Late Sunday night or early Monday morning, an unknown vandal spray painted “Go Blue” in blue on the front of the statue’s base.
MSU’s Infrastructure Planning and Facilities officials said they had cleared the writing from the statue by 10 a.m. Monday.
Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations Scott Westerman said he does not believe the culprit is actually a student at University of Michigan.
“That’s vandalism done by someone who wishes they went to the University of Michigan,” Westerman said.
Journalism sophomore Kelsey Banas said she saw the message on the statue while taking the bus to her 9:10 a.m. class.
“I was shocked someone would do that,” Banas said. “Who has the time to drive an hour from Ann Arbor to do that?”
Although he acknowledged that vandalism does happen on campus, Westerman said the defacing of Sparty typically is a rare occurrence.
But when vandalism occurs surrounding a rivalry, he said it tends to draw more attention to the situation.
“There’s a mutual respect alumni have for one another,” Westerman said. “The only time that’s tested is when we play basketball or football against each other.”
Banas said seeing the message makes her want to retaliate.
“I kinda wanna get back at them in a way,” Banas said. “It’s the end of the school year, why would you do that?”
But Westerman said the best way to respond to the vandalism is “to take the high road” and not respond to the situation.
Although she didn’t see it herself, public policy sophomore Angie Goulet said she thought the act was immature, regardless of who did it.
“If they’re (U-M students) doing it to us, there’s no reason for us to sink down to their level and do it to them,” Goulet said.
Westerman said he feels sorry for the person who decided to vandalize the statue and compassion for their reasoning behind doing it.
“Nobody who understands the power that Michigan and Michigan State share together would do something like that,” he said.
