Painted on what once was a blank wall, brown and white cracked hands now cradle the earth. They are the international hands that touch our world.

Where the white walls once were in the Douglas B Wing is now senior art education major Jeff Brubaker’s artistic footprint. In red letters, his footprint reads, “Unity in Diversity.”

“For me, it’s about coming together,” said Raymond Tourville, chair of the foreign languages and literature department.

With his mural that spans five stories, Brubaker reopened the International House, or the Douglas B Wing, Wednesday afternoon in the Douglas C/D cafeteria.

Brubaker illustrated the same theme on each exterior doorway on each level of the Douglas B Wing. Red, white, yellow, blue, black and orange international flags and posters line the interior halls. Each hall has its own theme: Asia, South America, Africa, Europe and North America.

In the lower corner of the North American mural, a bald eagle sits perched, wings folded. The Statue of Liberty stands as the piece’s focal point.

Brubaker spoke to the crowd later in the ceremony and said he had been painting the murals off and on for about a month.

“I like to think about it as a sort of footprint that I leave after I am gone – after I have left DeKalb,” Brubaker said.

Deborah Pierce, the keynote speaker and executive director of International Programs, said the international community is an active agent in everyone’s lives, pointing out the British Petroleum station for gasoline, the swiss Nestle corporation and the Chinese for making her Liz Claiborne heels.