University of Portland hit with pro-Palestine vandalism, building defaced
A prominent sign and building at a private university in Portland, Oregon were vandalized on June 14 with 'Free Palestine' messages.
An employee for the University of Portland told The Beacon, the school’s student run newspaper, that the damage could cost $1,000 or more.
A prominent sign and building at a private university in Portland, Oregon were vandalized on June 14 with “Free Palestine” messages.
An employee for the University of Portland told The Beacon, the school’s student run newspaper, that the damage could cost $1,000 or more.
“Due to the timing and nature of this incident, I would be surprised if [the cleanup cost] did not reach quadruple digits,” Director of Campus Safety and Emergency Management Michael McNerney said about the vandalism.
The vandalism included spray painted messages of “Free Palestine” on the university’s entrance sign and Waldschmidt Hall. The acronym “DAMPL,” which McNerney suspects refers to Direct Action Movement for Palestinian Liberation, was also spray painted on the entrance sign.
There is not much public information about the student group, which appears to have deleted its Instagram page.
Many buildings and signs on universities have been vandalized with pro-Palestine messages over the past several years.
Police arrested a student at Williams College earlier this month for spray painting pro-Hamas messages on campus and replacing an American flag with a Palestinian flag. The same student tied himself to a flagpole, and the police charged him with resisting arrest in addition to vandalism.
In another vandalism incident this month, students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo defaced a school administration building with anti-Israel messages. Two of the five suspects have been identified.
“The group stormed the university’s Financial Aid and Student Accounts office in the Administration Building and spray-painted graffiti on walls, windows, furniture, computers and even on the carpets and floors,” President Jeffrey Armstrong said in a June 5 email.
“Anyone who views this kind of shortsighted, disgusting and illegal activity as acceptable has no place at Cal Poly and will be rooted out,” he continued.
[RELATED: Jewish students sue GWU over alleged failure to address campus anti-Semitism]
Last month, students at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire released 10,000 ladybugs in two bathrooms. The students left signs in one bathroom with messages including “10,000 ladybugs,” “divest from apartheid and genocide,” “free Palestine,” and “our administrators are aphids!!!”
The other bathroom was vandalized with “Divest” and “From the river, to the sea” messages.
Campus Reform contacted the University of Portland for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
