Ball State Housing and Residence Life Partners with Student Action Team to Host Boxes and Walls

The Housing and Residence Life Association collaborated with the Student Action Team (SAT) to organize an event called Boxes and Walls for Unity Week at the LA Pittenger Student Center on January 20.

Ball State has hosted Unity Week since 1980, and 2022 marked the celebration’s 42nd annual week. This year was the first year that Boxes and Walls joined the roster of festivities.

The event was hosted by Sean Sheptoski, Assistant Director for Housing and Residence Life Student Leadership. Sheptoski has worked at Ball State for six years and wanted to host Boxes and Walls to allow students and faculty to experience different kinds of oppression, discrimination and stereotyping.

Because Ball State is a predominantly white institution, Sheptoski stressed the importance for students who do not experience discrimination and oppression on a daily basis to have access to information so they can better understand what their families are going through. peers.

“It’s also good to host this event during COVID because it’s a passive event. It’s not crowded and there’s an open space for people to walk around freely,” Sheptoski said. “One of the main reasons we chose to hold the event this year was for COVID purposes.”

Housing and Residence Life was joined by SAT to organize the event. Elaine Quirke, SAT faculty chair, said her section of the tour targets issues such as menstrual poverty and education about menstruation.

“Menstrual poverty is the lack of education about menstruation, and also the lack of access to feminine hygiene products,” she said. “Disparities in education, and the shame and stigma around [menstruation] has always been a problem, especially for menstruating people. Honestly, it’s not talked about a lot, so I think it’s really relevant right now.

Unity Week is set to end on January 22 with Late Nite’s “Unify the Nite” event starting at 9 p.m.

Contact Sarah Olsen with comments at snolsen@bsu.edu. Contact Jamie Strouts with comments at jdstrouts@bsu.edu.