Anti-Semitic Graffiti Found

Anti-Semitic graffiti was found on a bathroom stall on campus yesterday, two days after a noose was hung on the door of an African American professor at Teachers College.

According to police, the graffiti—a swastika and a caricature of a man wearing a yarmulke, inscribed in black ink—was found around 11:30 a.m. in a fourth floor men’s bathroom in Lewisohn Hall, home to the School of General Studies.

“These kinds of hateful crimes directed against the Jewish community or any other individuals or groups will not be tolerated,” School of General Studies Dean Peter Awn wrote in an e-mail to GS students. “Let us seize this occasion to renew our commitment to the values of inclusiveness, respect, and toleration that we all cherish. And let us make clear to one another that we will not allow such cowardly hate-mongering to divide our community.”

“The best thing that can happen is for the entire community to say this is intolerable,” University President Lee Bollinger said in an interview, in reference to both the noose and graffiti incidents. “There will be people who, even in spite of near universal condemnation, will continue to do bad things. But whether its crime generally, or terrible policies, or terrible ideas, the one thing we count on most is the expression of moral outrage ... so that people [who] might be contemplating doing something like this, they feel the full weight of condemnation from the community.”

The incident comes in the midst of a particularly tumultuous time for the University. In addition to the graffiti at Lewisohn, Islamophobic and racist graffiti was found in the International Affairs Building two weeks ago.

Since the noose was found at Teachers College, two additional nooses have been found in New York City in two days, including one found hanging from a light pole at a post office in Lower Manhattan on Thursday. Police said that before these incidents, there have been no crimes involving nooses in the last five years.

In their investigation of the noose incident, police said that they began to download images from campus security cameras around 5:45 p.m. on Thursday. The police said they obtained the video after serving campus officials with a subpoena, who had declined to release the footage without one. Investigators downloaded about half of the 56 hours of video they want to review in an attempt to identify the perpetrator.

“We have to get a subpoena to look at the video cameras. The school has required us to get a subpoena, so that’s slowing us down somewhat,” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters Thursday afternoon.

TC President Susan Fuhrman wrote in a statement that, though TC did ask the police to present them with a subpoena before turning over the tape, they were cooperating fully with the investigation. “The request for a subpoena is standard policy, aimed at protecting the privacy of students and others who may appear on the tapes. There was no desire to hinder the investigation,” she said.

Though no suspect has been identified, the police said Wednesday that the profile of the average hate crime perpetrator is a 13 to 20 year-old with low emotional intelligence and some criminal history.

Both the hanging of the noose and the graffiti are being investigated by the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force. This is at least the second time in two years that police have investigated swastikas scrawled on campus walls. In December 2005, a swastika was found inscribed on the door of a room in Ruggles Hall , along with racist and homophobic slurs.

“Despite the irrational, destructive hatred that persists in our society and world, we do not accept this anywhere at this University. No one among us should feel marginalized or threatened by words of hatred. We are one community; and as one community, we will overcome these hateful acts and hold each other to the highest standards of respect for the dignity and diversity of every individual.” Bollinger wrote in a University-wide statement in response to the Lewisohn graffiti which he e-mailed Thursday.

New York State law states that incidents in which swastikas are used as graffiti will be investigated as aggravated harassment in the first degree, a class E felony, punishable by at least three and at most four years in prison. Bollinger stated that the graffiti was promptly removed and that the University is working with the NYPD. NYPD officials were seen removing what appeared to be a piece of the stall from the bathroom as evidence.

Last night, students met with University Chaplain Jewelnel Davis, Provost Alan Brinkley, and other administrators at a Common Meal which had been called after the noose incident.

“You have proven yourselves to be warriors for justice here at Columbia,” Davis said to those present at the meal.

Students said that they were shaken by the events of the past week. “Pain isn’t being addressed. People are scared and upset. I still don’t feel safe. I really want some answers about what will be done to relieve that plan because it’s really palpable,” Caitlin Shea, TC ’08, said. “At TC, the student body has a lot of pain which people can’t articulate, but you can feel it in the air, collectively. We need group counseling sessions in a space that is safe. We’ve had more forums than actual action in terms of helping us heal.”

At 8 o’clock Thursday evening, leaders of Jewish student groups met with Dean Chris Colombo, Associate Dean Kevin Shollenberger, and Senior Assistant Dean Melinda Aquino from the CC/SEAS office of Student Affairs to discuss possible reactions.

Aaron Krieger, CC ’10 and one of the leaders of Gayava—a Jewish queer student group—who was at the meeting said afterwards that “it doesn’t look like there is going to be anything huge or loud which is appropriate.”

“I think this is just actually an opportunity to further those communities to put together ... a campaign of change to really get the whole community together—not just to respond to this, but to make sure that this never happens again,” Krieger said.

In a meeting with Bollinger on Wednesday, many students said that they believed that the recent bias incidents have stemmed from a hostile campus environment.

“For me, this event is not just a single isolated event. It is about a context and it is about a culture,” said Bryan Mercer, CC ’07, who is a member of Students Promoting Empowerment and Knowledge and the Black Students Organization.

Bollinger disagreed. “I think these [actions] are committed by individuals who violate norms that are deeply held and subscribed to by our community. I do not think they spring out of a kind of racism or anti-Semitism that is pervasive or systemic in the institution. I don’t believe that,” he said.

General Studies Student Council President Niko Cunningham invited students and administrators to a forum today at 11 a.m. in Lerner Hall to “come together as a community to find solutions.”

Diego Garcia, GS, said he did not feel threatened personally by the graffiti, describing the incident as an abnormality that would be handled promptly.

“I don’t think it’s common,” Garcia said. “I definitely think it’s something people are taking seriously but that’s especially why I don’t think it’s going to amount to anything else, because I think it’s a matter that’s being taken care of.”

Vice President for Arts and Sciences Nicholas Dirks, Columbia College Dean Austin Quigley, and interim Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science Gerald Navratil also released a statement in which they wrote, “It is, perhaps, tempting for those not targeted in these incidents to downplay or dismiss them as the actions and attitudes of only a few, unrepresentative individuals. ... We must seek not only to prevent these incidents from recurring, but also to understand the vulnerability and isolation felt by those at risk, taking collective responsibility for each other’s security, well-being, and full membership in our University community.”

Erin Durkin, Tom Faure, Melissa Repko, and Joy Resmovits contributed to this article.
Josh Hirschland can be reached at josh.hirschland@columbiaspectator.com.