In the Silverbell Room in the La Paz Residence Hall, Julie Leos, senior community director, stood in front of a crowd of about 35 residents. A resident helped her hang a large sheet of white paper that read, “”I am excited about Black History month!”” Leos then took a Confederate flag and taped it under the poster. A hush fell over the room.

“”This is racism,”” Leos said. “”That’s what that is. We can sit and argue about what this flag might mean to different people, but when something as blatant as this happens, I can say that it’s hateful.””

The flag, which had the words “”southern pride”” written under it, was taped to the door of Alon Robinson, a La Paz resident, sometime on Feb. 9, hours after she had written a message about being excited about Black history month on her whiteboard attached to the door.

“”For someone to put that on my door like that, right in my face, it’s as bad as if they had just burned a cross on my front lawn,”” said Robinson. “”This whole situation makes me feel angry and sad. This flag is a symbol of racism, and I can’t even explain how you feel in a situation like that.””

“”For someone to go out of the way to bring someone else down, they must really hate themselves,”” added Dylan Farella, a pre-business freshman and La Paz resident.

At this moment, no one has been implicated in the incident, but to Leos that was not the desired outcome of Monday’s meeting.

“”This meeting doesn’t have a solution,”” Leos said. “”It doesn’t have an answer, and we are not looking to find who did this. That’s not our goal. What we want to do now is come together as a community so we can move on from this.””