Students taking classes housed in Vilas Hall, including those in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, received an email Monday alerting them of “an incident of bias and racism” that occurred a few weeks ago in Vilas Hall.
The attached letter from Vice Provost and Chief Diversity Officer Patrick Sims detailed the vandalism of a poster for the Department of Theater and Drama’s production of "TEA."
According to Sims’ letter, the vandal defaced and targeted the Asian-American women on the poster.
Sims also called to attention the severity of such incidents, which he said violate the campus community’s fundamental values, and petitioned students to do something about them.
“I call upon you, our students, to do this work, to stand up for your friends and classmates, to recognize the profound impact that vandalism targeting specific marginalized populations can have, to intervene when you can, and report situations,” Sims said in the letter.