Graffiti on campus costs the university thousands for repair, removal

A barrage of increased graffiti is pelting Western this year, according to Facilities Management and University Police personnel, and they are asking for student help to rein it in.

Bill Managan, the assistant director of operations for Facilities Management, said there has been a 30 percent increase in the amount of graffiti seen since last year, and the university has spent over $18,000 since July to remove it.

The high cost of clean up is mostly due to the amount of time spent removing or painting over the graffiti, Managan said. That cost is compounded when certain places on campus, like the Fairhaven tunnel, are tagged over and over again.

“We can go down and paint [the tunnel], and within hours it will be hit again,” he said.

University Police Officer Harkleroad, who has been working the graffiti cases, said University Police has been working with the Bellingham Police Department to catch the taggers, but patrols alone are not enough because the tagging happens so quickly and often at night when there are fewer people around.

“This is something we can’t do on our own,” she said. “We need students’ help.”

Harkleroad said students are more likely to hear about who might be doing the tagging and should call University Police if they see or hear anything suspicious that could be related to the graffiti.

Harkleroad said police believe both Western students and non-student members of the community are contributing to the graffiti problem. University Police does not believe the tags on Western’s campus are gang affiliated.

Western Paint Shop Lead Dan Norsby said graffiti clean up is also taking a person away from normal campus maintenance jobs. He said he has been working at least eight hours a day removing and painting over graffiti when he would normally be doing maintenance on the residence halls, academic buildings and gym floors.

Norsby said any call to go clean up graffiti takes at least an hour. If the graffiti does not wash off with chemicals or cleaning solution, it has to be sandblasted off or painted over, which takes even longer.

Even chalk drawings in places outside the designated Red Square chalk zone are part of the problem because someone still has to go wash them off, he said.

Norsby also said the graffiti should not be considered art.

“A lot of people argue that it’s art, but art doesn’t affect any other people the way vandalism does,” he said.

Managan said Western has provided appropriate venues for expression, such as the Red Square chalk zone, the AS Free Speech Board in the Viking Union and various open bulletin boards. He said there has been talk of providing a zone where graffiti art would be allowed, but he said officials aren't sure if it would do anything to curb the illegal tagging.

“People doing this kind of graffiti like to cause trouble and will just do it in a more difficult place,” he said.

Managan said the first three days of March saw at least four or five instances of graffiti each day.

If you have any information about any of the graffiti on campus, call University Police at (360) 650-3555.