‘I am deeply troubled that hateful and bigoted vandalism ... continues to happen here’
Western Washington University Police are investigating a string of recent homophobic and racist messages and threats of sexual violence left on dormitories and artwork around the Bellingham campus this week.
“I am deeply troubled that hateful and bigoted vandalism by cowardly individuals continues to happen here, in a place where we should all feel safe and welcomed,” WWU President Sabah Randhawa said in a letter to the campus community. “I want to be perfectly clear: hate has absolutely no place on our campus. I am deeply saddened that several of our students saw these upsetting scenes.”
According to a WWU release on the incident, University Police were alerted at 10:57 a.m. Sunday to incidents and are conducting an “active, ongoing investigation,” and they believe all of the incidents are related.
As of Tuesday morning, WWU Communications Director Paul Cocke told The Bellingham Herald in an email that police are continuing to investigate and do not yet have a suspect.
According to the release:
▪ A racial epithet was scrawled on the Wrights Triangle sculpture near the Ross Engineering Building.
▪ Nine name tags on residents’ rooms on four floors and a stairwell of the Nash Residence Hall were defaced with racist language, a homophobic slur and a threat of sexual violence.
▪ A poster in front of Arntzen Hall was defaced with racist language.
The name tags have since been replaced, the stairwell cleaned and the racial epithet removed from the sculpture.
One additional racist word was found Monday night on campus written on a pillar at Fairhaven College, Cocke told The Herald. It also has been removed.
Police did not know if the slurs on the dorm name tags were directed at specific students, according to the release, but along with WWU Student Public Safety Assistants, police were planning extra patrols of the campus. Western’s Facilities Management is also on call to respond to any other incidents discovered, and University Resources will be reaching out to students in Nash Hall.
Police are asking anyone with information about the incidents to call at 360-650-3911 or to make an anonymous report at 360-650-7233.
“The path to a truly safe campus depends on fostering a culture in which every member of the community takes personal responsibility to contribute to the solution,” Randhawa wrote in the letter. “I ask that each of us keep our eyes and ears open and work diligently to look out for one other.”
Western’s last reported instance of hate crime occurred in March, when several books were damaged in the Jewish Studies section of the Wilson Library and a swastika was drawn in ink on a poster outside a faculty member’s office in the Communications Building.
According to the FBI’s 2017 Hate Crime Statistics, released last week, WWU reported just one incident of hate crime, which was motivated by religion. Bellingham Police reported 11 incidents, including nine in the race/ethnicity/ancestry category, one in sexual orientation and one in gender.
Overall, the FBI found that 10.5 percent of the 8,437 hate crime incidents reported in 2017 happened at schools or colleges.
Resources
▪ Western’s Counseling Center is open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 360-650-3164. After-hours crisis support is available at 360-650-3164.
▪ Western’s LGVTQ+ office is available at 360-650-7500.
▪ The Washington State Employee Assistance Program is available to faculty and staff at 877-313-4455.
This story was originally published November 20, 2018 at 7:40 AM.