As renovations begin on the second floor of the Student Services Building Addition, students discover that the pride wall remains — for now. Student Affairs plans to replace the pride wall with a glass wall.
After UTD staff left the access door unlocked on the temporary white wall in front of SSA 12.471, a UTD student, who requested anonymity, discovered that the pride wall was still in place. Associate Dean for Student Engagement Initiatives Kim Winkler told Retrograde staff that the removal of the wall was part of Student Affairs’ plan to carry out renovations throughout the second floor of the SSA and that the pride wall area was just the start.
“Pretty much this entire area is going to be renovated,” Winkler said. “We are trying to leave some of the spaces open because we’re still hosting orientations here. So we can’t block off all the areas just yet until orientations are over, but then as soon as they’re done, then those areas will also be blocked off.”
Student Government has been working with Student Affairs since late April on a redesign project for the second floor of the SSA. On May 4, SG hosted a reimagination session in which students were encouraged to give the university feedback as to what they would want to see in a renovated SSA. Winkler said that part of that feedback led to plans to replace the pride wall with a see-through glass wall.
“This all came from the students,” Winkler said. “Maybe one of the submissions you aren’t aware of required the wall’s removal, but that is what came from the competition.”
SG said they were not aware that renovations would involve the eventual removal of the wall.
On July 1, Dean of Students Amanda Smith emailed the nine participants awarded monetary prizes in the reimagination session to let them know that renovations would soon be underway and that the ideas of the students would directly shape the direction of the redesign.
“This project reflects your vision, and we look forward to seeing how you use the space once it opens,” Smith wrote. “Also, a huge thank you to Student Government for sponsoring the event and ensuring our students had this opportunity to influence this space!”
On July 3, a wall was built roughly eight feet in front of the pride wall to separate students from the ongoing construction. Boxes full of tiles from Roppe flooring and bags of concrete were stored between the white wall and the pride wall.
The start of construction coincided with a week-long online hate campaign led by far-right influencer Chaya Raichik — who runs the Libs of Tik Tok account. In a Letter to the Editor, incoming masters student David Wayne Blackman claimed responsibility for bringing the wall to the attention of Raichik. Winkler, however, pushed back on the idea that outside pressure caused the removal.
“This has like nothing to do with outside pressure of any sort,” Winkler said. “It was all from ideas from that competition.”
Students at the four remaining freshmen orientations will be met with the white wall and signs which read “your far-out ideas at work” as construction continues.
“The timing it’s just unfortunate,” Winkler said. “I don’t — I know that’s not probably what you want to hear, but that’s how it happened from that competition.”
On July 4, students protested the white wall with chalk and their own makeshift flag outside of the SSA. By the morning of July 6, all such protest material was removed.
Neuroscience senior and SG President David Baker said the minimum the university could do would be to provide a replacement if the wall was removed.
“I think the immediate reinstatement of this art piece — or another installation of a very similar sort — is the very basic minimum that they could do,” Baker said. “Past that, I think they need to communicate with students more. They need to get student input on these kinds of situations, especially when it pertains to student speech and student expression.”
When asked whether the university was considering the installation of a replacement wall during renovations, Winkler said the chances of that would be slim due to the limitations set by the 88th legislature’s SB 17.
“What’s difficult is that we have to abide by this law [SB 17] — and we had nothing to do with those laws. It wasn’t even the UT system, it was the state of Texas — which says we cannot do this,” Winkler said. “Those laws decide. So, it’s not a UT system decision, not a UTD decision.”
This is a breaking news story. The Retrograde will provide additional details as they emerge.