A University of Minnesota student arrested Thursday is accused of vandalizing a desk in the common area of his residence hall with a swastika.
Matthew Paul Gruber, 18, was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage to property stemming from a report filed by another student on Feb. 7, according to the University of Minnesota Police Department. He is originally from the St. Cloud area. Gruber has not been charged.
The arrest comes one week after a similar incident in a different University of Minnesota residence hall, in which a student found pictures of a concentration camp and a swastika drawn on a whiteboard in their dorm room, according to a statement issued by the university’s Bias Response and Referral Network. It is unclear whether the two incidents are related, a university spokesman said.
“The University of Minnesota condemns all acts of hate on our campus,” the Bias Response and Referral Network statement said. “We are a community that values respect, inclusion and diversity. Hate is not welcome here.”
The network has noted an uptick recently in reports of swastikas, neo-Nazi propaganda and other anti-Semitic graffiti on campus, the statement said, adding that it has received seven such reports since the beginning of December.
The Bias Response and Referral Network also encouraged students who experience or witness acts of bias or hate to report them via the network’s website.