Abdul-Azeez Ahmad — a fourth-year in landscape planning — puts up the installation Oct. 24, reading “‘Play the game, push back, keep putting stuff on the walls’ – Mack Scogin” in the stairwell of Knowlton Hall. Credit: Reilly Ackermann | Asst. Campus Editor
In the main stairwell of the Knowlton School of Architecture, students encounter bare concrete walls underneath dim fluorescent lights as they make their way to class.
If they take a closer look, however, they may see traces of students past.
Knowlton’s stairwell was historically filled with artwork left by students past and present. But in fall 2023, all preexisting drawings and statements were removed from the passageway after a pro-Palestine message was added to the wall, per prior Lantern reporting.
Sarah AbuDakar — a fourth-year in landscape architecture and vice president of the Student Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects — said because Knowlton is intended to support and hone students’ voices, she viewed the stairwell as the “inside and the brains” of various academics. She said she remembers when the drawings originally came down in autumn 2023, recalling the scraping and drilling of the concrete as “traumatic.”
“I don’t want to overplay it, but it was just kind of very vivid and traumatic in a way that all of our work, and all of the students’ ideas and creativity, was just kind of being wiped away,” AbuDakar said.
Following the incident, former Knowlton director Dorothée Imbert said in a Dec. 1, 2023 email that cameras monitoring the stairwell were installed over the following winter break. The walls were sanded down to remove all student artwork, and a sign reading, “This wall is not for art,” was added to the area.
Chris Booker, a university spokesperson, said in an email the decision to “prohibit chalking and graffiti aligns with established university policy, which prohibits chalking indoors, on vertical surfaces and buildings, and with anything other than water-soluble, sidewalk chalk.”
When asked why other forms of graffiti were left on the walls prior to the pro-Palestine message being written, the university did not comment.
Now, approximately a year later, Knowlton students are rallying together to reignite the tradition of self-expression.
Abdul-Azeez Ahmad, a fourth-year in landscape architecture, and AbuDakar said they created an installation alongside peers to combat student censorship at Knowlton.
This installation consisted of two large pieces of brown butcher paper, which students across Knowlton were invited to add to, whether it be through drawings, doodles or messages.
The paper included messages such as, “These walls hold power, let them speak,” “Free Palestine” and “Keep Knowlton Weird,” along with recreations of doodles present in the stairwell before being taken down.
Ahmad said over 30 students participated in the project’s creation, which he officially installed in the Knowlton stairwell Oct. 24.
Knowlton students gather to add messages and drawings to the installation. Credit: Courtesy of Abdul-Azeez Ahmad
After returning to campus in autumn 2024, Ahmad said he wanted to resurrect the tradition but didn’t know where to start. Inspiration struck him following a Q&A session featuring the architects who designed Knowlton Hall — Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam — that took place Oct. 23 inside Knowlton Hall, he said.
Ahmad said during the Q&A, when asked about Knowlton being an educational tool in and of itself, Scogin said, “Play the game, push back, keep putting stuff on the walls.”
Ahmad said Elam then followed this line of thinking and said, “People have been writing on walls forever.”
Elam confirmed these statements in an email to The Lantern and said her own remarks were made regarding “the universal idea of marks on walls as a form of communication.”
Scogin’s statement, Elam said, was made in the context of architecture students “using walls as an armature for the presentation of work,” with the wall as a “neutral stage for the full range of architectural propositions, from the mundane, to the brilliant to the outrageous.”
Elam said though she and Scogin “do not endorse any politically charged position or encourage graffiti as an effective form of communication,” architects nevertheless hold personal power when it comes to their work.
“The architect has enormously powerful tools to work with to address societal issues and human well-being,” Elam said.
AbuDakar said after hearing Scogin and Elam share their views on Knowlton, she and Ahmad were inspired to create the installation highlighting student work and the student body to emulate the graffiti’s impact.
The project was a testament to student expression within Knowlton, AbuDakar said, and her peers’ participation punctuated that sentiment.
“This project is meant for the student body,” AbuDakar said. “It’s meant for Knowlton. It’s not meant for anyone’s personal gain or interest. This is because we feel like we need to express ourselves as students at Knowlton, and giving that space and coming up with it together is just one way to solve that.”
