Dear Members of the Holy Cross Community,
It is my regret to inform you of a discovery concerning a multitude of hate symbols on our campus. A student recently reported seeing swastikas in both Dinand Library and St. Joseph’s Chapel. We laud this student for their bravery in standing up and alerting us to these instances of hate. We encourage you, the Holy Cross community, to do the same if you bear witness to any grotesque language or symbolism.
I must say these particular findings cut deep to my core. Sadly, these symbols of hate have been living under our noses for decades now and, due to the culture of hate on our campus, they were never brought to our attention. I took a trip to St. Joseph’s Chapel and to Dinand Library after the report came forward to see for myself; not that I would ever doubt the brave report of a student, but simply to better acquaint myself with the problem at hand. As I looked carefully, I began to see those execrable, abhorrent symbols of bias that had evaded our sight for so many years. It was apparent –– the very architects our great college decorated the walls of those buildings with swastikas. Now I must admit, we did not know the architect, and many of you may state we should simply assume the design was created with no malintent. However, we cannot assume the motives of the architect, so we can only infer that the design came from a place of pure hate. Further, I know these buildings were constructed before the rise of Nazism in Germany, but that does not excuse the fact that they promote a hateful ideology. The context surrounding the advent of these particular symbols does not matter. They are hateful and they do not belong on our campus.
If you are able to stomach this venture, I invite you to catch a glimpse of these wretched stains of racism in the stone trim of each building. The administration will, for the near future, place professional staff members throughout both buildings for anyone who finds themselves in the buildings and needs them as a resource.
While we have been ignorant to them for years, we will not let this hinder us in our quick expulsion of these images.
Firstly, Fr. Boroughs has consulted with the Board of Trustees and concluded that – as part of an ongoing investigation of hate on campus – we will hire a third party investigator, who has no prior connection to the school, in order to conduct a thorough review of all the current buildings on campus. A new committee, The Committee to Review Architectural Prejudice (CRAP), will review the report he will generate. CRAP will then decide a future course of action depending on how many other instances of swastikas, or other hate symbols, have been systemically engraved upon our campus buildings. Further, he will chair an in-depth review of the plans of the ongoing construction on campus and expunge any instances of hate the architects may have included. CRAP will review this report and then determine whether the construction may continue.
But, I know, since this investigation may take years, this is a distant solution to an urgent problem. So in addition, we are offering a series of more immediate solutions. We understand that they too may be unsatisfactory in their nature; hate runs deep in our community and we cannot expect to completely expunge it, but we will try our best.
So, as a second course of action, tomorrow we will be hanging “Hate Has No Home Here” signs over each and every obscene instance of hate, both in Dinand Library and in St. Joseph’s Chapel. We know this measure will not eliminate the symbols of hate, but it is the best we can do in the meantime.
Thirdly, the Counseling Center is opening their lunch hours every day of this coming week and cancelling all their previously scheduled appointments to, along with CRAP, accommodate support groups for those who feel threatened, or otherwise unsettled, by these recent discoveries. Please know that your feelings are valid. Simply because we, as a campus community, are just now realizing that there, in fact, are longstanding symbols of hate in our facilities, does not mean we aren’t entitled to be fearful; our collective blindness does not excuse this threat. Though we cannot connect these abominable adornments to targeted physical attacks, this does not mean they aren’t acts of violence. The white men who designed these buildings, in fact, committed this act of violence against the Holy Cross community and continuously commit acts of violence against us all until their symbols are removed. We will not let this violence continue into the future, which brings me to the fourth course of action.
Active December 1st, we will be ordering the Construction of the New Luth Recreation Center to cease (until the aforementioned CRAP review is completed) and all efforts will be redirected towards the demolition of the buildings containing the hate symbol. Both St. Joseph’s Chapel and Dinand Library will be completely removed from our campus. In addition, any records, mentions, pictures, etc. of these facilities will be eliminated. All students will, voluntarily, turn in their phones and other electronic devices (laptops, tablets, etc.) to ITS, where their content will be reviewed to assure they contain no information that recalls or could promulgate the hate entrenched in these buildings. If such information is found, the student’s phone will be, with his or her consent, wiped clean of all memory. (Students who have not yet turned in their phone, or other device, for review will have a hold put on their enrollment and their dining plan. Similarly, students who have not consented to have the memory of their device(s) wiped, if the review deems necessary, will incur the same punishment. Note: our first intention, as always, is the free choice of action on behalf of the student.)
In place of these former temples of hate, we will leave signs declaring, proudly: “Hate Has No Home Here.” These signs shall be installed during a vigil run by the Chaplains’ Office here on campus, and we intend for them to remain permanently. We invite you, our student body, to create your own artistic works inspired by your experience of this hate – whether that be visual art, a piece of music, a play, or anything your creative intuition wills – to be displayed or performed during these vigils. Please take this opportunity to just feel. Further, we will allow those minority students, whom this particularly effects, to cast a brick, or any other memento they so desire, from either building into a ceremonial bonfire, celebrating their liberation from these monuments of hate.
I know many of you may not find this an adequate response; there is always more we can do. I acknowledge this: we are imperfect. And I particularly want to apologize that these atrocities have, for so long, gone unnoticed. I will be more vigilant in the future. Because of this, we invite any and all of your suggestions moving forward as to how we can better address this culture of hate that runs so deep on our campus. Please join me in the hope for a better future.
Sincerely,
May King-Issues
Dean of Generation and Redress of Minute Affairs
