Students using some of the bathrooms on the first floor of Angell Hall have noticed and been upset by racist graffiti on the stall walls.

Located in the women’s bathroom next to the Fishbowl and the men’s bathroom near the Mason Hall entrance, the graffiti includes offensive stereotypes about Indian and Asian women, as well as hateful remarks toward Arabs and Jews.

The graffiti includes sexually explicit and violent language, along with expletives.

“This is a reaction of people who have dissatisfaction with multiculturalism,” said Patricia Aqui Pacania, director of the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs.

“I am concerned because it is hateful speech — it is a cowardly act. It goes beyond stereotypes and creates ignorance. It goes against our values as an institution,” Pacania said.

While the graffiti angered many students, the Department of Public Safety was unaware of the racist remarks on the stall walls until Friday.

Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Diane Brown said the University doesn’t tolerate any type of graffiti unless it is written outdoors on a horizontal surface with chalk. Regarding the violation of the graffiti policy in the bathrooms, Brown said the University follows state law when deciding a course of action.

Under Michigan law, a person who draws graffiti on a surface can be charged with malicious destruction of property. Depending on the amount of destruction, a person may either be jailed or fined up to three times the amount of the damage.

“Custodians clean bathrooms everyday. They clean what can be removed. When dealing with graffiti, custodians must write a report to Risk Management, the University’s insurance company. Risk Management assesses the damage and then pays a company to paint or replace the property,” Brown said.

DPS took photographs of the graffiti Friday to check if it contained racist remarks.

“DPS took a report on the graffiti in the bathrooms and requested maintenance clean-up,” Brown said.

DPS reported the crime as malicious destruction of property with a hate bias.  “They don’t have any suspects,” she added.

Brown also said building services is exploring a material that can be applied to the bathroom stalls to prevent the adherence of markers and pens on the stall walls.

Anthony Walesby, senior director of the Office of Institutional Equity, said the graffiti statements were not something the University supported.

“We are concerned about the students’ safety and where freedom of speech becomes a violation of civil rights. We don’t want anyone on campus to feel unwelcome,” Walesby said.

But the University wasn’t the only once voicing disapproval of the graffiti. Members of student organizations were also upset.

“Sexist, racist and anti-Semitic graffiti are not acceptable in any circumstance, and these recent examples in Angell Hall are no exception,” said Stephanie Chang, co-chair of the United Asian American Organizations.

“It disturbs me on several different levels. One, that people even feel the need to write about their sexual experiences on bathroom walls. Second, that people objectify Asian and Asian Pacific American women as passive and sexual objects,” Chang said.

Neal Pancholi, president of the Indian American Student Association, said it was awful that students still think this way, even in the diverse society that the University has strived to create.

“These people hold society back because they are placing blame on people who didn’t have a choice to be born where they were. They make blames without having significance, and it only shows their own ignorance,” Pancholi said.

“The comments on these bathroom walls cannot be taken as ‘just comments’ — it’s a public place, lots of people walk through there and any comments like these affect the way people think about women and specifically women of color. It’s important to remember that these comments are in the public sphere and this is a campus community. These comments shouldn’t be considered in isolation,” Chang said.

The University has commissions that deal with reports of hate crimes. These include the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Affairs, DPS and the Office of Institutional Equity.