NEW YORK — Messages of hate were discovered this week on the campus of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice on the West Side of Manhattan.
Bigoted graffiti was discovered in campus restrooms and in classrooms. It included racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic slurs, including swastikas.
A letter to friends of the Hillel Club for Jewish students at John Jay said a swastika was first found last week in a men’s room on campus.
The person who found it notified the public safety office, the letter said.
This week, another swastika was found, and the college Office of Student Life reached out to the society and student executives, the letter said.
Some Jewish students said they felt targeted by the graffiti.
“In this case it was specifically anti-Semitic because it was swastikas, but whether it was racist speech or any show of bigotry, I don’t think that belongs on a college campus,” said Tomer Kornfeld of the John Jay Hillel Club.
School president Jeremy Travis sent a letter to the campus community saying such behavior has no place at John Jay. He wrote that school vice president Lynette Cook-Francis met with some of representatives of the groups that were targeted, and planned to meet with more.
School officials have also met with the NYPD Hate Crimes Unit, Travis wrote.
“We should all be concerned and offended by these incidents,” Travis wrote. “We pride ourselves as being a community that celebrates diversity and values differences. We aspire to treat one another with respect and dignity.”
Travis called on students to be vigilant, and inform the public safety department if they see anyone defacing college property or know anyone who was involved.
