Graffiti requires an urgent response

By Raphael Golberstein ’06 / Student Trustee
October 12, 2006

I was saddened and angered to read that our campus has once again been infiltrated with anti-Semitism.
Investigator Tom Dunn and the Office of Public Safety were wrong to define such attacks as “quality-of-life crimes,” saying the graffiti “affects the quality-of-life of the people who live [in the dorm].” These events affect all members of the Ithaca community, current, past and future.
As a victim of a swastika on my door in 2004, my feelings toward campus have changed. Swastikas send the message that the Nazi mission is still alive. As a Jew, that prospect makes me feel nervous and unwelcome on campus.
However, I am not alone. Ithaca is home to hundreds of Jewish, LGBT and Roma students, all of whom were targeted and murdered by the Nazis. Considering the large demographics that are affected by these crimes, I am discouraged that there has been no public reaction from the administration.
Following the racist graffiti and stolen pride flag in 2005, Intercom alerts were sent to the campus community. President Williams wrote, “acts of bias have once again taken place on our campus … explicit and angry racist graffiti were found written in several locations … heinous actions of this type, obviously born of ignorance and intolerance, have no place in a community that values diversity.”
Sounds familiar, right? Then why has there been no public reaction to the angry, racist graffiti in Emerson Hall? The lack of response is unacceptable.
We cannot write off these acts as mere “quality-of-life issues,” but rather, we must respond with the same vitality and urgency that rallied our community together in 2005.