WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The College of William and Mary is investigating after someone vandalized several buildings overnight Thursday.
According to a university spokesperson, someone spray painted the words “rape” and “rapist” on nearly all the fraternity houses on Ukrop Way and a community building.
W&M issued the following statement after the discovery:
“Dear William & Mary Community,
I wanted to share information about an incident that you will likely see in the news today.
Early this morning, William & Mary Police (WMPD) discovered that nearly all of our fraternity houses on Ukrop Way, as well as the fraternity/sorority community building, had been vandalized. Graffiti on the buildings included “rape” and “rapists” spray painted on the brick exteriors. The buildings have since been cleaned and WMPD is conducting a full investigation. To be clear, damage to or destruction of property, particularly graffiti on our buildings, is never an acceptable form of expression and won’t be tolerated.
Sexual violence and rape are serious issues on college campuses, including ours. While we have made progress at William & Mary, our efforts to educate about, prevent, and respond to sexual violence must and do continue in earnest. Defacing property and unfairly labeling an entire segment of our community is neither an effective nor acceptable way to advance that cause.”
The words have since been removed.
This comes just a few weeks after controversial flyers targeting women, minorities and immigrants were found on campus.
One flyer called affirmative action racist and another denies the existence of the gender wage gap.
Anyone with any information is urged to call campus police at 757-221-4596.
