Hateful homophobic graffiti left on Sellery Hall residents’ door this week has spurred an investigation from the University of Wisconsin Police Department, University Housing and the Division of Student Life.

The graffiti – which one of the residents found around 1 a.m. Monday – was aggressively targeted at gay people. “Fuck gay people;” “Gays can go die;” “Die all you gay people” and “Retards can go die,” among other similar messages, were scribbled on a dry-erase board on a resident’s door.

In an interview with The Badger Herald, the resident who had her door vandalized with hateful graffiti related the night of the incident and the aftermath reporting it.

Last Sunday evening, the resident said she got into an argument with a fellow resident over the offensive use of the word “gay.” She said “gay” is not synomous with “stupid.”

A few hours later, she said she heard a loud knocking on her door, which she and her roommate at first ignored.

When the knocking continued, she got out of bed to check.

She said she saw the resident she had the argument with earlier standing near the drinking fountain on the floor. She said she then found the graffiti on her door.

She said she told the other resident she knew he had written the graffiti, but he denied it.

She then went back to bed, but the knocking on her door continued, she said.

“Me and my roommate were freaked out at this point, because those are kind of crazy comments,” she said. “[We thought], ‘Is this kid a psycho? What the hell is going on right now?'”

She said she and her roommate were “shaken up” and went to wake up their house fellow.

Their house fellow told them to erase the graffiti and said she would file a report in the morning, according to the resident.

Magpie Martinez, director of Diversity Programs in housing, said it is protocol for a house fellow to ask permission to remove particularly offensive written material after taking pictures for proof.

The resident said while she took pictures, her house fellow did not.

On Monday, the resident and her house fellow went to talk to one of the residence life coordinators, who said the other resident who allegedly wrote the graffiti would be talked to. Later, she said she had heard there was one other resident who had seen the incident take place.

On Tuesday, she went to another residence life coordinator to say there was a witness to the incident in the morning.

She said she had told her mother about the incident, and her mother called the residence life coordinators. Following the call, the resident was called to meet with a coordinator, who asked her if she wanted UWPD to be involved.

The resident said she is confident she knows who wrote the messages.

She said while she is now assured the incident will be taken seriously and looked into, it took some time to get there.

“I do feel like they were pushed to take it seriously,” the resident said.

The resident said she wanted the campus to know hateful and bigoted speech exist and said she still had good relationships with members of housing staff who were involved.

Associate Dean of Students Kevin Helmkamp said the Division of Student Life has partnered with University Housing to investigate the incident.

“The graffiti was very hateful and directed at somebody, or a group of folks,” Helmkamp said. “I would say we are taking a strong interest because of the nature of what was written on the door.”

Lt. Mark Silbernagel confirmed the UWPD is conducting an open investigation but could not comment on the nature of the investigation or whether there were any suspects.

Martinez said she could not speak to any specifics of the incident. She said other housing staff members would not be able to comment.

CORRECTION: The story’s lead originally said the graffiti was found on “residents’ doors.” It was only found on one door.