university_hall-old_main_hamline_universityAnti-gay graffiti hit the campus of Hamline University on Wednesday morning just as students were celebrating Rainbow Week, a series of events designed to raise the visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students on campus.

The vandal or vandals spray-painted a swath of messages on several buildings, on sidewalks and even trees and bushes. The messages included derogatory comments about gays and lesbians.

Hamline students said the incident was dealt with swiftly by campus authorities — so swiftly, in fact, most students never saw the graffiti.

“These are acts of vandalism, intended to be hurtful and to undermine our values as an inclusive and honorable community,” said school president Linda Hanson in an e-mail to students and faculty.

“Such acts will not be tolerated at Hamline, and we will pursue every avenue to discover the perpetrators of this vandalism. As a community, we embrace multiculturalism and aspire to be exemplary as an inclusive learning community, free of all forms of harassment, hostility and violence.”

A.J. Grieve, a member Spectrum, the student group hosting Rainbow Week, said it seemed that the graffiti was not directly targeting their events.

“The incident did not seem like it was trying to target the queer students as much as it was using questioning someone’s sexuality as an insult. It really just show just how ignorant some people still are,” she said. “Fortunately the school did do a very good job for the most part.”

She added, “I think we are all still hoping that it was done by someone outside of the Hamline community.”

Alex Suskovic, administrative chair for Spectrum, said campus administrators visited his group to talk about the incident but were brief on details.

“They were extremely prompt about fixing the graffiti. I wouldn’t have even known about it unless they had sent an email out,” he said.

“My only gripe — and this always seems to be the case — [is] they won’t give specifics on what actually happened. They are more interested in the aftermath, how people are feeling or how to address the issue.”

He added that the Hamline administration, and campus in general, has been a very supportive environment for LGBT students.

“I have never felt threatened or harassed here and I also know that if I did feel that way the administration would take it very seriously.”