Dear Ithaca College Community,
I am dismayed to have to share with our community the news that a swastika was reported on Thursday, October 6, on our campus. The symbol was scratched onto the door to a storage room beneath the Terrace Dining Hall that keeps supplies and equipment for our Kosher Kitchen.
The Office of Public Safety is investigating the incident as a hate crime due to the location of the swastika and it being targeted specifically toward members of our Jewish community. While the person reporting it said that the symbol had been there since August of 2021, this news will understandably raise fresh pain and fear. We ask anyone who might have information about this incident to contact Public Safety at 607-274-3333 or leave an anonymous voicemail message at 607-274-1060.
It is especially disheartening to learn of this targeting just after Yom Kippur—the holiest day of the Jewish calendar—comes to an end. Antisemitic, racist, and other threatening symbols, words, behaviors, and ideologies are unacceptable and should find no home on our campus.
I encourage anyone who experiences or witnesses a bias incident on campus, via social media, virtually, or at a college-affiliated event, to file a Bias Impact Report.
We must all recommit to the values of respect, equity, and accountability, so that all members of our campus community can live and learn in an environment in which they feel safe and secure.
In solidarity,
La Jerne Terry Cornish
President