The president and a vice president of a Washington university were relieved of their duties... .
After the vice president admitted to defacing an art installation commemorating Japanese American victims of internment, the Seattle Times reports.
Gayle Colston Barge, Vice President of Institutional Advancement at Bellevue College, admitted to altering a description on the installation.
The installation depicts two Japanese American children in a World War II internment camp... and includes a description that mentions “anti-Japanese agitation” led by several Eastside businessmen.
The project was brought to the college just in time for the Day of Remembrance….
The same day President Franklin D.
Roosevelt ordered the forced removal and incarceration of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans.
In the aftermath of the incident, Barge reportedly apologized to the college community .
The defacement also spurred an investigation as officials believe that Barge may have instructed someone else to remove the reference .
The college’s board of trustees decided that it was in the university’s best interest to distance itself from both Barge and college president Jerry Weber.
According to the Times, over a fifth of Bellevue’s students and employees are Asian and Pacific Islander