A bulletin board in support of Black Lives Matter that was made by an Ohio University residential assistant was recently defaced in Sargent Hall.
We are troubled by some news we’re reporting today.
In an article on our website, a Post staffer reported that a bulletin board — made by an Ohio University residential assistant — supporting Black Lives Matter was recently defaced and partly torn down in Sargent Hall.
That’s not entirely to say that it was defaced because it had anything to do with the Black Lives Matter movement. Sadly, it’s sort of common for people to tear down notifications on bulletin boards in dorm buildings. Still, with the amount of contention on college campuses surrounding race relations, the anger and hurt surrounding the bulletin board suggests it’s time for OU students to sit down and hash things out face-to-face.
Boards describing the Black Lives Matter movement are a good start, but with so-called White Student Unions cropping up on campuses nationwide and supposed groups forming at the University of Cincinnati and Ohio State University, it’s best for OU to host a Campus Conversation as soon as possible so students might voice their opinions with one another in a civil manner.
The university has held such discussions before, but it certainly can’t hurt to host them on the fly as protests take place and comments are shot over anonymous apps like Yik Yak.
We’re not suggesting that a conversation is a cure-all — there are a lot of steps to creating a more diverse, inclusive campus. There just needs to be an open-ended talk between OU’s students so they might hear one another out before a mandatory program tells them they have to change their ways, regardless.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post's executive editors: Editor-in-Chief Emma Ockerman, Managing Editor Rebekah Barnes and Digital Managing Editor Samuel Howard. Post editorials are independent of the publication's news coverage.
