Vandalism has been a moderate issue at the University in the last few years: some graffiti here and there, broken gates and the occasional writing on restroom doors. This year things have changed. Vandalism has doubled, which is costing the school extra time and money to fix and clean up the resulting damage.
The Department of Public Safety@@http://safetyweb.uoregon.edu/@@ lists the vandalism incidents in categories by damage cost. For January 2012, there were 34 different incidents, with 28 of them costing between $500-$999 to repair. There were 19 incidents total, with only five in the same range of damage costs in January 2011.
Debbie Cadigan of Campus Relations and Customer Service@@http://campusops.uoregon.edu/administration@@ takes in reports of vandalism and is in charge of sending out people to fix or clean it.
“We look at things in fiscal years, and from July 2010 to June 2011 vandalism more than doubled,” Cadigan said. “There have been more tagging incidents than ever before.”
DPS Cpt. Ed Rinne@@http://uonews.uoregon.edu/archive/news-release/2011/12/uo-instructor-and-uodps-officer-help-save-student%E2%80%99s-life@@ noted there does not appear to be any correlation with local gang violence.
“We’ve seen it close to triple with graffiti-related incidents,” Rinne said. “It’s one of those things that we hate to see.”
The problem with the graffiti is the canvas used and what it takes to clean it up.
“A lot of these incidents have been on brick buildings and are high up,” Cadigan said. “This means we have to call in crews to get up there to clean it because it can’t be reached just by a ladder.”
Rinne mentioned an ongoing investigation into one specific tagger, but could not go into the details of the case. Even with the one tagger, there has been an array of graffiti-related vandalism.
“We’re seeing a lot of pictures, stencil drawings, animals and other things,” Rinne said. “We’ve seen some that are large, but not one person (is) doing it all.”
And according to Cadigan and Rinne, it isn’t just graffiti. There have been reports of broken sprinkler heads, trashed stairwells and broken gate arms in campus parking lots.
“Why this is happening this year, I don’t know,” Rinne said. “There’s no specific pattern, it’s at different times and locations.”
The vandalism has increased greatly since the beginning of this school year, with the majority of it occurring outdoors.
Suspects have been using a combination of markers and spray paint for the majority of the graffiti work.
Rinne emphasizes the importance of people coming forward if they see something suspicious.
“We ask that the University community would come together and call us right away,” Rinne said. “It costs the University money and the students money.”
Vandalism incidents double on Oregon campus in last year
Daily Emerald
February 4, 2012
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