Northwestern students charged in connection with Alice Millar vandalism released on bond

The inside of Northwesterns Alice Millar Chapel. Two NU students were arrested Saturday and charged with felony vandalism in connection with graffiti found in Alice Millar.

Daily file photo by Courtney Morrison

The inside of Northwestern’s Alice Millar Chapel. Two NU students were arrested Saturday and charged with felony vandalism in connection with graffiti found in Alice Millar.

Madeline Fox, Campus Editor

The two Northwestern students charged with felony vandalism in connection with the Alice Millar Chapel graffiti were released on bond Saturday, a spokeswoman for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office said.

The bonds for Anthony Morales and Matthew Kafker, both Weinberg freshmen, were set at $50,000 each, with 10 percent posted for their release from custody, Cook County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Sophia Ansari told The Daily in an email Sunday.

The students were charged with institutional vandalism, hate crime to a place of worship and criminal damage to property in connection with graffiti found in Alice Millar Chapel. The graffiti included a swastika, male genitalia and the word “Trump.” It was painted in various parts of the chapel and religious center, including on the organ in the Jeanne Vail Chapel.

University Chaplain Timothy Stevens, who discovered the graffiti Friday morning, said it was “disturbing” to see the words and images painted around the chapel.

“It was just kind of like ‘oh my goodness, this is really hideous,’” he said. “My first thought was I need to report this and we need to get it removed.”

Stevens said Facilities Management worked quickly to clean away the graffiti, with most of it gone before the middle of the day on Friday — fortunate, he said, because the chapel hosted an event at 12:45 that afternoon.

Although some graffiti remains, he said it’s in places members of the NU community don’t really see and will hopefully be taken care of on Monday or Tuesday using more sophisticated removal techniques, he added.

NU Hillel issued a statement Sunday night echoing University President Morton Schapiro’s email condemning the graffiti as an “an abhorrent act of vandalism” Friday.

“Northwestern Hillel joins President Morton Schapiro and the entire Northwestern community in expressing shock and dismay at the abhorrent act of Islamophobic, racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic vandalism committed last week in Alice Millar Chapel,” the statement said. “Hillel is committed to building an inclusive, empathetic, and compassionate Northwestern community, and we stand with President Schapiro in working to create a safe, secure, and welcoming environment for all Northwestern students, faculty, staff, and community members.”

Morales and Kafker have been placed on interim suspension, which prevents them from being on campus, University spokesman Bob Rowley told The Daily in an email Saturday night.

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