8 April 9 - 15, 2026 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents O n Feb. 16, donning their mourn- ing black, dozens of students and faculty at the University of North Texas grieved the spontaneous, unexplained closure of the art in- stallation Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá (Not From Here, Not From There). The installation, in- spired by the immigration crisis and the art- ist Victor Quiñonez’s childhood as an undocumented immigrant in East Dallas, was scheduled to remain on view at the Col- lege of Visual Arts and Design (CVAD) until May. On notecards, the crowd wrote obits and opined, then tucked them under votives surrounding a Mexican flag, forming a shrine. Dozens of roses were piled atop the flag, marking the installation’s gravestone. Days later, more than a hundred marched through the campus in an organized protest titled “Art Walk Justice for Censored Artists.” They hoisted their own art into the air: a painting of an indigenous man with his tongue between scissor blades, graphic-de- signed re-creations of the viral image of Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old boy who was detained by ICE agents in Minnesota on his walk home from school, and biting messages aimed at the university. Students, disen- chanted with the school’s silence surround- ing the closure, remained as loud as visual artists can be, tacking their work to the build- ing’s side and memorializing the installation, ventingh anger at the school they once knew. Even after open letters, condemnation from the artist, student and faculty pro- tests and national media attention, the university remained silent. The school still has not released a formal statement. But actions speak louder than words, and on the morning of March 24, school staff ripped the artworks off the wall of CVAD, crumpled it into several duct-taped plastic bags and discarded them as trash. Fishing through rotting banana peels, red pen-marked assignments and the other makings of a university campus trash bin, a group of students at CVAD salvaged the crumpled remnants of their months-long peaceful protest display. Carrying the bags to a safer space than the art building foyer, the students, feeling censored again, un- folded the torn, tattered scraps to protect their political artwork. The closure of Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá was the first domino in a ripple that seismically changed the UNT campus. Once known for attracting a liberal student body and offering them a safe space for expression, the campus has, under new leadership, shifted its atti- tude. Extended silence and avoidance by staff, the closure and merger of nearly 70 pro- grams, many of which fall under CVAD, and the destruction of memorials have created a fearful society on campus, leaving students and faculty to wonder whether UNT is a place for them or against them. Silent Staff and an Even More Silent Faculty B rian Scott Campbell has been a studio art professor at UNT since 2018, teaching drawing and painting classes. At the time, the university was widely recognized for its lean left, employ- ing a diverse staff who taught myriad courses aligned with the sociopolitical at- mosphere of the time. But over the last few years, the public higher education ecosystem has shifted na- tionally under mounting political influence, declining enrollment rates and high staff turnover. When Gov. Greg Abbott nixed state-funded diversity, equity and inclusion offices and services, following President Donald Trump’s lead, UNT was accused of being overly compliant. The compliance was ordered by the university’s new presi- dent, Harrison Keller, in his first semester on campus. Since then, the president has only further marred the university’s liberal reputation and weakened trust between fac- ulty and staff. “Unfortunately, the biggest, most glaring mistake made, and one that is my primary focus, is the gallery exhibition that was cen- sored,” Campbell said about Keller’s term thus far. “ … But then there were mistakes that were made following that big one, right? All of that accumulates. The lack of transparency is what has really grown disaf- fection.” Campbell says the complete avoidance of the issue and lack of accountability leave the faculty to speculate, and the conditions on campus don’t lend themselves to positive imaginings. “The attitude of the faculty that I’ve spo- ken to is they’re just left to speculate,” Campbell says. “They’re left to feel that like they’re not in good hands and that decisions and everything that’s taking place right now is done with a very authoritarian top-down approach. They’re making no effort to change the perception of that.” On March 18, after more than a month of avoiding the faculty senate, the presi- dent called a meeting to speak about staff concerns. The meeting occurred just as massive cuts to programming were being implemented, including the consolidation and termination of courses within CVAD. The school also announced it would shut- ter the master’s programs for women and gender studies, media industry and criti- cal studies, linguistics and early childhood education. “There are going to be decisions, there are going to be views that people are going to be offended by,” Keller said during the meeting, according to the North Texas Daily. “Our responsibility is not to make sure that any given individual is not offended. Our re- sponsibility is more to make sure that we can engage respectfully in dialogue when we disagree, and productively.” Campbell’s program isn’t one that’s been affected, so far as he’s been told. But the lin- gering problem on campus is that no one has been told anything, leaving untenured fac- ulty wondering whether they’ll have jobs in the fall. “There is a general atmosphere of un- ease, restlessness and disaffection. That is deeply felt,” Campbell says. Worse than the animosity and fear divid- ing faculty and staff is the additional burden borne by professors who are doing their best to comfort students as they look for some- one within the institution to hold account- able, Campbell says. “In this moment, our responsibility as faculty is to step in, to support our students, to do the remedial and reparative work that leadership has neglected and to offer as much transparency as we can because that’s something that we have not been af- forded,” he says. “That is what our students deserve.” A source, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, leaked a package of emails and texts from President Keller, obtained through an open records request. In the package obtained by the Observer, Keller ▼ Culture Steve Visneau STATE OF THE ART As fears of censorship mount, UNT faces an identity crisis. BY ALYSSA FIELDS Artist Victor Quiñonez poses with his artwork: a melting paleta infused with handcuffs.
