This past week, UNR was the the victim of hateful graffiti, including swastikas. Today, students and teachers came together to paint over the hate with love.
The swastikas, which are no longer visible, are covered with hearts, inspirational phrases, or just silly cartoons. Grad student, Cullen Wegman, was in the middle of painting a Fredric Douglas and said, "I'm just trying to bring some love through my art to kinda overpower some of the hate that has been going on in this hallway recently."
Pictures of the swastikas have been circulating around social media, and have since been covered up with new pictures. The stairwell has been a space the university intended as a 'celebration of artistic expression,' somewhere where students can come and hang out, do homework, paint on the walls and express themselves through art. While officials say painting hateful messages is not illegal, the university does not value such speech.
"I recognize that there could be some ambiguity here, so our argument is sure you can paint your swastikas here, but we are going to come back the next day and paint our symbols of peace and love," said Debra Moddelmog, the Dean of Liberal Arts at UNR.
We reached out to the UNR police department, but they were unavailable for comment. They are, however, still looking for the person or persons responsible. If you know who may have painted the swastikas, you're asked to call university police at 334-2677.
