Following Trump’s election and inauguration Swastikas started to popping up around the nation including the University of Hartford. The first report came in on November 9th where a men’s restroom in Auerbach Hall had a swastika drawn on the wall and next to it were the words, “They lied about Hitler” and a message giving a warning about something happening on campus on a future date however when discovered by Public Safety the date had already passed.

Upon investigate the Director of Public Safety, John Schmaltz, said, “It appears they come from multiple sources due to the handwriting associated with the graffiti was different from the swastikas. And there was also different graffiti there that was unrelated to the swastikas and it was like certain restrooms had a lot of graffiti in it.”

Schmaltz then said that he encourages students that if they see something they should say something and report it to Public safety at 860 – 768 – 7985, or using the Whistleblower hotline at 844 – 256 – 3946, or with an upcoming app called LiveSafe.

Schmaltz said, “Ideally, contact us so that we can document it, photograph it, and try interviewing people if it’s possible. I’d rather have a million calls and waste a million hours for nothing than have one person decide not to take action and it have a negative impact, whether on an individual, group or a campus wide effect.”