News

Actions

Racist vandalism discovered in Cal Poly English building, professor says

Posted
and last updated

A Cal Poly English professor shared online Tuesday what may be the latest in a string of racist incidents straining the Cal Poly community.

Neal A. MacDougall said a student first told another professor in English Building 22 about racist graffiti found in a bathroom Tuesday morning. Someone had written the n-word on a bathroom stall partition. The professors called facilities to clean it up and campus police was called to document the incident.

Then Professor MacDougall saw his bulletin board outside of his office at Room 303, English Building 22 was vandalized. Posters saying “My name is Neal MacDougall. I am an unafraid educator! I work with and for undocumented students & families at Cal Poly – SLO” and “We the people are greater than fear” were slashed.

Campus police were called. MacDougall said officers did not come out to the site but the incident was recorded and the posters were taken down.

In addition to the vandalism, flyers were added to the bulletin board with the apparent intention of correlating darker skin tones with lower intelligence and higher rates of rape and homicide, along with other racist material.

The following Facebook post contains racially charged imagery. Discretion is advised:

There have been a number of acts of racism at Cal Poly in recent weeks and years. Cal Poly President Jeffery Armstrong acknowledged that Tuesday and said enough was enough. He suspended all Greek life on campus, partly because fraternities were found to have been behind some of the incidents: