Vandals marred an art project hours after its instillation Thursday, but instead of taking the exhibit down, Memorial Union Gallery leadership is using the incident as a learning opportunity.

The interactive project, titled “Shouting Range,” asked passersby to place color-specific stickers on potentially offensive words or phrases. Red stickers stamped on or nearby a term meant the person thought the word was offensive; green stickers denoted that the person thought the word to be acceptable or inoffensive.

Examples of words or phrases include “redneck” and “Black Lives Matter.”

By 10:30 p.m. Thursday, after being installed at 5 p.m., the project had tens of new stickers “plastered” on the piece.

Many stickers were placed over existing dots, as the suspects apparently tried censoring opposing opinions.

In particular, the Black Lives Matter segment had nearly 50 red stickers placed on it, with preexisting green stickers covered up.

The project has since been “delayed,” with stickers removed for the time being.

A notice was placed near the exhibit Friday morning.

“The current state of this display is due to the actions of several individuals who took the time to erase other’s opinions,” the notice reads. “This is not reflective of NDSU or the student body as a whole.

“We apologize for the inconvenience while we deal with this vandalism.”

By Sunday, a new project and notices had been assembled.

For more on this story, follow the link to ndsuspectrum.com.