Over the last two weeks, several community members reported two pickup trucks displaying Confederate flags driving through Gambier. They said people in the back of the trucks were shouting at pedestrians, according to Director of Campus Safety Bob Hooper.

Hooper said no one has been able to make out what the passengers of the truck are saying. He also said four or five people called in to report seeing the two trucks on campus, but he said nobody has reported seeing the trucks since he sent a student-info email on Oct. 27 warning students about them. In an interview with the Collegian, he urged anyone to contact Safety if they see the trucks again.

Hooper said he did not believe this was a planned act of intimidation but rather that the drivers and the occupants of the vehicles were just driving through Gambier.

“I think it was spur of the moment,” Hooper said. “In my mind had it been an intimidation factor, they would have kept coming through.”

Vice President for Student Affairs Meredith Bonham ’92 said this was not the first time people have shouted at students from vehicles at Kenyon.

Members from the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment.

This is not the first time community members have spotted Confederate flags in the areas. Last year, shortly after the election of President Trump, President Sean Decatur said he spotted Confederate flags hanging from porches in Mount Vernon, which he said made him uncomfortable. Confederate flags are still hanging from some houses in Mount Vernon.

Tommy Johnson contributed reporting.