Some time last week I received an e-mail from my resident director in Towers. The subject line simply read “Graffiti in the North Tower.” I had only reached the subject line and already I was loathing what I would find in the body of the e-mail.
Essentially, the e-mail detailed, someone vandalized the 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th floors of the North Tower with images and language that was offensive to multiple racial groups, genders and sexual orientations.
A residence-wide meeting would later reveal that not only was the material so offensive that it was immediately removed, but that campus security had been notified as well.
The act in itself is disappointing, but what I found even more disappointing was that we are, after all, college students.
Yes, we do live in that often confusing phase that places us between being a minor and an adult, but I would hope that we would, particularly in times like these, err on the side of being adults.
Now, I am not saying that college is not a time to have fun. By all means, enjoy yourself as much as you can while you are at the University of Denver. Being reckless and insensitive on the other hand, that seems like something that everyone can do without.
Whether or not it was a student from DU or not, this kind of gesture reflects poorly on the school and hinders progress toward what we all strive to be: a diverse and accepting community.
No, I was not a member of any of the groups that were mentioned in the vandalism, but I was still affected as a member of the community. I was concerned not only for those groups the vandal mentioned, but also for the trust in the community as a whole
Events like these ones are the ones that have the potential to ruin the trust that people have worked hard to earn for each other, and all for an act that was juvenile and ignorant.
If the DU community can put instances like this behind us, it would make right now the perfect time to show each other that we can all act more like the accepting and diverse adults we should all attempt to become.
We must, therefore, be even more determined to earn the trust, respect and acceptance of our fellow students, teachers, and faculty. We owe this not only to ourselves, but to all who consider themselves a part of the DU community.
