{"id":768540,"date":"2026-05-02T16:28:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/768540\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T16:28:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:28:57","slug":"pro-palestine-graffiti-spray-painted-across-campus-extensive-cleaning-work-ensues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/768540\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-Palestine Graffiti Spray-Painted Across Campus, Extensive Cleaning Work Ensues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Early morning on May 1, many locations on north campus were vandalized with spray paint. Non-residential buildings (including Parrish Hall), along with trees, walkways, and fences, were graffitied with pro-Palestinian messages and symbols, as well as language protesting Swarthmore\u2019s Board of Managers. The Board is currently visiting campus for their quarterly meeting.<\/p>\n

The vandalism took place in a 30-minute window around 3:30 a.m. on Friday, according to Vice President for Communications and Marketing Andy Hirsch. The Delco Times<\/a> reported that the Swarthmore Police Department had been notified about the incidents and officers were on campus that morning.<\/p>\n

Some of the graffiti included \u201cDivest Now,\u201d \u201cGenocide,\u201d \u201cBoard of Butchers,\u201d \u201cGaza,\u201d \u201cFuck Israel,\u201d \u201cBOM You Can\u2019t Hide,\u201d \u201cDrop Cisco,\u201d and upside-down red triangles, a symbol used in the pro-Palestine movement.\u00a0In a message<\/a> to the campus community, President Val Smith said there were \u201chundreds of acts of vandalism.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to several staff members who spoke to The Phoenix Friday morning, the graffiti required significant work on the part of Facilities, Grounds, and Environmental Services (EVS) to remove the spray-paint from different parts of campus. Some of these workers were called in as early as 4:30 a.m., according to Hirsch.<\/p>\n

Throughout the morning, students made their way as the sounds of pressure washers carried on; pathways were repainted; staff members and community members volunteering for Work Box scrubbed at trees to remove the red paint. Many workers expressed frustration about the paint not coming off easily and the hours that they had been out cleaning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In email correspondence with The Phoenix, Hirsch said that some of the buildings and trees require special attention, and outside contractors will have to remove the paint. He also said that he did not know how long the entire removal process would take.<\/p>\n

In her community message, Smith condemned the vandalism and the individuals responsible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI am as disappointed as I am angry at these criminal acts of cowardice. These six or so individuals, who made their way across campus in the dead of night while fully disguised, chose to violate not just our policies and the law, but our sense of community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smith wrote that the college does not yet know whether these individuals were students. If they are, she said, they will face \u201cimmediate disciplinary action, including interim suspension.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 5:03 a.m., The Phoenix received an email with the subject line \u201cWAKE UP AND LOOK AROUND,\u201d from an external email address sarcastically posing as Board of Managers Chair Koof Kalkstein. \u201cThe Board of Butchers are not welcome on campus. Get out early to see the art we left them,\u201d the email said.<\/p>\n

The Phoenix wrote to the email address asking for comment about the graffiti, the work effort it resulted in, and Smith\u2019s message and received no response.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Friday morning\u2019s events resemble a similar protest campaign against the Board this past December, when the Swarthmore Inn was spray painted with \u201cBoard of Butchers.\u201d<\/a> The college, in collaboration with the Swarthmore Borough Police Department, were investigating the incident. Hirsch did not answer a question about whether they had identified the individual(s) involved in the December event.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Phoenix photographers captured the graffiti before and during cleaning, and after most staff had left.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Phoenix Photos\/Devin Gibson<\/p>\n

\"\"Phoenix Photos\/James Shelton<\/p>\n

\"\"Phoenix Photos\/James Shelton<\/p>\n

\"\"Phoenix Photos\/James Shelton<\/p>\n

\"\"Phoenix Photos\/Devin Gibson<\/p>\n

\"\"Phoenix Photos\/Devin Gibson<\/p>\n

\"\"Phoenix Photos\/James Shelton<\/p>\n

\"\"Phoenix Photos\/James Shelton<\/p>\n

\"\"Phoenix Photos\/Devin Gibson<\/p>\n

\"\"Phoenix Photos\/James Shelton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Early morning on May 1, many locations on north campus were vandalized with spray paint. Non-residential buildings (including…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":768541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,50135,1589,72222,1809,315236,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,1130],"class_list":["post-768540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-graffiti","tag-phoenix","tag-pro-palestine","tag-protest","tag-swarthmore-college","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-vandalism"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116505935109666770","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}