Racially-charged vandalism strikes Sid
Over the past week, Sid Richardson College has been the target of two incidents of vandalism involving food waste, racial slurs and public urination.
In the first incident, Sid College Coordinator Kelly Penrod stepped into her office at 7:50 a.m. on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday last Monday and discovered that her office had been vandalized with food waste and a written racially charged attack. In the second incident on Tuesday night, more Oreo crumbs were found in Penrod’s office and urine was found on the photo copy machine.
“All I know is I came to work to pick up something, and there were Oreo cookies stepped on all over the floor just trashed everywhere, and there were Oreo cookies stuffed in keyholes of the mailboxes,” Penrod said.
The racial slur consisted of two sentences, using “fuck” and “nigger.” The racist remark was written on a slip of paper on Penrod’s door that notifies students when they receive packages.
In response to the incident, President David Leebron, Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman and Sid Chief Justice Arash Shirvani sent e-mails expressing their shock and anger with the vandalism.
In his e-mail, Forman said, “I want to say this as clearly as I can, so that there is no confusion — Hateful speech of this sort will not be tolerated at Rice.”
In his e-mail, Leebron also expressed his disgust, saying, “I wanted to express my own condemnation of such behavior.”
Assistant Dean of Judicial Affairs Don Ostdiek is investigating the incident and possible leads. Ostdiek did not disclose whether or not he thought the vandalism was performed by a Rice or Sid student or someone outside the Rice community.
However, Penrod said she does not think anyone at Sid vandalized her office.
“I just know all my students, and I just don’t think anybody would do such a thing,” Penrod said. “I just can’t think of anybody at Sid that would write something like that.”
Sid Master Michael Orchard and Sid President Sean Monks said the overall reaction to the incident so far has been shock, especially in light of the holiday.
“There’s really no place for that here at Rice or here at Sid,” Orchard said.
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