Organizers found out the installation was removed Nov. 5 without their knowledge, Ahmad said.
“It’s, like, not surprising, but it also is surprising that [the university] just kind of like keep[s] sweeping things under the rug no matter what,” Ahmad said.
Ben Johnson, a university spokesperson, said in an email that staff removed the installation “in accordance with the university signage policy.”
The university’s signage standards state posting signage is “limited ONLY to designed open posting boards (inside) and kiosks (outside).”
The old graffiti had been on the walls since Ahmad began his time at the university, he said, and was an aspect of the building that inspired many students who traversed the hall.
“There’s always been graffiti, and I think it was a fun thing,” Ahmad said. “Especially us in Knowlton — like architecture, landscape architecture majors — we work really long hours. So, sometimes it was fun to be so exhausted, and you’re so tired, and then you go into the stairwells, and then there’s someone that wrote, ‘You got this!’ on the walls and other motivational things. It was a cute aspect.”
Now, AbuDakar said walking through the stairwell is an entirely different experience for students, as it feels “like you’re being watched” due to the installation of cameras.
Dan Hedman, a university spokesperson, said in an email the only preexisting cameras in Knowlton prior to the stairwell installation were located in KSA Café and “some library space” in the building.
The removal of the graffiti opened several students’ eyes, Ahmad said, because it made them realize they had to collectively organize in order to continue expressing themselves.
“I thought Knowlton was super inclusive; I always thought we were always advocates for free speech and for having difficult conversations,” Ahmad said. “And I think that was, like, learning about the Palestinian exception and the exception of free speech when it comes to issues of Black and brown people [was] harrowing.”
AbuDakar said she feels the graffiti’s removal essentially meant “erasing who Knowlton is.”
“Knowlton is built off the students, and the students embody that space, and for [the university], erasing the graffiti and our work, it just seemed like we didn’t exist at that point,” AbuDakar said. “I think it showed that there was no communication with faculty, to students, with [Ohio State] to Knowlton students, about why this was happening and why they were getting rid of our work, and our speech and our right to express ourselves.”
The previously mentioned Dec. 1, 2023, email sent to Knowlton students by Imbert said the Knowlton administration would “continue to strive to make Knowlton a more inclusive environment that allows for multiple voices and different identities.”
“I believe that the multiplicity of voices and identities is best served by respect for our community and our communal spaces,” Imbert said.
Though the email stated the Knowlton Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access Committee was “looking for alternative ways” to give students an outlet for expression, AbuDakar said she feels students were never given a comparably meaningful option.
Ahmad carries a poster created by Knowlton students filled with drawings and messages to hang up in the Knowlton Hall stairwell. Credit: Reilly Ackermann | Asst. Campus Editor
“Us students are taking it into our own hands to get back to where we were,” AbuDakar said.
Ahmad said students will have their voices heard “regardless of whatever amount of suppression the university decides to enact,” and students should be able to “have some power in the university they pay for.”
“We will find workarounds to have our voices heard,” Ahmad said. “If they’re not going to let us write on the walls, we’ll write on a piece of paper and put the paper up on the walls. If they don’t allow that, we’ll figure out another workaround until the university decides to start having a dialogue, a proper dialogue, where they actually listen to students and students have their voices be heard.”
AbuDakar said she wants the university to understand the stairwells are a “shared space” among students, used to express ideas and comments, and they shouldn’t be “guarded up.”
“Knowlton is a building that is supposed to highlight and foster new ideas,” AbuDakar said. “It’s supposed to highlight student work and student ideas. And taking that away, where else is it going to go? Is it just a block of concrete, or is it really highlighting our student body?”
Ultimately, Ahmad said the censorship of student speech is not only a Knowlton problem but also reminiscent of an issue the country is facing at large.
“This is a part of a greater suppression of academia, students and faculty,” Ahmad said. “And I think that’s kind of why it’s so important to fight against it. At the end of the day, it’s not about us, it’s not even about Knowlton, it’s not even about Ohio State; it’s bigger than that, and I think that is something we have to recognize.”
