Unity Quilt expresses sympathy on campus

  CHRIS BACKLEY/Daily Bruin Fourth-year film and television
student Victoria Marie Irigoyen looks at the
plaque that describes the quilt.

By Marjorie Hernandez
Daily Bruin Reporter

To show solidarity and support with victims of the Sept. 11
attacks, students presented a visual symbol of peace to the
chancellor Monday.

The six-by-six-foot Unity Quilt, which displays a white dove
surrounded by red, black and electric blue, felt-square pieces will
be displayed at the Kerckhoff Art Gallery for the remainder of the
week.

Thanking students for their gift to the university, Chancellor
Albert Carnesale said the quilt exemplifies the university’s
spirit and three-fold objective to ensure the safety of the UCLA
community, foster tolerance, and to provide a forum on the
implications of the attacks.

“(The quilt) conveys to the victims and families how we
all suffer with them and that we are all one family,”
Carnesale said to the group of 30 people at the event. “It
not only demonstrates creativity and beauty, but extraordinary
thoughtfulness.”

The circular design formed by the square felts symbolizes the
ripple effect the attacks have had on the nation, said fourth-year
business economics student Kriththika Vasudevan.

The quilt provided students who were unable to attend the
memorial gathering in front of Royce Hall a few days after Sept. 11
to voice their sympathies with the victims.

“When we watched it on TV, it was so distant from
us,” said third-year psychobiology student Rohini Reddi.

“Even though we didn’t lose someone we love, as
human beings we felt something,” she continued. “We
wanted to show people out there in New York and even around the
country that all of us are in this together, and that we support
them emotionally.”

The quilt was first displayed in Westwood Plaza during South
Asian Heritage Week back in October, where students wrote messages
of peace and sympathy on blue post-it notes attached to each square
felt.

Some students quoted famous historical figures such as Mohandas
Gandhi, who said, “Hatred injures the hater, never the
hated.”

Those who did not have the opportunity to post a message on the
quilt may now sign the guestbook which stands on a podium next to
the quilt.

Pat McLaren, division manager of student support services for
the Associated Students of UCLA, said the Unity Quilt’s
design allowed anyone to contribute to it, not just those who
actually know how to sew.

“It allowed people, whether they had any sort of needle
skills or not, to immediately give input and to be able to have it
be a part of a unifying effort for the students,” McLaren
said. “This has an immediacy to it that was necessary in a
situation like this.”

A permanent location for the Unity Quilt has not been
decided.