Swastika Graffiti
Swastika GraffitiReuters

For the second time in two months, vandals have attacked Northwestern University in Evanston with anti-Semitic and racist graffiti, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday. 

According to the report, construction workers discovered the graffiti last Monday morning at the construction site for the university's new Kellogg School of Management. 

"It is believed the incident happened sometime Saturday or Sunday," Alan Cubbage, Vice President for University Relations, told the Tribune.

"When Northwestern police officers arrived on Monday, the graffiti had already been painted over by construction personnel, but they did take some pictures of it."

Cubbage declined to be specific about the content of the graffiti but admitted it was racist in nature and included at least one swastika.

A similar incident occurred in April, when university police discovered a swastika and a Star of David in a pair of library study rooms, believing the Star of David image to have originally been another swastika. 

Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro issued a campus-wide email informing students and staff of the ongoing investigation and stressing "these acts are offensive to the entire Northwestern community and will not be tolerated."

A group of 23 anti-Semitism watchdogs subsequently called on Schapiro to do more to combat anti-Semitism on campus, starting with "publicly acknowledging that a swastika is an anti-Semitic symbol associated with genocide perpetrated against the Jewish people."

Meanwhile, Cubbage said police are still investigating last week's incident, but as of yet do know how the culprit "gained access to the site" or if this attack "has a relation to earlier incidents."