Graffiti cleanup $20k per year

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Since fall 2011, UNM’s Physical Plant Department has received more than 2,240 work orders for the removal of graffiti.

Physical Plant Department Associate Director of the Environment Services Division Gary Smith said the number of work orders placed includes only graffiti that has been reported by phone. He said that every day, maintenance members come to the University at 4:30 a.m. to remove or paint over graffiti before students arrive.

Smith said the University spends about $20,000 every year for graffiti cleanup. He said that, because budget cuts don’t provide adequate funding, student fees increase to help fund the cleanup.
“Usually, when school starts in August, we have more graffiti than other times of the year, then it picks back up again around graduation time,” Smith said. More activity and warmer temperatures contribute to the amount of graffiti found each day, Smith said.

Smith said some areas on campus are tagged more often than others, such as The Center of the Universe sculpture, which is tagged about three times per week. He said maintenance costs $849 per week for the structure, but the cost doesn’t include the cost of materials, such as paint and paint brushes.

Smith said north campus is almost never tagged and this is because north campus is less accessible from a main street.

Gary said University policy mandates that all graffiti be removed within 24 hours, but that offensive messages, which might include racial slurs or profanity, are top priority. He said graffiti on artwork on campus is also high on the priority list because University policy prohibits modification of on-campus artwork.

Smith said graffiti in the bathrooms in Dane Smith Hall is also a problem. He said people often use keys and shoe polish to mark surfaces in the bathrooms.

Smith said that during the past four years, there has been an abundance of political statements, such as “UNM stop military research” and “reject corporate colonialism = Einstein’s (bagels) cut your s**t,” which was written on Zimmerman Library last week. But he said gang-related tagging incidents are not common on campus.

“UNMPD monitors closely any gang-related tagging,” Smith said.
UNMPD Operations Lieutenant Trace Peck said that if a person is caught tagging, he or she may be charged with a misdemeanor offense and fined. But he said that if the damages amount to more than $1,000, then the misdemeanor becomes a felony and the offender can face jail time.

Peck said people see graffiti in different lights; while taggers see what they are doing as art, others don’t want to look at it and only see the defacing of University property.