A campus organization at Wright State University alleges that a board used to promote its activities was defaced late last year and that nothing has been done about the incident.
The Black Student Union uses a bulletin board in one of the tunnels leading to the Student Union. Organization members allege the word ‘black’ was removed from their board in November 2018.
The incident was discussed among members of the Black Student Union, Student Government Association and university administration.
Trenton Miller, vice president of the Black Student Union, said it was difficult to come to a resolution for the issue. A mass communication email was ultimately not sent out to the student community.
An email was meant to be addressed to the campus community, but it was ultimately decided against.
The defacement was not the first of its nature.
Incidents of racist promotions and inflammatory speech visuals have taken place at Wright State previously. Some incidents involved organizations that do not represent Wright State University.
In October 2017, former Chief Diversity Officer Matt Boaz sent a campus-wide email addressing such issues.“Twice in the last two weeks, Wright State has been made aware by members of its campus that inflammatory graffiti was scrawled on stalls in the campus restrooms,” Boaz said in the email.
More recently, an email was sent to all students informing them that posters from a white supremacist group were found on campus. An organization not affiliated with the university placed posters in “numerous unauthorized spaces around campus,” according to the email.
The organization was identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League, an American neo-Nazi/white supremacist organization, according to the email.
Moving forward, the Black Student Union wants the Wright State community to be more sensitive.
“We just want to be equal,” Miller said.
