Slur, Swastikas Found at GWU
Upperclassman Charged With Conduct Code Violations

By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 5, 2007

A George Washington University student was charged by university police Saturday night with writing racial epithets and drawing swastikas on students' doors at New Hall dormitory, a university spokeswoman said yesterday.

GWU spokeswoman Tracy Schario said the student, who lives off campus, has been barred from returning to campus until he is called before a university judicial board that will rule on the alleged violations of the student code of conduct. The heaviest penalty in the school's judicial system is expulsion, she said.

Schario declined to provide information about the student except to say that he or she is an upperclassman. She said federal law and university rules would prohibit school officials from identifying the student even if he or she were expelled.

She added, however, that university police plan to contact federal and D.C. prosecutors today to determine whether the student violated any laws.

Schario said the student is charged with writing a racial epithet on a poster for a Black Engineering Society event that was affixed to an African American student's door. She said the upperclassman also allegedly drew a swastika and wrote "white power" on a board on the door of a Jewish student and drew a swastika on the board of the door of a student whose ethnicity and religion she said she did not know.

Schario said university officials do not think the student charged in the incidents, which occurred within the past week, is responsible for swastikas drawn earlier in the school year at two other dormitories, Mitchell Hall and Potomac House. Campus police are still investigating those incidents.

University officials have offered the African American student and the Jewish student the option of moving rooms.

In an earlier statement, university President Steven Knapp said that "the posting of symbols of hatred anywhere on our campus is unacceptable no matter who is responsible and no matter what the motives may be. Whether intended as hate crimes or pranks, such acts are utterly incompatible with the spirit of mutual respect that is essential to the life of our university."