As part of an ongoing effort to monitor graffiti on campus, University facilities, under the guidance of the campus police, will often remove writing marked as hate speech that is found both inside and outside the Free Expression tunnel, according to facilities official David Hatch.
Hatch, assistant director of repair and renovations, said his department does three weekly checks of the campus for illegal graffiti and responds immediately to any requests from the campus police to remove unsightly material.
“The campus police will alert us to any hate crime issues within the tunnel,” Hatch said. “We want to use the resources we have available to preserve the appearance of the campus and ensure student safety.”
Jon Barnwell, captain of the campus police, explained that these messages are removed from the tunnel is to preserve the appearance of the school and allow for less seditious forms of expression.
“There is a blanket rule for facilities to remove any speech that is deemed as inciting harmful actions against a particular individual or demographic,” Barnwell said. “The whole idea is to provide a space for freedom of expression and artistic ability, not to for the slandering of someone’s name or the presentation of pornographic materials.
Hatch said it is hard to track down the perpetrators of these hate speech messages, but that he suspects they are coming from an off-campus source.
“We have had several cases where people come from off campus and spay inappropriate graffiti on campus,” Hatch said. “When something is inappropriate and does apply as a hate crime we will immediately come in and fix it.”
Facilities Maintenance Supervisor Sam Jeffries said he is the general manager of the repair and renovations trade shop and that his staff follows a standard protocol when hate speech is located inside the tunnel.
“If the graffiti is inside the tunnel and we are told by the campus police it is a hate crime we respond as quickly as possible,” Jefferies said. “We typically will first take a photograph of the writing and mail it to campus police because they like to keep a record of these incidents.”
Kevin MacNaughton, associate vice chancellor for facilities, said facilities exercises no censorship over what is written in the Free Expression Tunnel.
Natalie Bunch, a junior in landscape architecture, said the University officials’ actions in this matter are inappropriate and the issue needs to be opened for dialogue with the students.
“It goes against the definition of a Free Expression Tunnel,” Bunch said. “While I agree that some things should be monitored, there should be a written set of guidelines so that students had a means to protest what is taken down.”
Katherine Hale, a senior in art and design, said the University needs to set clear limits as to what kind of writing is acceptable and the current situation where it is left to the discretion of University facilities and the campus police could lead to unfair restrictions.
“Having one person make that call with out any guidelines is an uncomfortable prospect for most people because it raises the question of what is the limit for censorship.” Hale said.
Hale said students should take pride in their school and not deface its buildings with such writings to begin with.
“People shouldn’t be writing these things anyway,” Hale said. “You should have respect for your fellow students and not write these horrible things on campus.”
