Avery Boulware, Campus Carrier News Editor

Freshman Joanna Hill held a walk this morning to restore unity on campus. Hill spoke Wednesday about her inspiration and hope for the walk, which is a final project for her BCC 100’s colloquium class “Walking a Line,” taught by Brad Adams, associate professor of fine arts. 

“The class has been a lot about the art of walking and how walking is important,” Hill said. “We’ve taken walks in the class and done reflections on them.”

Adams took his class on walks to various locations around Berry and the Rome community, including Oak Hill, Rome’s Labyrinth and Martha Berry’s grave. The final project for the class simply had to pertain somehow to walking. 

“I thought it would be interesting to do a walk on campus as a peaceful demonstration,” Hill said.

While she did not directly organize the walk as a response to the chalkings, Hill says they are definitely related. 

“I didn’t even connect it when I was thinking about it,” Hill said. “But after I had the event in mind, I thought about how, because of the election and the chalk, people at Berry kind of got divided, so (the walk) would be a unifying experience.”

Hill said she did not market the event as widely as she would have hoped, but still hopes that students will show up to peacefully demonstrate.

“I don’t think it’ll be too large of a turnout, which is fine.,” she said. “I’m just happy if people see me there, by myself, holding a sign trying to promote equality.”

Besides the Black Lives Matter gathering in front of Hermann Hall several weeks ago, there have been few demonstrations on Berry’s campus. Hill hopes that her walk will set a precedent for peaceful speech in the future.

“It is a positive message, trying to make people on Berry’s campus aware of the diversity on campus, the need for equality and to unify us after some of the struggles we have faced in the past couple of months,” Hill said. “I don’t want there to be any negativity at the event. I think the community will respond well to it.”

Hill encouraged students to make signs supporting minority groups  and wear clothing that may represent these groups. She designed the walk to go from Morton-Lemley to Krannert.

“I intend for this to be a very peaceful event,” Hill said. “I just want it to be a positive and fun event.”