Upstate Medical starts investigation into swastika graffiti

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SUNY Upstate Medical University has started an investigation into a swastika found in an anatomy lab, syracuse.com reported Saturday.

Dean of Student Affairs Julie White wrote in an email Friday to Upstate students that the Office of Institutional Equity and campus police were asked to investigate, syracuse.com wrote. The swastika was drawn on “anatomy lab material.”

The investigation comes amid a spike in hate crimes targeting Jewish, Arab and Muslim people in the United States since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

New York State Senator John Mannion, who represents much of the area outside Syracuse, wrote Saturday that the graffiti “does not reflect our region or our values.”

“There is no place for hate in Central New York and I condemn in the strongest possible terms the antisemitic graffiti that was found at SUNY Upstate,” Mannion wrote in the statement.

SUNY Upstate leadership and law enforcement assured Mannion that “all steps are being taken” to protect Jewish students and staff at the university, he wrote.

In her email, White also wrote that the person responsible for the swastika could potentially face criminal changes, syracuse.com reported.