Last November, I wrote my third full length article for The Chronicle about how meaningful the Peace Pole in Pine Grove leading to the College of Arts and Sciences buildings was to me. Now I write an overwhelmingly disappointed opinion article about the removal of this same Peace Pole.
While I’m sure Quinnipiac administration has their reasons for this removal, I am honestly not interested. That Pole meant something to many people, myself included. Coming from a high school that also proudly displayed this message of equality and harmony, I felt comforted by this mirrored value in my university. Coming on campus this semester and seeing all of the advancements and renovations was exciting, but when I saw that a harmless display of acceptance was removed, leaving nothing but a sad patch of dead grass in the ground, it broke my heart.
Who is this benefitting? What good can possibly come from literally removing peace from our campus? For the next few months, this place is our home. While the freshmen may not realize what has been taken away, the rest of us know that our campus has been robbed of something good.
Quinnipiac likes to call itself “diverse.” While frankly that is just not true, many races, religions and cultures are in fact represented on campus. One would think that in an effort to highlight this encouragement of diversity, we wouldn’t throw away a pole reading “May Peace Prevail On Earth” in six languages. One would actually think that Quinnipiac would make a pretty big deal out of it.
Okay, so maybe there were structural issues with this particular pole. There is a website where you can very easily order
a replacement. Why wasn’t this done? It’s definitely not because the university has insufficient funds. Additionally, there are several ethnic clubs on campus that I am sure would have been eager to help support the funding of a replacement.
For the record, I am a caucasian female with no obvious ethnic flares. If I find this disheartening, I’m positive others do as well. I understand that no harm or offense may have been meant by this, but I simply can’t keep this feeling of unease to myself. Although a part of our community that represented coexistence and cohesiveness is gone, I just hope the peace itself can remain.
