Pens, pencils, and swastikas.

As an academic I have become accustomed to a certain predictability accompanying the start of the fall semester; campus flowerbeds are tended, colleagues with grand plans for a fruitful summer lament their lack of productivity, and instances of overt anti-Semitism haunt campus.

At my employer alone, four separate instances of anti-Semitic graffiti have been reported since the school year began. This is to say nothing of the slew of racist incidents at colleges and universities across the nation thi…