Oracle Online

A Residential Life staff member discovered a large swastika, a symbol that has become a sign of white supremacy and religious dominance since the times of Adolph Hitler, drawn in the hall outside Peterson’s second floor women’s restroom around noon.

A second swastika, along with the phrase, “Die, fucking blacks,” drawn in a toilet stall within the restroom was found the following day when students returned from their three-day weekend. In addition, a poster with information for a Torah study group that was hanging in Manor was found vandalized with an anti-Jewish message that night.

“There’s no way to say definitively if [the events] were connected, but it is worth noting that it occurred during Passover,” Heights Hall Director Erik Elordi said. He said the timing, and the fact that all the vandalism was discovered within two days, was “definitely suspicious.”

The swastika drawn in the hallway had been drawn sometime between midnight, when an on-call Peterson Resident Assistant had done a hallway patrol, and noon on April 8 (Easter Sunday). Most students were not staying in the dorm at the time due to the long weekend for Good Friday. The long weekend and the fact that the poster in Manor had been there for several months made it hard to determine exactly when the marks were made, Elordi said, especially since students who were in the dorms may have had visitors over for the holiday.

At the time this paper went to print, the offices of Residential Life and Safety and Security were still looking for and following leads, Director of Residential Life Patricia Klein said.

“Regardless of how small someone may think a comment is, anything that might be useful will help us put the pieces together,” Klein said, adding that students often feel that things they’ve seen or heard aren’t important enough to report. However, Elordi said that students not only have an opportunity to step forward with information, but an obligation.

Elordi added that student input is equally important at a community response level. While the university needs a strong administrative stance on the incident, it also needs students to have some power in deciding what should be done, he said.

Several students have already expressed interest in organizing events discussing the vandalism and encouraging more positive dorm environments. The Religious and Spiritual Life Office “would be happy to stand behind [these] groups,” Chaplain Theresa Mason said, adding that student response events are still in the planning process.

On a similar note, Klein said that many students are already “standing together to say, ‘Not on my campus.’”

In a campus-wide e-mail, President Linda Hanson said that using the symbol of a swastika is illegal in the city of St. Paul, and any parties found responsible for the vandalism will be subject to both university and city reprimand.

“I wish I could say that it wasn’t a student, that our students have more respect for their community, but we don’t have enough information to say,” Elordi said. He said that, while students he’s talked to so far do not feel threatened, those of all races and religions are disappointed and saddened by the damage. “A symbol like a swastika has so much hate in it that it affects all kinds of groups.”

Klein echoed similar concerns.

“For me, any time an act of hate happens in our community, it’s alarming, it’s upsetting, it’s disheartening,” she said, noting that many students have told her that they didn’t expect this kind of disrespectful behavior from someone they share a roof with.

Klein continued to say, “It isn’t just about a targeted group. It’s about the entire community realizing they’re not as safe here as they thought they were.”

Anyone with information that may help find the perpetrator can leave an anonymous tip with Safety and Security at x2100. It is the first step in what Klein said she hopes will lead to a campus that is “as safe as possible, in all aspects” and welcoming to everyone.