Down And Dirty: Vandalism On Campus Spreads
With Contributions from:
Mariya Mubeen
Editor-In-Chief
editor@thegrcurrent.com
In a highly politicized climate, even the college is not safe from targeted messages and has fallen victim to political vandalism campus-wide.
Messages such as “#feminismworsethancancer” or “Black Lives Matter = Hate Group” have appeared in places such as the men’s bathroom on the first floor of the Student Affairs Building. It has also appeared in the art critique space on the second floor of Salish Hall, this being the most recent.
The President of the college, Dr. Suzanne Johnson, was caught unaware of the incidents that occurred until approached for a statement. “Any speech that reflects hatred, prejudice, and discrimination is not acceptable,” Johnson said.
An email sent out to Fine Arts Division faculty pertained to this incident in the critique space. The Current attempted to reach out to the Fine Arts division for a statement. However, they refused to comment for fear that it might incite more vandalism on student work.
In both the men’s bathroom and the critique space, the vandalism is written small and in the same neat handwriting and using a similar medium. It is speculated that, in both instances, the perpetrator is the same. Considering that there has been none found in any of the women’s bathrooms, it is suspected that this person is a male.
In the men’s bathroom, the message is written on one of the stalls. In the critique space, messages were originally written on the wall and were subsequently covered up with a number of class exercises that the Fine Arts Division use as a warm-up for new students. These, too, eventually ended up with the same neat handwriting that had been on the wall and in the bathroom.
A number of faculty, students, and even administrators aren’t aware that this has been happening. Students that gather regularly in the critique space had not noticed that there was anything written, and even some of the fine arts faculty didn’t know much about it.
This type of vandalism has also begun to spread to other colleges as well. University of Washington Tacoma (UWT) has been experiencing similar incidents.
On March 5, the Chancellor of UW Tacoma, Mark A. Pagano, sent an email to the UWT campus community, relegating that the sticker of a white supremacy group appeared both on and off campus. “This morning, Campus Safety removed a sticker found on a pole by the main campus stair that featured the name and logo of an organization that identifies with white supremacy,” the email said.
Not only has this spread to other Wash. campuses but all over the nation, according to Pagano.
Martin Viney, assistant director of campus safety at Green River College, spoke on the specifics of the vandalism that has been happening and where it is on campus. “There has been several dozen,” he said. “They’ve duplicated this several times.”
“It’s kind of hard to say, from looking at those [pictures], but it’s the same person doing the writing. It looks like one person,” Viney said.
According to Viney, this is technically not a crime but can be counted as a bias-related incident.
“We’re taking it super serious and documenting everything, but we have to have a specific guideline on how we have to categorize it,” Viney said.
Campus safety, if they find the perpetrator, will file and report to the Judicial Affairs department of the college, who would then administer the punishment.
Safety is taking precautions in the areas affected, such as increasing the number of patrols and reviewing cameras at every chance possible.
“As safety, we’re responsible for the safety here on the campus. But we’re all responsible for keeping campus safe. Everyone, keep your eyes out. Students, faculty, everyone. If you see anyone messing around with or looking at something or staring at a flyer extra long, have a pen out, or anything, relay it to safety,” Viney said.
