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Swastika drawing found on wall in Aggie Village

Serena Bettis

September 19, 2019

Aggie Village residents found a drawing of a swastika on the wall next to a Community Coordinator’s apartment in Lodgepole in the evening of Sept. 18.

Director of University Housing Helena Gardner sent an email to Aggie Village residents at 10:25 p.m. last night addressing the drawing.

“Our campus is already struggling with so much anger and pain,” Gardner wrote. “And that is even more reason to reiterate: the use of symbols of hate and violence is not acceptable in our community and causes lasting harm.”

Earlier in the evening, University Housing hosted a round table conversation regarding racism, bias and free speech issues. Gardner said they will schedule a similar conversation at Aggie Village next week.

“This is just the beginning of what we hope will be an engaged process to explore and address these topics as a community as we move through this year,” Gardner wrote.

In her fall address Thursday, Colorado State University President Joyce McConnell confirmed the incident.

“Last night, we discovered a swastika on the wall in one of our apartment complexes,” McConnell said. “Whether individual or institutional, racism and bias is antithetical to the core mission of excellent higher education.”

Anyone who witnessed this incident or may have information about it has been asked to contact CSUPD at 970-491-6425 or submit a bias report on the CSU Support and Safety website.

Gardner also recommended the following support systems for students impacted by this incident:

Student Case Management – 970-491-8051
Hillel – 970-224-4246
Jewish CSU (Chabad of Northern Colorado)
Student Diversity Programs and Service offices:
CSU Health Network spiritual care, 970-491-7121
CSU Health Network counseling services, 970-491-6053 (during business hours); (970) 491-7111 for 24/7 and after hours assistance.
If you are concerned about safety or mental health — your own or someone else’s — go to tellsomeone.colostate.edu.

Serena Bettis can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @serenaroseb.

About the Contributor

Serena Bettis, Editor in Chief

Serena Bettis is your 2022-23 editor in chief and is in her final year studying journalism and political science. In her three years at The Collegian, Bettis has also been a news reporter, copy editor, news editor and content managing editor, and she occasionally takes photos, too. When Bettis was 5, her family moved from Iowa to a tiny town northwest of Fort Collins called Livermore, Colorado, before eventually moving to Fort Collins proper. When she was 8 years old, her dad enrolled at Colorado State University as a nontraditional student veteran, where he found his life's passion in photojournalism. Although Bettis' own passion for journalism did not stem directly from her dad, his time at CSU and with The Collegian gave her the motivation to bite down on her fear of talking to strangers and find The Collegian newsroom on the second day of classes in 2019. She's never looked back since. Considering that aforementioned fear, Bettis is constantly surprised to be where she is today. However, thanks to the supportive learning environment at The Collegian and inspiring peers, Bettis has not stopped chasing her teenage dream of being a professional journalist. Between working with her section editors, coordinating news stories between Rocky Mountain Student Media departments and coaching new reporters, Bettis gets to live that dream every day. When she's not in the newsroom or almost falling asleep in class, you can find Bettis working in the Durrell Marketplace and Café or outside gazing at the beauty that is our campus (and running inside when bees are nearby). This year, Bettis' goals for The Collegian include continuing its trajectory as a unique alt-weekly newspaper, documenting the institutional memory of the paper to benefit students in years to come and fostering a sense of community and growth both inside the newsroom and through The Collegian's published work. Bettis would like to encourage anyone with story ideas, suggestions, questions, concerns or comments to reach out to her at editor@collegian.com.

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