and said it was the first time a safety coordinator has been involved with the project.

"It's on a trial basis. I'm looking at different types of fall equipment," she said.

Hayter said he knows of no injuries that have occurred while students have been working on the project.

"Just a lot of really messy people," he said, while students with paint-covered hair and clothes poured paint on the letters.

White said Tau Beta Pi has about 80 members, all juniors and seniors in all programs of engineering. He said there are 30 initiates added in the fall and 20 added in the spring through an application process whereby people are invited based on their grades.

He said the group is involved with community service and has two to three projects it does each year.

The group had to reschedule the painting for this past weekend because of poor weather conditions last month.