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LOYOLAN
EST. 1921
A student film goes beyond
the crosswalk with the
Straw Hat Man
Page 15
Shannon Kent plays a
balancing act between
the women's soccer and
softball teams
Page 24
VOLUME 94 I ISSUE 25
No Human Being is Illegal wall defaced
- Ruben Martinez,
English Professor
Caroline Burt | Loyolan
The wall, put up as part of No Human Being is Illegal Week, was vandalized in several areas. Before (left) and after (right) images of the wall can be seen above.
Debates over immigration
have been ignited as a result
of vandalism to wall.
Amanda Lopez, Ali Swenson, Sarah Litz
Asst. Managing Editor, Senior Editors
@LALoyolan
This week’s No Human Being is Illegal Week
was createdto foster a dialogue on immigration
— but the conversation has taken a turn. A
wall set up in Lawton Plaza on Sunday night
advocating for the rights of undocumented
immigrants has since been vandalized.
A Facebook post from a page belonging
to senior modern languages major Diana
Delgado, one of the students who helped
organize the week in her role as secretary of
LMU’s RESILIENCE, shared the belief that the
defacement occurred Monday night .
“I came up with the idea for the wall for a
reason. You leave it up, our message is there.
You tear it down [or] vandalize it, our message
is stronger," said Delgado in the post .
The Bias Incident Response Team (BIRT)
met Tuesday afternoon regarding the incident,
according to Lane Bove, senior vice president
for student affairs. A Community Update sent
by BIRT said, “BIRT encourages everyone to be
mindful of our core values of inclusion, respect
and diversity of thought.”
BIRT is a team of faculty and staff that
manages “institutional communication and
university-wide responses to incidents where
bias maybe a factor,” according to its website.
Following this update, President Timothy
Law Snyder addressed the community.
“Both incidents are under investigation,
and I join BIRT in observing and assuring
that Student Affairs and Public Safety
administrators are collaborating to ensure
that the University’s values of diversity and
inclusion continue to be observed during these
active investigations,” said Snyder.
He added that the biases are representative
of a need to maintain an open dialogue about
issues related to diversity or injustice .
“When these incidents occur in our
community, they shock us because they are so
out of character for LMU; we therefore must
confront them swiftly and decisively because
they do not represent who we are and who we
profess to be,” he said.
RESILIENCE is a student organization
devoted to promoting rights and providing
resources for undocumented immigrants on
campus.
RESILIENCE, along with MEChA de LMU,
Harambee and Black Student Union helped
organized No Human Being is Illegal Week,
which is meant to support immigration.
Delgado noted that the Tucson, Ariz.
Alternative Breaks group also helped plan the
week’s events.
“My immediate reaction as an optimist was
like ‘Yes! Ammo! Now we can use this.’ They
could not have given us better advertisement
for these events, honestly,” Delgado said.
“Everyone was talking about it because
everyone walks by Lawton Plaza, but when
they defaced it, everyone started sharing the
pictures. On all the pictures was our message .”
According to Department of Public Safety
(DPS) Chief Hampton Cantrell, “DPS has
launched an investigation and is reviewing
security camera footage and trying to find
witnesses.”
Chicana/o studies Professor Karen Mary
Davalos initially reported the incident to DPS
after students expressed concern for their
safety because of the vandalism and messages
on social media.
“These messages are threatening. No student
should be made to feel uncomfortable in his or
her home,” Davalos said.
Freshman film and television production
major Nicole Bryant shared how the
defacement was discussed in her Chicano
studies class.
“We talked about why this is such a relevant
issue, especially with it being here on our
campus,” said Bryant . “It really shows why that
wall is so symbolic and why students on our
campus are fighting to have awareness like that
on our campus.”
ASLMU president and senior finance and
economics double major David Tassone
explained ASLMU 's stance on the issue.
“ASLMU’s role is to advocate for student
organizations on campus, expressing their
ideas or positions as well as encouraging all
students to be informed and proactive,” said
Tassone. “Each student is protected by their
First Amendment right to freedom of speech,
religion, assembly, petition and the press.
ASLMU denounces acts of vandalism, expects
more from peers and believes in the dignity of
each human being.”
To provide a forum for the LMU community
to express their concerns, ASLMU will be
holding a “ Hearing of the Public ” in Malone 112
Wednesday at 12:40 p.m.
Sophomore communication studies and
theatre double major Bella Asali is a member of
MEChA de LMU who helped put up the wall.
“The wall was supposed to provoke people,
but not in a way that made them violent,”
she said. “It was supposed to incite this
call to action to do something, not to cause
anger within people and cause fighting. [The
vandalism] is disregarding the purpose of the
wall.”
English Professor Ruben Martinez took
one of his classes out to the wall to discuss its
relation to LMU’s Jesuit ideals.
“LMU needs to ask itself several questions. Is
there intolerance lurking beneath our identity
as a social justice school? Do people who hold
contrarian opinions feel there is no space to
speak out, leading to these kinds of hateful
outbursts ?” Martinez asked.
A solidarity vigil called “Remembering,
Recognizing, and Valuing the Dignity of all
Migrants” was held Tuesday night at Sacred
Heart Chapel, where LMU took a stand in the
face of intolerance.
Senior political science major Mauro Gomez,
president of MEChA de LMU, contacted
Spanish language broadcast networkUnivision ,
and was able to secure a news team to cover the
story and Vigil for a televised broadcast .
Delgado shared that there will be a solidarity
rally and demonstration on Friday at 1 p.m.
starting at Sacred Heart Chapel.
Caroline Burt | Loyolan
LMU came together in solidarity with immigrants at a candlelight vigil Tuesday night.
LMU'S THOUGHTS ON WALL DEFACEMENT
"... I feel like just the fact that
someone can come through
with ignorant views and just
mess up or deface something
that means something to a lot
of people and symbolizes
something so strong, it's just
upsetting. I don't know why
people do it."
—Edward Santiago, freshman
sociology major
"The people who put up the wall ...
were very public about their beliefs
and what they stand for. But, the
people who graffitied it with the
'Trump stuff were doing it in the
middle of the night. How good and
valid is their argument if they can't
even be more public about it? It's a
cowardly way to argue against the
people who made the wall."
-Sarah Leeper, freshman film and
television production major
“I think we really need to have a deep
conversation about the graffiti. My hope
is that we all acknowledge that one of
the core missions of LMU is social
justice and that debates and discussions
of social justice [are] not an easy
conversation."
-Professor Edward Park, Asian Pacific
American Studies
"We are all immigrants, and we
cannot forget that. The fact
that this wall was vandalized
just shows that some people on
LMU's campus are
opinionated, which I don't
necessarily see as a bad thing.
However, I think the way they
voiced their opinion is
egregiously inappropriate."
-Gabe Blake, junior
entrepreneurship major
Graphic by Xian Wong | Loyolan
