PORTLAND, Ore. — Undergraduate students at Lewis and Clark College woke up to graffiti-covered walls Monday morning on their walk to class. It’s hard to miss the protests and messages on social media around the Israel-Hamas war, though some students never thought those messages would show up on their walk to class.
“My identity in a religious way is being attacked,” said a Lewis & Clark senior who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.
As it turns out, graffiti is somewhat common on campus. The senior KGW talked with said he’s seen it every year for four years.
“Every Indigenous People’s Day or whenever there’s some sort of thing, someone goes and puts graffiti on something about giving the land back or changing the name. This time they just added Palestine,” he said.
In the email to students, the college said they’re doing their best to expedite clean up, but since there was so much of it removing all the graffiti will take some time. Until then students will have to face it while on campus. We’ve reached out to the school for comments but haven’t heard back.