By Khalida Sarwari
The University of California, Santa Cruz campus was peaceful tonight after students and faculty were on alert all day over violent threats discovered in graffiti last week, a university spokesman said.
The university bolstered the presence of police with officers from the Universities of California at Berkeley, San Francisco and Davis following the discovery of graffiti in a bathroom in the Social Sciences 2 building warning that violence would occur on campus today.
The graffiti was discovered shortly before the school went on winter break in December and has since been removed. Specific details about the graffiti were not released.
Jim Burns, a spokesman for the university, said that the day was incident-free.
Some classes were rescheduled or relocated to off-campus sites as a precautionary measure, but most were held as scheduled, Burns said. He said attendance might have been affected, though he did not have an estimate of how many students were absent because of the threat.
“What happened in Tucson gave us an opportunity to remind ourselves that safety is everyone’s business,” Burns said. “This incident which in the end we hope was confined to threatening graffiti was a good opportunity for students to prepare themselves should they ever confront violent behavior.”
Campus police offered seven training sessions last week to arm students and faculty with basic skills in emergency situations.
He said that under such circumstances, students and faculty should go to a secure area, place their cell phones on vibrate, and remain there until they’re told it is safe by the university’s CruzAlert emergency notification system.
Anyone who is aware of suspicious behavior or activity is asked to call the UCSC Police Department at (831) 459-2231. People wishing to remain anonymous can call (831) 459-3TIP or submit a tip online at www2.ucsc.edu/police/crime.html.