College and University Monitor

“I feel very, very vulnerable,” Professor Elizabeth Midlarsky said, according to CNN, when she reported Wednesday that her Columbia University office had been defaced with spray-painted swastikas.

The New York Police Department is investigating what appears for all intents and purposes to be a hate crime. A derogatory word about Jews was also spray-painted along with the swastikas.

It’s not the first time that swastikas were spray-painted on Midlarsky’s office. In 2007, someone spray-painted a swastika on her office door, CNN reports.

Midlarsky, who has worked at Teacher’s College for 28 years, said she started receive hate mail in 2007, which she says is tied to work as a Jewish activist, CNN said.

“We unequivocally condemn any expression of hatred, which has no place in our society,” said Thomas Bailey, president of Columbia’s Teachers College, in a statement, Wednesday.

“We are outraged and horrified by this act of aggression and use of this vile anti-Semitic symbol against a valued member of our community.”...