“I wonder why…”

Daniela Detore
@DanielaDetore

As quickly as it appeared, it disappeared — but not until after it made an uproar among students.

On Tuesday, Oct. 22, a Community Arts project was assembled in the Union to serve as an interactive component of their semester long lesson-plan. The project featured familiar chalk-board panels that vertically covered six windows, side-by-side, on the first floor of the union, accompanied by a horizontal panel that stretched the entire length of the interactive piece that read, “I wonder why…” 

In between the chalk-board panels were taped plastic cups filled with chalk sticks, suggesting students to finish the sentence.

At first, students wondered why, “Cheney makes my stomach go crazy,” and why, “We pay too much for textbooks,” and other common curiosities.

They wondered why, “The Wi-Fi sucks.” 

There the project stayed from roughly 2 p.m., remaining relatively untouched, until 7:30 p.m., where a crowd of students and student-workers of all years surrounded the piece and either contributed or just watched the once innocent curiosities shift. 

Students wondered why, “White people use the ‘N’ word,” and why, “Rapists are allowed on campus,” why, “The school loves to sweep everything under the rug,” why, “Mental health isn’t taken seriously.” 

And they wonder why, “I was raped.” 

“Me too!”; “me too,”; “me too”; “Me too” — 

“They didn’t believe me.” 

“Me too,” 

“Re-tweet,” 

“Do you hear us now?”

“We exist.”

They wondered. 

They wondered why, “Sexual predators are allowed to stay on campus,” why, “I was told at RA training that we should expect one student to commit suicide each year. That should NOT be an expectation.” 

They wondered why, “Things keep happening again,” and why “No one returns the love I give.” 

They wondered and wondered.

They wondered why, “College cares more about money than students lives,” and why, “I’m not enough.” 

“You are,” a student wrote back.

A consistent crowd of students remained in front of the piece reading the same anonymous  notes, over and over. Students wondered how it turned to this, or who started this. They wondered and wondered. 

And now they wonder where it went. 

Photo Courtesy Daniela Detore