Comments on: Offensive Graffiti at Our College

By: Ashley Kemper

Ashley Kemper — Sun, 18 Dec 2016 02:05:48 +0000

I think that it’s oftentimes really hard for people to realize that hateful others exist in the world until it hits close-to-home. I also think that this should have been a wakeup call for Muhlenberg, and I would really have liked to see an open conversation take place, being that we are a school in which 30% of the student body identifies as being Jewish. It makes me worry about other hateful students seeing this as something that is acceptable in the future.

By: Amanda Fogelman

Amanda Fogelman — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 06:33:06 +0000

It was definitely shocking to hear of this hate crime especially at a university that has a reputation of having all “nice” and “accepting” students. Hate is everywhere and that is the reality even on a campus like ours. It’s a difficult situation because Campus Safety is only able to do so much. If the act was not caught on camera, there is nothing they can do and this hateful person will unfortunately get away with the crime. I think we need to hold more campus meetings to discuss important issues like these rather than relying on email.

By: Aliza Borker

Aliza Borker — Sun, 11 Dec 2016 20:14:45 +0000

When I heard about the situation with the graffiti I was in shock. We hear about anti-semitism at other schools but never did I ever believe that this would happen at my school where the student body is 30% Jewish. Being Jewish, I have always been constantly aware of my surroundings and anything having to do with Judaism and have always told everyone that there isn’t anti-semitism on my campus. Clearly, I was being ignorant or naive because we are a college campus and unfortunately there are always issues surrounding anti-semitism, racism, sexism, etc. I think that you connected the article on microagressions in residential halls perfectly with this situation. I agree that the resources were very limited and that there were many individuals who were unaware of the situation at the time. I think greater transparency would be a great option and a more descriptive analysis for the campus community. In addition, I think that while I do not believe our campus has anti-semitism or sexism, these were clear signs that needed to be addressed.

By: Jessica Sperber

Jessica Sperber — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 04:58:44 +0000

I think the entire campus is figuring out how to deal with incidents of hate & bias. From my understanding, the new policy aims for transparency – that means we get an email every time an incident occurs. My gut feeling is that since this is a new policy and because this is the first time we are hearing about incidents such as these, campus safety and other institutions have never really had a defined role as to what their expectations are. I hope that this new policy might guide the college to answering those questions, but I honestly don’t know. I think that there should be follow up with the student that reported it, the building’s residents, etc to make sure the campus community knows it is unacceptable. Hopefully, if students see how interested we are in reducing these incidents, they will take their language more seriously and speak before they act.