Rhode Island School of Design campus. Photo: RISD.

A swastika made of human feces, discovered in a dorm bathroom last week at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), has students rattled, local news station NBC 10 reported.

There is “no place for hateful symbols on a college campus or anywhere,” the school’s Hillel chapter stated, praising RISD officials for their “swift and clear response.” 

RISD student Cooper Thompson told NBC 10, “It’s pretty shocking because I think everyone is wondering, you know, who it is. What they did is antisemitic. I have a feeling most likely they’re really trying to shock people.”

Another student, Rory Hernandez , said, “It’s kind of disgusting, actually, and really sad that somebody would go to that length to kind of express their frustration or some kind of angst or mental disease.” 

However, Hernandez added, “There have [been] people using their own fecal matter in a harmful way in the bathrooms, in the showers, all over the bathroom. It’s been happening repeatedly and it should just be over by now. It should just be stopping.” 

School officials said in a statement, “This level of disrespect and vitriol is completely unacceptable and RISD Public Safety is investigating it as both an act of vandalism and a crime of hate.”

This is among a string of similar incidents that have been occurring on North American campuses over the past year. This month alone, images of a Nazi gas chamber and nearby crematorium were scrawled in the room of a Jewish student at the University of Minnesota; and a Valentine’s Day card with a photo of Hitler next to the message “my love 4 u burns like 6,000 jews” was distributed at Central Michigan University.