The Oldest College Newspaper in Pennsylvania

The Lafayette

The Oldest College Newspaper in Pennsylvania

The Lafayette

The Oldest College Newspaper in Pennsylvania

The Lafayette

Diversity dorm vandalized at Lehigh University

A Lehigh University dorm aimed at promoting diversity on campus was vandalized early Wednesday morning. The vandalization is suspected to be retaliation against a campus-wide movement dedicated to “expos[ing] how minorities are treated on campus,” according to an Express-Times report.

The dorm had been egged and spray-painted by students early Wednesday morning. The report also indicated that the building was covered in racial slurs along with the other vandalism.

Lafayette College is no stranger to this type of vandalism. In April of last semester, a swastika and racial slur were found printed on a poster on the first floor men’s bathroom of Ruef Hall. In March, the front door of a Watson Courts room belonging to three black students had been vandalized with the n-word.

“I was really saddened to hear the news of the recent bias-related incident at Lehigh, but I must admit I was not totally surprised,” Dean of Intercultural Development John McKnight wrote in an email. Before coming to Lafayette in 2009, McKnight worked at Lehigh, where he served as director of multicultural affairs and managed the Umoja House.

“It is a shame that in 2013, such overt acts of racism are tolerated by college students,” McKnight continued. “We don’t have all the information at this time, but I really hope this act was not committed by college students. For me, it’s scary to think that such a thing could have been done by the next generation of leaders.”

“I really hope that the Lehigh community seizes this opportunity to bind together to denounce these kinds of attitudes and behaviors.”

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