Derrick Tuskan

Humorous, heated and hateful engravings and messages have covered the desks and bathroom walls on San Diego State’s campus for years.

While some of the authors of these messages merely comment on the size of their own bowel movements, others target specific groups in what amounts to hate speech.

Love Library has consistently been a hot spot for these messages.

Shawn Correia, security personnel for the library, said the bathrooms were wiped clean of graffiti during the last winter break. He said they have been a lot cleaner since the library began its 1 a.m. curfew.

However, the men’s bathroom on the fourth floor of the library remains one of the most prevalent spots on campus for this strange type of social commentary.

Many of the authors of these messages know how to reflect their surroundings well – they use toilet humor.

One author wrote, “All logs 16 oz. and over must be hand lowered.” He continued, “Thank You from SDSU flood control.”

The person also made a graphic diagram of how the process would be executed.

Another person made a response to a tag that said, “RAIDER NATION,” by stating, “The Raiders are f**gots, they play skin flute better than they play football.”

A few people turned the bathroom stall into an interactive voting booth by putting surveys on the wall. One survey asked which team would win the NBA championship, while another asked what major at SDSU had the hottest girls.

While these tags are humorous to many people, some of them can be offensive to particular social groups, and may constitute a criminal offense.

Correia said if he were to find a person tagging or engraving, he would detain them and report them to University Police.

Police Officer Jennifer McNamara said she has not had any calls on her shift regarding any particular instance of tagging in the library.

She said community service officers need to crack down on graffiti, and faculty and students should report new instances of defaced property.

“The best way to combat graffiti is for everyone to be proactive,” McNamara said.

However, some taggers seem to feel bathroom walls are the perfect place for them to express their views about the world.

One person wrote, “This partition wall was entirely free of graffiti when I wrote on it.”

The person went on to write, “I am alarmed because when you factor out all the stuff about sex and sh**ting, partition wall writing is the most honest social commentary in the world.”

The author said people would write things about race, religion and politics they would not dare say out loud.

While much of the writing is honest social commentary, it is not legal.

The desks on the third, fourth and fifth floors of the library are filled with hateful messages, targeting ethnic and social groups, both directly and indirectly.

One that had originally been written with a positive message said, “Women are powerful.” However, the word powerful had been crossed out and replaced with the word “stupid.”

Yet another message presented a situation in which one group might be directly offended, while the other may be offended indirectly.

This particular desk on the fifth floor of the library said, “Frats = Gay Butt Lovers.” The victims in this case are both fraternity members and homosexuals.

McNamara said if you see something that offends you, call University Police so they can find the appropriate way to have it cleaned.

She said the police would be contacting the library regarding the graffiti and asking them to clean it up.