Earlier this week, the Board of Multicultural Student Affairs at Providence College, a Rhode Island-based private college, reportedly placed a pumpkin on a table inside their office and encouraged students to stab it to relieve stress. To make things more interesting, they called it “Trumpkin” after President Donald Trump.
The display was first made public by the Providence College Republicans in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
Yikes. This is how the Board of Multicultural Student Affairs at @providencecol encourages students to relieve stress (via anonymous source) pic.twitter.com/VvvzVbpKjb
— Michael J. Hout (@michaeljhout) November 2, 2017
A student at Providence College, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, told The Daily Wire that while the pumpkin was situated inside their office, it was very much visible from the outside and that bypassing tours or anyone going to the college’s Alumni Hall Cafe could see it.
The student also suggested that the administration revealed a double standard in its response (or lack thereof) to the Trumpkin incident. Prior to the Trumpkin incident, a Snapchat image was shared around campus of a student dressing up as New Orleans-based rapper Li’l Wayne with a caption displaying the n-word. While the administration sent out several lengthy statements denouncing the inappropriate Halloween costume, and even planned a campus-wide teach-in in response, the administration provided no public denunciation of the violent Trumpkin display.
While the administration made no public statements, several deans met with representatives of both the Board of Multicultural Student Affairs and the Providence College Republicans. Even though the administration is conducting an investigation into the incident, the student was not impressed by the administration’s management of the situation.
“The point I want to make is that this isn’t about a stupid pumpkin,” the student told The Daily Wire. “This is about administrative hesitation to listen to the ideas and suggestions of conservative students on our campus and on campuses across this nation, and the normalization of violent attitudes against those who ask questions of authority. The ‘Trumpkin’ is just one of many stories I can tell about the double-standard set against normal students and in favor of those who devote their time to left-leaning causes.”
At the time of publication, Providence College administration still has not publicly addressed the Trumpkin incident in the same manner that the racist Snapchat rightfully earned.