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University of North Texas staff dismantled student protest art installation and power-washed chalk messages at CVAD Gallery

On the morning of March 24, 2026, University of North Texas facilities staff, directed by university technician Jonathan Figueroa and acting on instructions from the university's lawyers, dismantled and discarded a student-organized outdoor protest art installation outside the CVAD Gallery in Denton, Texas. The memorial, curated by the student group NOISE, had stood for nearly a month in response to UNT's February 2026 removal of artist Victor "Marka27" Quiñonez's ICE-critical exhibition. Staff also power-washed sidewalk chalk messages from walkways where the university's own policy explicitly permits chalking.

Jurisdiction
Texas
Location
Denton, Texas

Abuses documented

Actors

  • University of North Texas
  • Jonathan Figueroa (Facilities Technician, University of North Texas)

On the morning of March 24, 2026, University of North Texas facilities staff dismantled and discarded a student-organized outdoor protest art installation outside the CVAD Gallery in Denton, Texas, and power-washed sidewalk chalk messages from surrounding walkways. Crew members identified themselves as university facilities employees and stated in an audio recording obtained by the North Texas Daily that they were directed by their supervisor, university technician Jonathan Figueroa, and that "the lawyers got involved" — a reference to the university's Office of General Counsel — and instructed the crew to "come out here and wash it down."

The installation had stood for nearly a month as a memorial and protest response to UNT's February 2026 removal of artist Victor "Marka27" Quiñonez's ICE-critical exhibition "Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá" — a prior act of censorship separately archived in this record (entries/2026/02/10/ tx-censorship-of-protected-expression-53660f1e.yaml). The memorial was curated by NOISE, a coalition of UNT students, staff, and alumni, and included a Mexican flag, images of the Scrappy mascot displayed upside down, and individual student artworks, among them pieces by senior studio art major Allison Wentworth. The chalk messages removed included text reading "STOP SILENCING STUDENTS YOU ARE MEANT TO PROTECT" and "CENSORSHIP IS A SYMPTOM OF INSTITUTIONAL RACISM."

Faculty member Alexandra Barnett learned of the disposal around 8 a.m. and fashioned tools to retrieve artwork from the dumpster in the faculty parking lot, finding pieces "torn and crumpled in a separate bag." NOISE leader Sierra Dominguez described the memorial as "violently taken and ripped apart." UNT's own written policy states that "chalking on University sidewalks is permissible"; the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression noted video footage confirmed that at least some of the removed chalk was in sidewalk areas where the policy explicitly allows chalking. Students staged a silent sit-in protest at a March 27 faculty meeting where President Harrison Keller addressed the removal, invoking Texas Senate Bill 37 to argue he was accountable to politically appointed regents rather than the university's own free-expression commitments.

Why we recorded this

Public university students retain First Amendment rights to protest on campus, including through art installations and chalk messages in areas the university itself designates as available for such expression. On March 24, 2026, University of North Texas facilities staff, acting on direction from the university's lawyers, tore down and discarded a student-organized outdoor protest art memorial and power-washed chalk messages criticizing the university's earlier suppression of an ICE-critical exhibit. Targeting student expression for physical removal because of its viewpoint — while the university's own written policy permits sidewalk chalking — is an egregious form of viewpoint-based censorship at a public institution bound by the First Amendment.

Sources

  1. 'Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá' memorial art removed by university staff — North Texas Daily primary accessed July 26, 2026
  2. University of North Texas cancels art show — then power-washes protests — Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression secondary accessed July 26, 2026

See also