(Newswire.net— September 5, 2020) — Murals from the WWII era that were painted more than 60 years ago are to be removed because there are too many white faces on them, Russia Today reports.
Apparently, The University of Rhode Island considers murals to lack “sensitivity to today’s complex and painful problems.”
“These murals were a snapshot in time, but the images no longer represent who we are today and where we are going in the future,” Kathy Collins, the university’s vice president for student affairs, said on Thursday.
Collins added that the school decided to remove the murals because the management had received student complaints that “the persons painted and depicted on the wall are predominantly white.”
The murals were painted in 1953 by Rhode Island University professor and World War II veteran Arthur Sherman. He painted scenes such as soldiers returning from the war and a graduation ceremony.
The memorial union was completed in 1954 and was named so because it was financed by supporters of the university in memory of the soldiers who died in the war.
University of Rode Island Assistant Director of Communications David Lavallee told Campus Reform that the move is disrespectful for the WWII veterans, and that “there are only two scenes depicting military personnel.”
“The frescoes have no military focus even though they were painted to convey student life as soldiers returned to the URI at GI Bill,” Lavallee claimed.
The university administration said the school had less than 2,000 predominantly male Caucasian students in 1954. The school now has more than 17,000 students, of whom 57 percent are women and 21 percent are non-white.
Collins said that the system has changed and that the University of Rode Island is more diverse now, so the murals are no longer acceptable today, referring to the “tragic murders” of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The university must look at “systems that exist in this institution that may not represent who we are today, and represent a true diversity of URIs today,” Said Collins.
“It’s terribly upsetting” to see the murals go,” said Sherman’s daughter, Pamela Sherman, in an interview with Providence ABC affiliate WJAR.
“It’s an opportunity for it to show a timeline, a progression and a change over decades, and we never want to forget our past,” She said.