Earlier this evening, the Department of Public Safety reported that bias related graffiti had been found in a men’s bathroom stall in the New Research Building. According to the report, the defacement contained “racial, anti-Semitic, and anti-religious remarks,” and was reported by a member of the medical center staff. The Metro Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force has been informed of the crime, and will work with DPS in its investigation.

Although it has been almost a year since one was last reported, this is not the first case of bias related vandalism that Georgetown has seen. Most recently, racist graffiti was found in September in the tunnels below campus, along with a “possible noose” (which turned out not to be a noose after all). Such problems have also been reported in campus residences.

As of now, DPS has not announced any suspects, and encourages anyone with information on this crime to inform them via Georgetown’s Bias Reporting System, or to call DPS at (202) 687-4343.

The rope found this week hanging in a Healy Hall sub-basement was not a noose, according to Associate Vice President for Communications Julie Green Bataille.

“[N]ew details have come to light that lead us to believe the rope in question has actually been in this area for some period of time coiled up and was likely used for climbing activity,” she wrote in an email. “We do not believe it was any kind of noose.”

The rope, which was described as “a loose hanging rope with a knotted loop at one end” in an email sent to the Georgetown community last night, sparked an investigation of the utility tunnels that run underneath Georgetown’s campus.

During the investigation, Department of Public Safety officers also discovered “racist graffiti” in the tunnels. This morning, however, a University official told local media outlets that the vandalism was not a recent act.

“We are still actively investigating the matter and will take seriously any new details that may emerge but are grateful to members of the campus community for providing additional information to aid our efforts so quickly,” Bataille wrote.

11:50 a.m. update: This morning, a University official told local television news outlets that the rope has been identified as a piece of climbing equipment, not a noose. The official also confirmed that the graffiti was not a recent act.

After discovering “a loose hanging rope with a knotted loop at one end” in a utility room in the sub-basement of Healy Hall this week, University employees filed a report with the Department of Public Safety, according to an email written by Vice President for University Safety Rocco DelMonaco and Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson.

The room, which is locked and off-limits, can also be accessed through utility tunnels that run underneath campus. During the ensuing DPS investigation, officers also discovered “racist graffiti and vandalism” in the tunnels, which suggests “illegal trespassing that has occurred over an extended period of time.”

The University has contacted the Metropolitan Police Department to assist in the ongoing investigation. While no suspect has been identified, DelMonaco and Olson encouraged anyone with information about the incidents to alert the University through DPS or the Bias Reporting System.

“We must underscore that acts of vandalism, hate and intolerance have no place in our campus community,” they wrote. “Together all of these incidents are disturbing and not to be accessed except by trained and authorized personnel.”

Tonight at 9 p.m., representatives from Student Affairs, DPS, and Campus Ministry plan to hold a community meeting in the Village C Alumni Lounge to discuss the incidents.

After the jump, we’ve republished DelMonaco and Olson’s full email.

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Last Friday, the D.C. Regional Chapter of the Anti-Defamation League commended Georgetown for its quick response to recent bias-related incidents.

In a press release, ADL Regional Director David Friedman highlighted the Department of Public Safety’s “rigorous investigation and swift apprehension of a suspect in the recent bias related graffiti incidents on campus.”

“The University’s response sent a clear and unequivocal message that Georgetown will not tolerate hate crimes and expressions of bigotry,” Friedman added.

Last week, DPS apprehended a freshman student allegedly responsible for the bias-related incidents, which happened in New South and Darnall Halls on September 6 and 11. The suspect is accused of drawing swastikas and writing the word “Hitler” on whiteboards in the two dormitories.

Photo: ADL

Earlier this week, Newsweek named Georgetown as the 23rd-most diverse and 24th-most LGBT-friendly school in the country, despite last year’s slew of bias-related incidents against LGBTQ students and allies.

The University of Pennsylvania topped both lists.

To compile the rankings, Newsweek used statistics based on ethnicity, geographic diversity, economic background, gender, and sexual orientation. (The magazine also relied on lists of LGBTQ-friendly campuses published by The Advocate and InsideCollege.com.)

The magazine’s annual list of top colleges also placed Georgetown as one of the nation’s most desirable urban schools, a “school for brainiacs,” and a top “power-broker” college.

h/t GW Hatchet

Just like last year, Vox has compiled a guide to “news you can use”, or in other words, an excessively comprehensive review of last year’s important news stories. Today, we cover the crime issues that made headlines.

Sexual assaults

The past three years, there have been a series of sexual assaults following a similar formula: a man enters a home, gets in bed with a female resident, attempts to sexually assault her, and leaves before the woman is able identify the perpetrator. Some students call the assailant the “Georgetown Cuddler”—an unfortunate nickname that we won’t be using anymore—though it very well may be multiple perpetrators.

