Vandals targeted the rush booths of four fraternities over the weekend of Jan. 21. While several other booths were egged or had their greek letters removed, the Pi Kappa Alpha (commonly know as PIKE) booth was spray-painted with slogans alleging rape.
The booths, which are set up next to Dexter Lawn for one week at the beginning of rush week, are used to attract new pledges to fraternities, said president of the Interfraternity Council (IFC), Michael Franceschi.
Even though Dexter Lawn was mostly deserted over the weekend, several students saw the vandalism on the booths before they were removed. English freshman Alison Gyepes and her boyfriend were showing a visiting friend around Cal Poly when she saw the vandalism Sunday morning.
The three were walking toward the library when they saw white spray paint on the PIKE booth. Gyepes said the phrase “Rapist scum your time will come” was painted on the side, while the front had another accusation of rape.
Gyepes said along with being shocked by the gravity of the language, she was embarrassed that her friend saw the graffiti as well.
“We were talking about how awesome Cal Poly was and how much I liked the environment, and then there was vandalism,” Gyepes said, “Really hateful vandalism.”
Gyepes said neither she nor her friends noticed the vandalism of the other booths because the graffiti was so attention-grabbing.
“My eyes just kind of focused on the PIKE booth because that was the one with the spray paint,” Gyepes said.
Police are actively investigating who could be behind the damage, said University Police Commander Lori Hashim, and can’t reveal much about the case.
The vandalism occurred some time between 9 a.m. on Jan. 21 and 12 p.m. Jan. 23, Police Records Manager Fred Mills said. Although the time frame makes narrowing down suspects difficult, Mills said a student probably defaced the booths, since students commit most crimes at Cal Poly.
The fraternities removed the vandalized booths from Dexter Lawn shortly after the police arrived at the scene, around noon Sunday.
The presidents of the clubs whose booths were defaced declined to comment individually, but they issued a united statement through the IFC, of which all are members, stating that the vandalism was an “act of prejudice” and that “having this happen on the ordinarily safe Cal Poly campus is disturbing and calls for action.”
The IFC statement also said the vandalism was misrepresentative of the greek system, which has gone to great lengths to build a strong positive relationship with the non-greek Cal Poly community.
Student Life and Leadership Assistant Director Stephan Lamb said the vandalism is shocking because crimes of this kind are so unheard of on Cal Poly campus.
“There are so few instances of public vandalism that I’m aware of, or a public statement against any part of our community that I think when that happens we all lose a little bit,” Lamb said.
This is the first anti-greek vandalism in Cal Poly’s history, and the first instance of hateful vandalism in almost a decade, which is a sign of how accepting and close of a community Cal Poly is, Lamb said.
“The last time I remember some sort of overt vandalism it was against the LGBTQIAA Pride booth at Open House,” Lamb said. “I think it was eight years ago.”
With the end of rush week, rush booths are now gone from Dexter Lawn, and Lamb said next quarter, the booths might be moved to a new location on campus, not for safety but because of tradition. Before renovation of the University Union (UU) Plaza, the booths were typically set up there, but they were moved to the Dexter Lawn while the UU was under construction.
“The men have wanted us to look into the possibility of moving them back to the UU Plaza,” Lamb said.
He said in addition to being the original location of the fraternity booths, the UU Plaza is more visible so the booths would be less likely hit by vandals in the future.