Early on Tuesday morning, the Texas A&M University Ring Plaza was broken into and vandalized. The suspects spray-painted the ground next to the plaza and put down a message that alluded to rape. At the moment, no suspects have been apprehended. Investigators also did not disclose the number of suspects that were involved in the vandalism.
According to University officials, the message was discovered by an employee reporting to work on Tuesday at around 7.30 a.m. The act is said to have happened in the early hours of the morning.
“The perpetrators of the act were caught on film spraying the message at around 4 a.m.,” said the University’s Vice President of the Association of Former Student Kathryn Greenwades. Greenwades added that the tapes showcasing the act had already been handed to local authorities who will be handling the vandalism case.
The message, which was painted in red next to the Ring Plaza, read:
‘Rape is inevitable, might as well enjoy it -Clayton Williams.’
There were also two arrows pointing to the Clayton W. Williams Jnr. Alumni Center Building next to the statement.
The statement, according to The Eagle, references a remark that Clayton Williams made in his early 90s’ campaign for the Texas gubernatorial seat. Williams had said something along the lines of ‘if something is inevitable, like cold weather or rape, you may as well enjoy it.’ Though the statement was taken out of context in the A&M incident, Williams clarified that his earlier statement had been a joke.
The damage to school property was done days before the alumni of the school are set to arrive for the Aggie Ring Ceremony. The ceremony brings together former students and their loved ones to celebrate their achievements. On that day, the alumni remember and toast to their graduation. They are then presented with the physical symbols of their accomplishment- the Aggie Ring.
With the days ahead of being crucial to the success of the ceremony, Kathryn Greenwades confirmed that the university would get rid of the message before the ceremony. The ground has been covered with tarp for now awaiting thorough cleaning after the close of the investigation into the matter.
The impact of the message, no matter how poorly it was delivered, remains.
Just last month, a report released by the University of Texas raised concerns about rape statistics in the state.
The research study was conducted on twenty-eight thousand female participants from the university’s campuses all through Texas. Of all the female undergraduate volunteers who underwent the study, fifteen percent confessed to having been raped. About thirteen in every one hundred women enrolled in graduate or professional studies programs reported sexual harassment and coercion from either faculty members or male colleagues.
The University’s Chancellor William McRaven and President Greg Fenves both gave statements calling these findings ‘alarming’ and calling for action to be taken to prevent such incidences from recurring or prevailing.
The vandalism incident was wrong, no doubt about it, but it also highlighted a chilling attitude toward rape in Texas. And raised the question: what will be done about it?
