Several messages written in chalk that appear to protest one of the candidates for the position of University of Massachusetts chief of police, Joseph R. Riley, were found on campus on Monday.

The messages, which were found between the W.E.B. DuBois Library and the Whitmore Administration Building, seemed to refer to Riley’s role as the deputy chief of the New York City Police Department, specifically through the phrase “No NYPD at UMA.”

Other messages accused American police officers of racism with messages such as “Disband the Blue Klux Klan,” “Cops are Thugs” and “Stop the Copss,” where the last two letters were stylized like the logo of the Schutzstaffel, a paramilitary founded in Nazi Germany.

The messages seemed to have been written in timing with Riley’s visit to UMass, which began Monday and will include a campus open forum on Tuesday in Room 160 East of the Commonwealth Honors College Events Hall at 1:45 p.m. Riley is one of three finalists.

The chalk messages appeared to be written in a similar handwriting. Some of the messages listed the names of people who died as a result of altercations with the NYPD.

Student Government Association President Sïonan Barrett said that she thought it was good that UMass students were following the chief of police search and expressing themselves.

“I hope they come to the open forum to ask the candidate directly,” Barrett said.

UMass students seemed generally opposed to the messages written in chalk, saying that they generalized police officers and oversimplified issues such as race and police brutality.

“My family is made up of a bunch of cops and they’re good people,” John Keegan, a junior majoring in economics, said.

Keegan added that while some racism may exist among certain police officers, it depends on the specific person and is not representative of the entire police force.

“I don’t think it’s a fair generalization to make about the NYPD,” said Mentweab Kebede, a senior studying political science and legal studies, adding that it might be an important issue to bring up if Riley had a history of potentially racially motivated policing.

Kebede said some of the chalk messages containing the phrase “Black Lives Matter” were not emblematic of the entire movement.

“(The Black Lives Matter campaign) is itself a spectrum too,” she said, adding that the majority of its supporters do not think all police officers are racist.

Other students said they disagreed with the criticism police officers in the United States sometimes face.

“I think the police do more good than bad,” freshman biology major Andrew Bejian said. “They take too much crap when they’re putting themselves at risk to save lives.”

It was not immediately evident who wrote the messages.

Stuart Foster can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Stuart_C_Foster.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly referred to the Student Government Association as the Student Government Administration. The error has been corrected above.