Donner Residence Hall, The Campus Center, and the Chapel. What do these buildings have in common? All of them were tagged in a recent incident of graffiti on Hanover’s campus on March 18th during the night.
Spray painted was a seemingly random assortment of letters and phrases. The letters “OFWGKTA” is actually the name of the band Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, and the phrases were parts of the lyrics from various songs.
“This is the first time I’ve seen any buildings defaced by spray paint in the time I’ve been here,” said Dean David Yeager. It is not unusual to see some property damage, but not to this extent, said Yeager.
Reactions from students were varied, out of the twenty randomly interviewed over ten described themselves as angered or offended. “I saw it on the side of Donner, it was just sad. I don‘t know why anyone would do that to a campus as beautiful as ours,” said first year Kelsie Nicholson.
“Indirectly I’ve heard quite a few students were disappointed and upset, outraged this could happen on our campus,” said Yeager.
Some students, however, had not heard about the event. “I didn’t even know about it until now,” said junior Ricky McGee.
Though some vandalism on campus is not unheard of, damage to the scale of this graffiti incident is not common, and not well received by students on campus.
“It was really upsetting for me to learn about the acts of vandalism on our campus. Hanover is a small, tight knit community and there’s a certain level of respect we expect from each other. It’s sad that whoever is behind these acts has no regard for our campus buildings or community,” said junior Mary Pelfrey.
Similar feelings were reported from many students. “It is absolutely disrespectful and the fact that someone has the nerve to do that in a church, they are seriously disturbed,” said first year Brittany Stewart.
Disappointment was not just reported from the students. “I was very disappointed,” said Yeager, “we have a beautiful campus, the buildings are gorgeous, and to have spray painting done is really disconcerting. There is an unsafe feeling that comes with having your space defaced in that way.”
Preventing these sort of events is difficult. “There’s no way to prevent them from happening Having a system in place where the punishment is enough of a dissuading factor is all we can do,” said Yeager.
“Graffiti is an inherent part of human civilization. I sympathize with those who were hurt and angered by the graffiti, I truly do. I think it’s important to ask why we, as humans, have always had that impulse to express ourselves in such a way, whether it be creative or destructive,” said senior Jon Becraft.
Graffiti, for whatever reason, did occur on campus. And students got involved. “Students did report the vandalism in the chapel, that’s how security found out about it,” said Yeager.
A popular topic, the graffiti incident has revealed some upset students, but also has shown a student and faculty respect and concern for our Hanover Community.