CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — Outdoor art installations are nothing new at Austin Peay State University in middle Tennessee.
With frequent “yarn bombings” and new sculptures showing up around the Trahern Building, which houses the department of art and design, students and faculty alike are used to seeing brightly colored pieces scattered throughout the main grounds.
But Monday, an installation of six rainbow-colored nooses hanging from a tree caused an alarm unseen by previous pieces.
Austin Peay campus police are currently investigating the incident, which university officials have referred to as “deeply disturbing,” but is believed to be a display meant for an introductory sculpture class that was pre-approved by an instructor.
University spokesman Bill Persinger said that someone called university police at 5 p.m. on Monday. Police immediately took the nooses down out of concern that they were meant as a hate symbol, as reported by Associated Press.
Persinger also said that the head of the art department is interviewing a student about the display.
Efforts have been made to reach the art professor believed to have approved the project, but there has been no response to interview requests.
In Monday's statement, President Alisa White said, "This incident is deeply disturbing and is hurtful to our University community. Regardless of the intent, the display has no place on our campus. I am saddened, and I am sorry for the hurt and offense this has caused and want our students, faculty, and staff to know that it will not be tolerated.”
In the last few years, several nooses have been found hanging at several universities.
The most recent of these cases include a noose left in a tree at Duke University and two former fraternity brothers placing a noose and a Confederate flag around the neck of a statue honoring the first black student at the University of Mississippi.
Austin Reed Edenfield and Graeme Phillip Harris would later go on to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of using a threat of force to intimidate African-American students and employees because of their race or color, as reported by the Washington Post.
While this particular use of the noose was reportedly meant as an art project with no intent of intimidation, the symbolism of nooses as a form of threat and hate crimes caused several members of the community to share concerns online about both the racial and LGBTQ implied threats of the installation.
Images of the nooses were shared on Twitter and Instagram, and many were sharing concerns online.
The statement from the university said there were several complaints about the display, and removed them for concerns of "hate symbolism" and the potential impact on campus.
But even with the obvious concerns of a display of nooses, the art project being removed raises questions of freedom of speech on campus.
According to the university's Student Rights policy, students have the right to peaceably assemble in accordance with federal, state, local and Austin Peay regulations. At this time it is unknown how this applies to art displays on campus or if the project met all regulations on campus.
However, the nooses also could fall under the obscene materials clause of the Students’ Rights and Responsibilities that states “the distribution and display of obscene materials is prohibited by the laws of Tennessee (Tenn. Code Ann. 39-17-902).” The clause defines materials that the average person would find the work “depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct; and the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”
Contributing: Jake Lowary, The (Clarksville, Tenn.) Leaf-Chronicle; The Associated Press. Follow Autumn Allison on Twitter: @Aallison25