While no connection has yet been made, the recent sexual assault in Burleith bears similarities to other crimes, including an assault in Copley, an assault at gunpoint on Prospect Street, and an assault on the 3800 block of Calvert Street. In April, student groups held a vigil for victims.

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On Sunday evening, representatives from several campus groups met to discuss a proposal for a ‘nonviolence week’ later on in the semester. Hate Free Georgetown, an event being organized by Joshua Goode (COL ’10) and Lauren Cucarola (COL ’10) is an attempt to bring together different social groups and campus activities that would normally be separated in an effort to promote peace in the recently hostile Georgetown community.

At the beginning of the meeting, Goode outlined the need for such a week. He cited the many bias-related incidents Georgetown has seen in the past year or so, including the several bias-related incidents which took place at the beginning of the year, prompting the vigil shown at left.

Goode then described the ideas that had already been discussed as examples for events that might be held during the week. These ideas included a big lawn game day, dorm competitions, a barbeque, and a performance festival featuring as many campus performing arts groups as possible where students express the importance of nonviolence in an artistic way.

“The only way it’s really going to work is if we have this broad coalition,” Goode said, adding that the cultural and sports groups at Georgetown have sometimes been difficult to reach out to.

“The biggest way to stop violence is if you know the people around you,” Goode said. “And that’s only going to happen if we get these groups together. Otherwise we’re going to have pockets of people who aren’t intermingling.”

Photo by Kara Brandeisky

Students at the November 2 anti-hate crime vigil

Three American University students are producing a short video about the several bias-related incidents that took place on Georgetown’s campus this semester. Though they are producing the film for a class, their main intention is to post it on the website run by “Not in Our Town,” a group that responds to hate crimes across the country.

Ashley Dejean said that she, Marley Cook, and Jasmine Rao spent three days at Georgetown filming the scene of the crimes and interviews with several students and faculty who were involved with the response to the incidents, including Carter Lavin (SFS ’10), Ellen Greer (COL ’11), Adam Talbot (COL ’12), and LGBTQ Center Director Sivagami Subbaraman. The film will run between three and five minutes.

Joseph Graumann (SFS ’11), left, and Carlos Leon (COL ’10)

In this week’s issue, the Voice spoke with co-Presidents of GU Pride Joseph Graumann (SFS ’11) and Carlos Leon (COL ’10) about their organization, the recent hate crimes on campus and the challenges facing the LGBTQ community.  This is the extended transcript of our interview with them.

The Voice: How did you get involved in GU Pride?

Joseph: Well, I came out on campus during the Out for Change campaign. It was a lot of the issues at the time and the struggle that went on for recognition of the LGBTQ community really made me look inside myself, and, I mean as corny as it sounds, my so-called “brothers and sisters” are off fighting the good fight and I am not even secure enough to tell my friends.

Ever since then, I realized that there is work to be done. And my good friend Ellen, who was already involved with the Out for Change campaign, Ellen Greer, she really encouraged me to be involved in the community and I started out as historian, when there was an opening in the beginning of my sophomore year [2008] and then sophomore year, December, they had elections for co-chair and I ran and got elected.

The Voice: What is one thing you wish to change about GU Pride?

Joseph: I would like to see GU Pride become a more welcoming and open place for people who are in the process of coming out or who feel like they are unable to find a safe place with other aspects of the community that administers to LGBTQ people.

The Voice: The best thing about GU Pride?

Joseph: What I like about GU Pride is that although not everybody who is affiliated with the organization shows up to everything, we have a pretty good sense of comradery and we’ve developed a very good sense of community on campus, which is really important, given the nature of our identities, it’s really hard to do that, it’s hard to forge a cohesive and diverse, both racially [and] socio-economically, group on campus.

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Georgetown students and administrators conducted a panel in the ICC Auditorium about Georgetown’s response to hate crimes last Thursday.

Several administrators attended the panel, included Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson and Vice President for University Safety Rocco DelMonaco. While there was little information about the crimes, the forum was full of information about safety at Georgetown.

DEFINING HATE CRIMES: The moderator pressed Olson to explain why Public Safety Alerts typically say “bias-related incident” instead of “hate crime.” Olson said Georgetown uses a legalistic definition of hate crime that only certain crimes qualify under.

When GUSA Speaker Adam Talbot (COL ’12) asked Olson about the GUSA Senate’s bill to change the way hate crimes are treated under the Student Code of Conduct, Olson said the Office of Student Conduct would consider the legislation, but declined to say whether it would be adopted.

STUDENT PATROLS: In meetings after the hate crimes, GU Pride and other students have talked about organizing a group of students patrol campus at night, presumably to prevent hate crimes. DelMonaco pointed students towards other student-run safety groups like the Students Safety Advisory Board and APO’s shuttle service; Olson seemed less than enthusiastic about the idea.

“We need to make sure that if we’re putting students out in a patrol function, that those students are going to be safe,” Olson said.

More about security cameras on campus, arming DPS and Solidarity’s spat with Rocco after the jump!

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