Racist graffiti found in Williams dorm

Elysia Glover Staff Writer

Students living in the Williams Hall East dormitory at Williams College woke up Saturday, Feb. 2 to discover that racial slurs and images of male genitalia had been scrawled on the doors and signs of their second-floor common room. Shortly after 1:45 a.m. the night before, a student had also reported to Security that someone wrote racial slurs on the common room white board.

The vandals, who have not yet been identified, also marked two door signs on the second-floor common room and one on a nearby custodians’ office with racist graffiti.
The signs were discovered at 9:15 a.m. on Saturday morning and were immediately removed by a student resident living near the common room entry.

The sketches of male genitalia, drawn onto the walls and doors with permanent marker, could not easily be erased and remained visible in the corridor for the duration of the weekend.

A joint investigation by the Williams Campus Security and the Dean’s Office is currently underway. On Sunday, Feb. 3, members from both Security and the Dean’s office met with 20 student residents living in or near the site of the incident in an attempt to uncover who is responsible for the slurs.

The incident at Williams follows hard on the appearence of racial hate symbols on Vassar’s campus this past fall—one noose was found in Jewett House on Oct. 25, and two subsequent nooses were found in December.

A community forum on these incidents was held on Jan. 30, in which students were invited to speak and offer suggestions for dealing with discrimination and hate symbols.

Racial tensions in higher education received national media attention this October after a noose was discovered hanging from the door of a black professor at Columbia’s Teachers College.

Some students at Williams speculate that the incidents are related because all of the vandalized walls, signs and doors were tagged with what appeared to be the same permanent marker.

One student resident, whose door had been tagged in the incident, said that he did not feel like the slurs had been directed at any particular members of the student body. In an interview with The Williams Record shortly following the incident, the student said that both African American and caucasian students lived in the vandalized rooms.

An anonymous tip-line has been established in an attempt to discover who may be responsible.
Director of Williams Security Jean Thorndike emphasized the importance of a private forum such as a tip-line to prompt students to help with the investigation.

“Students never want to turn other students in,” Thorndike explained. “But if it can be completely untraceable and anonymous, maybe we’ll get something.”

The administrative response to the incident has so far shown a concern for the climate of trust within the campus community. In a campus-wide e-mail sent on the evening of Saturday, Feb. 2, Dean of the College Karen Merrill informed the student body of the incident, and reported that an investigation by the College was underway.

Addressing her concern for the impact of the incident on the campus community’s climate of trust and tolerance, Merrill wrote that “such behavior clearly violates our standards of conduct on campus. It also fundamentally attacks our sense of community and the bonds of trust we aspire to build among all members of the college.”

In an e-mailed statement to The Miscellany News, Merrill reiterated her concern, but also expressed hope for community healing.

“I’ve been very impressed how the community has responded,” said Merrill. “We’ve seen students, faculty and staff come together to talk about what happened, talk about their experiences on campus, and to begin focusing on what needs to be done in the future,” she said.

Merrill has been particularly impressed by student government leaders. “Students have not only done an excellent job communicating with the campus community about their ideas, but they’ve already begun organizing themselves into working sub-group,” she said.