U. of Missouri Hit With Third Anti-Semitic Incident
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
University of Missouri officials condemned an anti-Semitic incident at a campus residence hall, the second this school year and the third in less than a calendar year.
A poster reading “Hitler rules” was hung Monday on a bulletin board in the Gateway Hall student residence on the university’s main campus in Columbia, according to the school’s newspaper, The Maneater.
The school’s interim chancellor, Hank Foley, and interim vice chancellor for inclusion, diversity and equity, Chuck Henson, expressed anger at another anti-Semitic incident in a school residence hall.
“This type of vandalism attacks everyone,” they said in a statement Tuesday. “Our core values — including that of Respect — must become more than words on paper or a banner. They are the foundation of who we desire to be as a campus community and the way we all need to conduct ourselves.”
No one has been apprehended in the vandalism.
On Oct. 24, a swastika drawn in feces was found on the wall of a bathroom in a residence hall. And in April 2015, swastikas and anti-Semitic epithets were written in ash in the stairwell of a campus dormitory. A freshman at the university was arrested for the vandalism.
The university’s Jewish Student Organization also released a statement Tuesday saying it “strongly condemns this expression of hatred.”
“This type of hate speech isn’t merely an attack on religious minorities; it also targets other cultural and ethnic groups,” the group said. “This act occurred in a residence hall, a place students call home. Home should be a haven where people feel safe from hatred.”
The statement added that the Jewish Student Organization was “humbled by the support from student leadership on campus since the incident was reported.”
In November, the university’s chancellor and president resigned over questions about their leadership in the wake of racial tensions on campus, which led to a student hunger strike and football players threatening to boycott a game.
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