Color of Love held a town hall meeting Tuesday to discuss the Iowa State University Police Department (ISUPD) violence and campus safety at Iowa State. 

The meeting, led by Color of Love members Endi Montalvo-Martinez, Lyric Sellers and Izabela Banegas, also featured a discussion on the goals of Color of Love moving forward and the importance of advocating for community for students of color. 

The meeting was open to all students and organizations to have an open discussion on race-related issues affecting students at Iowa State. Some organizations invited to attend included the Black Student Alliance, Al Exito, the African Student Association and Latinx Student Initiatives. 

After Color of Love discussed the goals of its organization and the agenda of the meeting, attendees were invited to participate in a Menti survey to send in answers to questions about campus safety and suggestions for moving forward following the injury of Dariq Myles by Officer Frankie Contreras in August. 

Members of Color of Love also listed off the demands of the organization for Iowa State administration and ISUPD that were placed in and around the Armory during their protest Thursday.

Montalvo-Martinez, a senior in healthcare management, spoke on the feedback Color of Love received from the survey.

“I feel like, especially with the Menti survey, it just reaffirmed what we already knew at Color of Love: that students don’t necessarily feel safe, that sense of safety, from police,” Montalvo-Martinez said. “There’s other ways to invest in a holistic safety system that addresses our needs and concerns better than what ISUPD does.”

Montalvo-Martinez also discussed the importance of community for students. 

“It’s more that connection and that sense of community that makes us feel safe,” Montalvo-Martinez said. “Having the ability to help people and cultivate these conversations where people can kind of unlearn that thinking that our sense of safety comes from police but instead from having that sense of community.” 

Sellers, a sophomore in communication studies, said she believes the meeting gave the organizations a better idea of how to move forward with action plans and advocacy.

“I know we wanted to be intentional with having this, so we were able to organize based on student feedback and not necessarily what we think is best, but what’s best for the collective,” said Sellers.

Sellers also shared key points she heard from the Menti survey and the student discussions. 

“I think a big takeaway was that community is what really makes students feel safe here on campus,” Sellers said. “People feeling safer when they had better relationships with staff and students and peers, but also, I think it just reiterated the fact that we need a new system because there was a lot of people that said that police presence doesn’t make them feel safe.” 

Montalvo-Martinez and Sellers said Color of Love plans to continue its advocacy efforts and call for Officer Contreras’s dismissal from ISUPD.

Color of Love meets from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. every Tuesday at 2485 Lagomarcino Hall.