Dean Condemns Racist Graffiti

Four days after police discovered what they described as graffiti that was “biased in nature” in Boylston Hall, Dean of College Evelynn M. Hammonds sent an e-mail to the Harvard College community on Friday confirming that the writing contained racial slurs.

“We do not know who committed these acts on our property, but we expect and hope that the offenders were not members of our community,” Hammonds wrote in the e-mail.

The graffiti was located on both walls and desktops in the building.

“I take this incident very seriously,” Hammonds wrote. “The use of racial epithets is deeply inimical to the values and purposes of the Harvard community.”

Hammonds also wrote that the members of the College community must “all stand together against such destructive behavior.”

The acts of vandalism are currently under investigation, according to Hammonds’ message.

The first floor bathrooms of Boylston Hall were vandalized with toilet paper sometime on Oct. 2, according to the Harvard University Police Department log.

Officers were dispatched that day to respond to a fire alarm that went off in the hall and found the damage upon arrival, the log stated.

A fire extinguisher had also been discharged. The Cambridge Fire Department soon determined that the building was safe for re-entry, and afterward, Facilities Maintenance Operations was called to clean the area.

Two days later, an officer was dispatched to the building to find more vandalism—this time in the form of graffiti to the mezzanine level of the building.

HUPD spokepserson Steven G. Catalano did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

—Staff writer Xi Yu can be reached at xyu@college.harvard.edu.