Calissa Hagen
Reporter
Nolan James slept soundly inside his dorm room not knowing what was occurring on the other side of the door. His roommate, Kendan Bendt, was on his way back to the room. As he approached the door he noticed someone had vandalized their whiteboard.
The two juniors live on the third floor of Hinderlie Hall, and James is the Arts and Culture editor for The Mast. They had written, “I’m gay,” on their whiteboard right outside their door, as well as their names and pronouns. That night someone had added something else to their board. This included hateful speech like the acronym, “kys,” meaning, ‘kill yourself.’
Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) has been known by students as a safe space for individuals of the LGBTQ+ community, especially for residents of Hinderlie. Therefore this was especially shocking to the community. PLU prides itself on being accepting and the learning communities within Hinderlie focus on this as well.
In the aftermath of finding the whiteboard vandalized, the duo decided to make a Campus Safety report online and then walked down to the Campus Safety office because they felt unsafe staying in their room. James said that Campus Safety was helpful during the entire process.
“Campus Safety started sending people to patrol our floor in case of any further incidents,” James said. “They wrote up a report, and were really comforting and kind to my roommate and I throughout the process. We were quite shaken at the time and they let us come into the office with them and watch as they filled [the report] out.”
There is no certainty behind the culprits, as there are no cameras in the hallways of the hall, but hall residents have some speculations.
“We don’t know who did this, but we’re guessing that it was a group of middle schoolers who’d broken into Hinderlie that day,” James said. “It’s strange that they’d target our room on the third floor specifically, but I can’t imagine someone living in Hinderlie being so hateful.”
Many other Hinderlie residents have displayed their connection to the LGBTQ+ community on their whiteboards including rainbows, pronouns, and phrases such as, “Be gay do crime, Be trans throw hands.”
Several Hinderlie residents told The Mast that they have always felt safe and accepted in the community, and therefore they believe the vandalism came from someone outside of the Lute Dome.
“As a queer person myself I feel very welcome and able to be myself in Hinderlie since it is the hall for creative expression,” said one floor resident. “There are many people who are queer, and even if not queer themselves, they make us feel safe.”
Throughout J-Term and the beginning of spring semester PLU has had some issues with non-PLU students entering buildings they should not have access to.
Some incidents include the Anderson University Center fire alarm being set off and the library being vandalized by middle schoolers. There have also been issues with the public using PLU library computers without abiding by the former mask mandate. The newest of these incidents include middle school age children getting into residence halls. The library has since been closed to the public and limited to PLU card swipe access at certain times of day.
Recently, Hinderlie and Hong residents also received an email from the RA director, which said: “The RA staff has had two separate incidents in Hong and Hinderlie of people being in the hall who are not members of the PLU community in our halls unattended in the last two weeks.”
Residents of Hinderlie and Hong halls were also sent an email by community director Sharon Templeton, who asked them to, “lock your door anytime you leave your room to ensure nobody can access it and to not hold the door open for others when entering the building unless you explicitly know them AND they are a resident of the building.”
With increased awareness of this issue, PLU residents have been asked to report anything unusual, including seeing non-PLU students in card-accessed areas, and if any incident does occur to call campus safety.
“Any PLU student who actually would be so hateful has no place on campus,” James said. “Unfounded hatred like that is a form of evil that cannot be tolerated. I don’t believe in retribution, but I think it’s important not to let people’s so-called ‘personal beliefs’ slide.”
