On Feb. 11, a message popped up on the walls of the Jonsson Tower (JoTo) elevator, reading “Campo is corrupt and racist.” Over the course of the next few days, the phrase was erased and rewritten, eventually appearing in both JoTo elevators.
More people started contributing and the elevator walls became message boards, with comments ranging from the name “Joseph” to “I want to die.”
The image above displays the message which appeared in a JoTo elevator on Feb. 11. (Photo taken by Nataleigh Noble)
Alexis Smith, the JoTo Residential Life coordinator, responded with an email providing a list of resources that students could access if they wanted to talk about the vandalism. In the email, she wrote to “Please be mindful of the impact you are having on the community, as well as the act of violating the Code of Student Conduct through damage and destruction of college property.”
“Anyone who is found to be participating in the vandalism will be subject to the conduct process and may be responsible for the cost to repair any damage.”
The email also suggested students contact Director of Campus Safety Tim Munro for further information to use if they may have had a “problematic interaction with Campus Safety staff.”
Munro said he does not know if the vandalism was in response to a recent event, but echoed Smith’s sentiment in a response to The Skidmore News.
“My hope would be that students feel comfortable speaking with campus safety officers,” Munro said. “We strive to treat people respectfully regardless of the circumstance they are involved in.”
While the staff of Skidmore’s Campus Safety does receive “yearly training on Ethics and Conduct, Anti-Harassment, and Legal Powers,” Munro worked with the Committee of Student Life (CSL) on a confidential survey to gain feedback on the student body’s interactions with the department, according to Gianna Grillo ’23, a first-year student senator on CSL.
The survey can be found here and is open until March 7. The SGA email mentioned that CSL will compile a one-page report based on the survey’s results to share with Munro as well as the student body. Grillo says the purpose of the survey is “to learn more about students' experience with campo [Campus Safety] in order to study what campo has been doing well and what they need to improve on.”
Dana Tohme ’20, Vice President for Student Life, said in a comment that the committee aims “to improve the relationship of students, especially students with marginalized identities’, with Campus Safety.”
While some students added their own opinions about Campus Safety to the elevator walls, others were not pleased with the vandalism.
“Vandalism like that in a communal living space is just in general disrespectful but also it's kind of dangerous to be generalizing like that on a campus,” Nya Kieth ’23 said. Kieth wondered if this event would make students less likely to go to Campus Safety in emergencies. The original intent of the graffiti remains unanswered.
Regardless of the message on JoTo’s elevator walls, Skidmore students now have the opportunity to share and reflect on their personal experiences through the CSL survey, which in turn, will further explore and update the community regarding the dynamic between campus safety and students.