Late Monday night at approximately 10:38 p.m., three men vandalized two parking signs at a sorority house on Langdon Street with anti-Semitic symbols, according to an email sent to members of the UW-Madison chapter Kappa Alpha Theta.
This instance comes only a few days after two other cases of anti-Semitic graffiti appeared on university buildings, including the west-end wall of the University Bookstore and Engineering Mall.
A UW-Madison student witnessed three men vandalizing the Kappa Alpha Theta parking signs and then immediately contacted the police. The symbols were described as “particularly hateful and anti-Semitic in nature,” according to the email.
As the case was on Langdon Street, the Madison Police Department will handle the investigation, according to UW-Madison Police Department Public Information Officer Marc Lovicott. Kappa Alpha Theta also filed a report with the university and the Greek Life Office, according to the email.
MPD Public Information Officer Joel DeSpain said MPD is investigating this instance of graffiti along with several other recent anti-Semitic incidents on campus during a Tuesday press conference. He went on to say MPD is investigating two broken windows and possibly four instances of graffiti, all believed to be anti-Semitic.
"I will say in perhaps in the last month or so we have [had] isolated incidents in and around campus co-ops, fraternities or sororities in which our Jewish affiliated friends have also seen episodic hateful rhetoric graffiti tagged on one part of the building or another,” said MPD Chief Mike Koval.
Flyers advertising a Tuesday night event titled "Leftist Diversity: Excluding all Ideas except their own" were also defaced. One flyer was vandalized with the Wolfsangel, a symbol connected to the Nazi party.
A UW-Madison student made another official report to the university's hate and bias team about another instance of graffiti found at Campus Village Apartments, which is near College Court.
More anti-Semitic graffiti found at Campus Village Apartments #therealUW pic.twitter.com/3R3JBiLotr
— Sam Coutu (@sampcoutu) April 26, 2016
"Graffiti making use of white supremacist symbols is unacceptable in our community," said John Lucas, executive director of University Communications. "UWPD and MPD are investigating these instances and we hope that they’ll learn who is responsible."
He encouraged on-campus students who see graffiti to file a report with either UWPD or the university's hate and bias process and off-campus students to report to MPD.
Miller Jozwiak and Jake Skubish contributed to the reporting of this story.
UPDATE April 26, 4:14 p.m.: This story has been updated to include more information from DeSpain, Koval and another instance of anti-Semitic vandalism.
UPDATE April 26, 4:50 p.m.: This story has been updated to include more information from Lucas and another instance of anti-semitic vandalism.
