Campus ‘inclusivity posters’ feature Trump ignoring dying Puerto Rican child

The questionable poster is one of 25 that students found hanging across campus as they returned from Thanksgiving break.

The artwork is part of an “Inclusion Project” for an ESU graphic design class, taught by Professor David Mazure. The project “is intended to continue the dialogue and conversation by providing a public resource that challenges students, faculty, staff, administration, and visitors with the many facets of social inclusions,” according to a campus-wide email sent by Jo Bruno, ESU Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, and obtained by the Washington Examiner.

Other posters feature “messages of acceptance,” including interracial and same-sex couples and a poster that states “labels don’t define you.”

“Mazure believes it’s an especially timely project given the deep divide in the country over political and social issues,” ESU Insider reports.

“We typically do a poster project every semester so I thought it was a great way to engage the ESU community with an important social issue as well as to teach my students the necessary elements of poster design,” Mazure said. “I really want this to spark awareness and possibly start deeper conversations about issues of inclusivity on campus. Every university should be having these discussions.”

The controversial poster, hanging in the front of Stroud Hall – an academic building on campus – has students questioning how the publicly funded university can support such a partisan and crass political message.

“These posters literally isolate any Republican/conservative student on this campus. We talk about unity but exclude a group entirely,” Matt Deegan, president of the ESU College Republicans, told the Washington Examiner.

“[M]ultiple times different faculty or staff have told me I’ve had to change things I’m doing or questioned certain things to make sure it does not appear that the university is making a political statement,” Deegan said, explaining the hypocrisy at hand.

One student participating in the project, sophomore Chelsea Bacon, believes that pushing students outside of their comfort zone will help students “come together.”

“People need to push themselves out of their comfort zone sometimes and step back and look at what’s happening,” Bacon said. “Especially now it seems like we’re more divided than ever and it’s time to come together. We’re trying to start small, with first our class coming together, and then our school, and then the community around us.”

Despite the fact that the Inclusion Project is a part of an ESU class and that all 25 posters were paid for by the ESU Provost, ESU President Marcia G Welsh insists that the messages on the posters are not an ESU position.

The Washington Examiner reached out to ESU for comment and clarification on the university’s official stance but did not receive a response in time for publication.