Oona Goodin-Smith

Oakland University

A wall of sandbags constructed last Thursday and emblazoned with pro-Trump slogans, built by the Kappa Alpha Order chapter at Tulane University in front of its house, was dismantled on Tuesday. The rhetoric was a joke, the fraternity says, but many aren't laughing.

According to a statement emailed from the campus' chapter to USA TODAY College, the premise of the wall, built Thursday as part of the New Orleans school fraternity's yearly tradition to have pledges erect a barrier, was meant to "mock the ideologies of a political candidate":



"Our chapter takes KA’s values of gentlemanly conduct very seriously. This respect extends to every student of Tulane and every member of the broader community. The comment was written on a makeshift wall on our private property, normally used for a game of capture the flag, to mock the ideologies of a political candidate. This had an unintended negative effect and as such it has been dismantled.”

However, students like freshman Khristyan Trejo, a member of student Latino organization GENTE, say it was offensive.

"This really pushed it overboard for students of color on campus," says Trejo. "It's one thing to see an endorsement of Trump on campus — that's freedom of speech — but it's another to see the wall when it's a symbol of racism and oppression. As someone with family across the (Mexico-United States) border and knowing people are murdered at the border every day, for (KA) to treat it as a joke and try to justify their actions with satire — well, it's not a joke to students of color."

"It's all just plain disgusting to see this happening in the U.S., the 'melting pot' of the world," Tulane freshman Claire Cruz tells USA TODAY College. "As a Latina on a mostly all-white campus, I am constantly seeing little acts of racism and white privilege, but this huge act was a slap in my face. Not only do I feel as if my safety has been threatened, but also my humanity is being completely written off."

It's unclear who took the wall down, but various campus multicultural organizations, including Students Organizing Against Racism (SOAR), protested it, and asked others to, as well.

In addition, a petition to "stand against the wall" posted on change.org circulated on social media.

According to the organization's website, the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity, founded in 1865, cites American General Robert E. Lee, perhaps best-known for commanding the Confederate Army in the Civil War, as its "spiritual founder." In 2001, the national KA established a law distancing itself from use of the Confederate flag, and in 2010, it announced a ban on its members wearing Confederate soldier uniforms to its traditional "Old South" ball.

A Tulane University spokesperson emailed the following statement to USA TODAY College: "Every spring the Kappa Alpha (KA) fraternity erects a wall around its chapter house, which is on private property. The leadership of KA's local chapter says that adding Donald Trump's name and slogan to this year's wall was done in order to satirize the candidate's campaign promise, not to show support for him. The wall has since been dismantled."



Oona Goodin-Smith is a student at Oakland University student and a USA TODAY College breaking news correspondent.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.