Police are investigating after the Black Resource Center at San Diego University was vandalized the weekend of April 12.
The center, which opened a little over a year ago, was broken into sometime between Friday evening and Sunday morning, according to SDSU spokeswoman LaMonica Everett-Haynes. She said the vandals busted a TV and moved some items around to the center of the space.
San Diego State University said this is the second time since March that the Black Resource Center has been targeted. (KPBS / video screenshot)
No students were present when the incident took place.
“We were disheartened to find the building — an important space for learning and community gathering on our campus — treated with such disrespect and disregard,” the university said in a statement.
In a letter to the campus community, SDSU Chief Diversity Officer J. Luke Wood said additional security measures had already been put in place at the BRC since the start of the Spring semester, and that more were on the way after last week’s vandalism. It’s the second time since March that the center has been targeted.
Last month, a group of men were recorded shouting racial slurs as they drove past the building, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. College officials condemned the incident and held “healing circles” on campus to spark a dialogue about what had happened.
“Incidents such as that which has occurred at the BRC do not minimize our commitment to our community — they strengthen them,” Wood said in a statement. “SDSU has and will continue to affirm our unyielding commitment to diversity and inclusion, and I call on your continued solidarity in support of our Black community and in support of our collective community.”
The Black Resource Center opened last year and serves as a safe space for students, staff and faculty of the Black/African diaspora to fellowship with one another.
The vandalism remains under investigation.
