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Part of Art student admits to hanging 'White Only' and 'Black Only' signs on campus, September 18, 2015

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Signs, posted for class project, caused outrage Wednesday
GABRIELA JULIA AND MARLEE TUSKES
SENIOR NEWS EDITOR AND ASST. NEWS EDITOR

COURTESY OF MICAH OLIVER

Wednesday afternoon, students called University Police
about a "White Only" sign posted outside a men's
bathroom in Clem ens Hall.

A UB graduate art student has admitted to hanging . the 'White Only'
and 'Black Only' signs seen in Cle­
mens Hall Wednesday as part of a
class project.
Ashley Powell, a graduate fine arts
student, while standing in front of a
group of more than 70 students at
a Black Student Union (BSU) meet­
ing Wednesday evening, admitted to
hanging the signs.
Powell declined to be interviewed
but submitted a statement to The
Spectrum Thursday night. The full
statement can be read on ubspec­
trum.com.
"I apologize for the extreme trau­
ma, fear, and actual hurt and pain
these signs brought about," Powell
said in the statement. "I apologize if
you were hurt, but I do not apolo­
gize for what I did. Once again, this
is my art practice. My work directly

involves black trauma and non-white
suffering. I do not believe that there
can be social healing without first
coming to terms with and express­
ing our own pain, rage, and trauma."
Powell said she might be open to
an interview eventually.
A university spokesperson re­
leased a statement to The Spec­
trum Wednesday• night that the uni­
versity is continuing to review the
matter through appropriate universi­
ty policies and procedures.
Powell, who is black, posted the
signs for a project for her Installa­
tion in Urban Spaces class, a 400-lev­
el arts class that required she make
an installation in an urban area that
involved time.
The Spectrum reached out to the
professor of the class, Warren Quig­
ley, but he did not respond by the
time of press.

Starting at around 1 p.m.
University
Po­
Wednesday,
lice received 11 calls from students
stating they saw "White Only" and
"Black Only" signs in Clemens Hall.
Chief of Police Gerald Schoenle
said the officers removed four signs
and checked the building for any
others.
Many students took to social me­
dia to voice their opinions. Sever­
al students said the signs disgust­
ed them while others were simply
shocked that this was happening on
campus. Many students called the
signs · racist while some even called
them acts of terrorism. Deidree
Golbourne, a junior African Amer­
ican studies major, said the signs
caused cultural trauma and her initial
reaction was that she didn't feel safe.
CONTIN UED ON PAGE 6

Art student admits to
'White Only'
and 'Black Only' signs
on campus
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

"If you're walking and see the sign, the
first thing you think is, 'Wow, not our uni­
versity,'" Golbourne said.
BSU held a special open meeting for the
general student body Wednesday in place
of its regularly scheduled meeting. The
meeting was designed to give students an
opportunity to discuss the signs.
Students voiced their outrage throughout
the meeting. Powell, whose art class joined
her in attendance at the meeting, stood up
and admitted to hanging the signs.
As Powell spoke, some students left the
meeting crying and one slammed a door as
he walked out.
''I apologize for hurting people, but I
won't apologize for what I •did," Powell
said to the group.
Powell said she was trying to reflect her
own personal experiences with racism with
the art project. She said she has been called
derogatory racist terms and dealt with po­
lice intimidation.
Most students were shocked that Pow­
ell is black herself and hung the signs that
evoked segregation and that she believed
the signs were "OK" because it was art.
"The first thing you do when planning
something like this is seeing if it's ethi­
cal or not and that was where the line was
crossed," said a student at the meeting.
Eric Turman,a UB graduate, went to the
BSU meeting not knowing what the topic
of discussion was.
"AfterI got a gist of what happened,
no one understood the problem," Tur­
man said. "Everyone attacked [Powell] for
awakening us and acknowledging the fact
that white people didn't care about the
signs and we are still hurt."
Chelsea Whitney, a freshman biomed­
ical sciences major, said she was appalled
the signs would be .hung in 2015. Whitney,

who is white, said no matter Powell's inten­
tion, there was no excuse for the signs to
be put up.
"Even white students were offended,"
Whitney said.
Some students were also upset they
didn't receive an alert from the university.
"They sent out an alert about a possi­
ble gunman on campus so I don't know
why police couldn't send out an alert about
this," said one student at the meeting. "We
didn't know it was an art project, it could've
been an act of terrorism."
A UB Alert was ·sent out Monday after
• a student reported seeing a man drop what
looked like a gun in the Student Union.
• The suspect picked up the could-be gun
and exited the building with it, according
to the report. No suspect matching the description was found.
Powell confirmed she didn't ask for per­
mission from UB officials before posting
the signs.
Before Wednesday's meeting ended, Je­
fry Taveras, a junior psychology major, had
some final words.
"As an artist, I respect you as an artist,"
Taveras said regarding Powell. ''But you
should know racism isn't art, it's a reality
and traumatizing."
BSU e-board members said the discus­
sion about the signs would go on for a few
days. Members have taken to social media
with the hashtag #WeWantAnswers, hop­
ing for a response from administration.
email: news@ubspectrum.com