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Student activists interrupt DePauw Dialogue keynote speaker BY SAM CARAVANA, MADISON DUDLEY AND EMMA MAZUREK
A congregation of over 40 students, dressed in black and holding signs, held a silent demonstration during the speech of DePauw Dialogue’s keynote speaker Wednesday morning. Social rights activist, author and educator, Vernon Wall, was just under 40 minutes into his keynote address to DePauw students, faculty and staff, when the students walked into the Neal Fieldhouse, holding signs and standing in silence. Some of the students carried signs that had various phrases on them. One read, “DePauw. Assimilation is Not the Answer! 4 International Students” and “DePauw = Unsafe #TiredBlackWoman.” The opening of the third DePauw Dialogue was kicked off by Vice President of Academic Affairs, Anne Harris. “If you are here, you are contributing,” Harris said. When Wall took the stage, he began with light anecdotes of his childhood and broke the audience up, asking people to find someone they did not know, talk to them, and then answer the question “What makes you unique?” and to talk about an experience when
Student activists march across East College lawn chanting “No justice,no peace.” The activistsw dressed in black and marched from the Green Center for the Performing Arts through Neal Fieldhouse and other locations serving food to DePauw Dialogue attendees. SAM CARAVANA / THE DEPAUW
they were marginalized. Wall began to discuss his seven concepts for creating a more inclusive and caring community. He had only made it to his first point, “Individual Identity and Group Membership,” when student activists silently lined the bleachers and held up signs. “I knew that there could be something,” Wall said of the demonstration. He was not formally informed about the demonstration before it hap-
pened. “The visual that happened here was much more than what I would have been able to do than being on stage and speaking, and I think that’s powerful,” said Wall. “The best thing that can happen in a room is what happened here.” When Wall pointed out the signs and activists during his presentation, some in the audience began to clap. Senior Penelope Ramirez spoke to the audience, saying, “This is
not a show, do not clap for us, that’s patronizing.” Senior Paris Murray went to the side of the stage and asked Wall for his microphone. “We are not supposed to be clapped at because we are peaceful and doing this the ‘right way,” said Murray. The keynote speech was ended by the audience being encouraged to physically stand with the protesters. “This is not enough,” Wall said, and encouraged those in
attendance to take a more active role in campus inclusion. Wall released attendees to go to their breakout sessions early to discuss the events that took place. Renee Madison, senior advisor to the president for diversity and compliance, had mixed feelings about the demonstration. “There are so many people on campus who worked so hard, and the effort CONTINUED ON PAGE 2