2008 Woodie Awards
Grafitti defaces Crooker's outer wall, not considered an 'epidemic'
Carlisle Weaver
Issue date: 5/1/08 Section: Other News
An unidentified person[s] spray-painted a two-word explicit phrase on the north wall of Crooker Center in the early-morning hours of April 1. The red spray-painted phrase was discovered by UST security officer Sam Garza and the incident is estimated to have occurred between 3:25 and 3:45 a.m.
The officer passed by the area and when he returned approximately 20 minutes later, "he could still smell the paint in the air," UST's Director of Security Chief Daryl Bissett said. The security office is investigating to determine who was responsible.
Some UST personnel who work in Crooker and students arrived on campus before the graffiti was cleaned. "Each letter was at least one-foot to 1 ½ feet-tall," said senior environmental studies major Tiffani Shinn, who said she arrived at UST around 6:15 a.m.
Once facilities workers arrived on campus around 7 a.m., they began cleaning the graffiti from the wall. A chemical designed for removing paint from porous surfaces was applied in a series of treatments and the wall was power washed, according to Head of Facilities Operations Howard Rose. The entire cleaning process took a few hours.
Graffiti is considered an act of criminal mischief, Bissett said. While graffiti and vandalism are common occurrences on UST's campus, such incidents usually do not contain obscenities and are not typically found in the campus' interior. Tagging and gang-related graffiti occur more frequently, but are usually limited to the outskirts of the campus.
"I wouldn't say that [graffiti] is an epidemic problem; it's an episodic problem," Bissett said.
If the individual responsible is identified as a student, disciplinary action will be turned over to the office of the vice president of student affairs, as are all disciplinary matters that do not involve class A misdemeanors, felonies, injuries to persons, or significant property damage and other major criminal law violations, Bissett said. If the person responsible is not a student, charges will be filed.
The officer passed by the area and when he returned approximately 20 minutes later, "he could still smell the paint in the air," UST's Director of Security Chief Daryl Bissett said. The security office is investigating to determine who was responsible.
Some UST personnel who work in Crooker and students arrived on campus before the graffiti was cleaned. "Each letter was at least one-foot to 1 ½ feet-tall," said senior environmental studies major Tiffani Shinn, who said she arrived at UST around 6:15 a.m.
Once facilities workers arrived on campus around 7 a.m., they began cleaning the graffiti from the wall. A chemical designed for removing paint from porous surfaces was applied in a series of treatments and the wall was power washed, according to Head of Facilities Operations Howard Rose. The entire cleaning process took a few hours.
Graffiti is considered an act of criminal mischief, Bissett said. While graffiti and vandalism are common occurrences on UST's campus, such incidents usually do not contain obscenities and are not typically found in the campus' interior. Tagging and gang-related graffiti occur more frequently, but are usually limited to the outskirts of the campus.
"I wouldn't say that [graffiti] is an epidemic problem; it's an episodic problem," Bissett said.
If the individual responsible is identified as a student, disciplinary action will be turned over to the office of the vice president of student affairs, as are all disciplinary matters that do not involve class A misdemeanors, felonies, injuries to persons, or significant property damage and other major criminal law violations, Bissett said. If the person responsible is not a student, charges will be filed.