Student reports swastika at Dartmouth College

HANOVER — Police are investigating a report over the weekend of a second swastika drawn outside of a student’s dorm room. So far, however, authorities said it seems the latest incident could be a false alarm.

A Jewish student found the image in question drawn on a laminated piece of paper outside of a dorm room late Friday night, Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock announced in a community message Saturday. It was the second report of the Nazi symbol being marked outside the dorm room of a Jewish student since classes started two weeks ago.

The Hanover Police Department is looking into the incident along with Dartmouth’s Office of Safety and Security.

But on Monday, Hanover Police Capt. Mike Schibuola said police do not believe the most recent drawing was actually a swastika.

“There was some writing on a nearby board that was not threatening and we think it was similar to (a swastika),” Schibuola said Monday. “We don’t think it was actually a swastika.”

However, that determination was not final and the investigation was ongoing as of Monday, Schibuola said.

The college’s Office of Safety and Security also was involved in the ongoing investigation into the “credible report of targeted harassment and antisemitism,” college spokesperson Jana Barnello said Monday.

The image was found in New Hampshire Hall. The dorm building is next door to Topliff Hall where a student reported a first swastika was drawn on a carpet with clear liquid earlier this month. Both dorms are part of the South House cluster at the corner of Wheelock and Crosby streets along with a third building called The Lodge.

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That incident is under investigation as a case of criminal threatening by both the Hanover Police and the Civil Rights Unit of the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office. There were no updates into the ongoing investigation Monday.

Dartmouth also is “fully supporting the criminal investigation by Hanover Police and exploring every option to find those who committed these heinous acts and hold them accountable,” Beilock wrote in her message.

Dartmouth Safety and Security planned to increase patrols near the buildings and in other residence halls and is supporting the students who reported the incidents “and their community,” Beilock wrote.

Despite the uncertainty over the image found Friday, Beilock was quick to take a hard stand on Saturday, describing herself as “shocked and sickened” to have to report more “targeted harassment occurring where our students live.”

Beilock, who is Jewish herself, also noted that the incident had come in the midst of the Jewish High Holidays, which “should be a joyful occasion.” Rosh Hashanah was Sept. 22 through Sept. 24 and it will be Yom Kippur on Wednesday and Thursday.

In 2024, Jewish students made up about 9% of the student population at Dartmouth, according to a report from Hillel International, a nonprofit that has chapters at more than 850 colleges, including Dartmouth.

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