Along with bulletin boards and room numbers, other things that have been found on the walls of campus buildings this semester include renderings of a banana, a dinosaur and several phallic symbols -- all instances of graffiti.
These incidents are regular occurrences, said Penn State Police Capt. Bill Moerschbacher, adding he has not seen an increase recently.
"It kind of goes more in stages," he said. "We'll get a bunch, and then it'll tail off."
The graffiti varies, Moerschbacher said.
"A lot of times, it'll be comments on whiteboards or drawings on walls in residence halls and classroom buildings," he said. "Sometimes it's nonsense. Other times, it's artistic things or sexual content, and sometimes it's harassing in content."
The most common place graffiti is found is in residence halls, but it is also found in other places around campus, such as in academic buildings and on sidewalks, Moerschbacher said.
Paul Ruskin, OPP spokesman, said cleanup costs are usually a minimum of $1,000, depending on what was used to create the graffiti.
"It may take anywhere from soap and water and elbow grease to a sophisticated cleaning product with a power scrubber," he said.
Moerschbacher said dry-erase marker is commonly used to create graffiti in residence halls. He added graffiti found in academic buildings is often written with permanent marker, and chalk is common on sidewalks.
During the summer, the Office of Residence Life brought in Penn State Police Auxiliary officers to patrol Beaver Hall after several instances of late-night vandalism -- mostly graffiti -- were reported.
Lynn DuBois, director of ancillary services, said room and board rates are based on operating costs, so if graffiti becomes a significant problem, it could be reflected in rates.
"The cost has to be borne by somebody," Moerschbacher said. "If we can't catch the person who did it, it'll be the people in the residence hall that pay."
Graffiti incidents often occur in residence halls on weekends, overnight at about "bar closing time," Moerschbacher said, adding a com-
mon type of graffiti is drawings and comments written on dry-erase boards in residence halls, though those incidents sometimes go unreported.
"Not everybody reports those types of things," he said. "If they see something written on a dry-erase board they don't like, they'll just erase it. ... Sometimes, it's addressed to the person in the room, and then it tends to be reported."
Moerschbacher said he does not recall any incidents of graffiti involving hate speech this academic year, but there have been such incidents in the past, he said.
In May, Penn State Police said they were investigating several instances of intolerant graffiti that had been discovered in Hamilton Hall since the fall 2007 semester. The graffiti -- derogatory remarks about race and sexual orientation -- was found on white boards and doors throughout the all-male West Halls residence hall, police said.
"You have to look at the circumstances behind the act, not just the act," Moershbacher said, adding there are a number of crimes that can be involved in graffiti, depending on the specific incident. If graffiti includes a threat to somebody, it may be considered harassment or a terroristic threat.
"Generally speaking, it is not the most serious crime," Moerschbacher said. "But from the standpoint of cost and when it harasses another person, it can be."
Ruskin said graffiti is a "disheartening" problem, but a small problem.
"The vast majority of our students are good citizens," he said. "And we depend on the good citizenry of our students to keep the campus looking pristine and in good condition."
