A swastika and explicit words scrawled on a bulletin board in the male change room of Duncan McArthur Hall’s gymnasium were left on display for at least six days before their removal this Wednesday.
But a discrepancy of a week exists between when Physical Plant Services said they were notified about the graffiti and when Varsity Fencing Coach Hugh Munby said he reported the graffiti.
Physical Plant Services removed the graffiti on Wednesday afternoon, but Munby said he sent a request for the graffiti’s removal on either Sept. 2 or 3.
“It was drawn to my attention by a janitorial staff and I took action right away,” he said.
Munby, whose fencing team practises in McArthur Gym and will host an invitational meet there in October, said he forwarded his request for the graffiti’s removal to Brian Zufelt, the building supervisor of McArthur Hall and a manager at Physical Plant Services.
Zufelt was unavailable for comment.
Thomas Morrow, associate vice-principal operations and facilities, said his records show the problem was reported to Zufelt on Sept. 10 and then forwarded to Morrow approximately 40 minutes later.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t get the urgency we wanted it to,” Morrow said.
Because the request was made on a Friday, Morrow said it was not processed until Monday.
“We sort and prioritize our jobs, and unfortunately we flipped on that one a bit,” he said.
Morrow said he holds regular meetings with his building managers to “regularly refresh [their] priorities.”
“And this is something that we will bring up,” he said. “We work hard to get things done quickly, and unfortunately, this was not as expeditious.” An advisor from the Human Rights Office did not wish to comment on the situation citing a lack of information.
Anjali Helferty, AMS social issues commissioner, said she could not judge Physical Plant Services for not cleaning up the graffiti if they were unaware of its existence, but if they did know about the vandalism, “something should’ve been done about it.”
“It’s horrible, and I’m sorry that people were exposed to it during Frosh Week,” she said.
Munby said he didn’t know when the graffiti first appeared on the board.
“We do have lots kids coming in and out of the gym, so I would think it was one of them,” Munby said.
“Or it was a disgruntled opponent from last year’s invitational meet.”
“But you can be sure it’ll be fixed,” he said.
When the Journal first ed Munby Wednesday morning, the graffiti had still not been removed.
The graffiti was covered with white paint Wednesday afternoon.
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