It was a quiet construction. A white tent was raised on the Campus Common on a calm Sunday afternoon in late March, and underneath it the Wall was carefully cemented together during the next few days. Then, one morning, a small hum of students swelled near the fortification; by lunch, larger groups began to venture near, and the yearlong project of the Wall committee was finally making its stand.
As the week progressed, people came to the Wall to write down stereotypes they have encountered both off and on campus. They dropped the absurdities into a box, and Wall staffers later scrawled them on the increasingly crowded edifice. Co-creator Neha Singhania ’08 said that the Wall was erected to call out stereotypes that endure in the social consciousness, but are rarely openly addressed. “The issues must be tangible,” she said. “Calling people’s attention to a visual is an attempt to ground [the issues] in the Denison experience.”
“It’s received a lot of positive feedback, and negative feedback comes from the people who don’t understand,” said Kathleen Moyer ’08. For a few days, however, the dialogue persisted in a peaceful fashion.
In a ceremonial conclusion, a crowd cheered on as the Wall—and its stereotypes—were smashed to pieces. “We could break a million walls, but if the force that drives these beliefs is not destroyed, then there is no meaning whatsoever,” said Romero Huffstead ’08 in the closing speech. “The greatest thing about stereotypes is being able to prove them wrong every day.”