Administrators at Connecticut College thought it best to cancel classes Monday to allow students to deal with a string of racially offensive incidents that have occurred on campus in recent weeks, Raw Story reports.
First, campus authorities found the words “no n—gers” on a bathroom wall this past weekend.
The college’s dean of students immediately emailed the student body and said that an investigation was under way to find out who was responsible for the act.
“Given the egregious nature of the graffiti, we are enlisting the campus community to help us to identify those responsible,” Dean of Student Life Victor Arcelus and Director of Campus Safety Stewart Smith wrote in the Sunday email.
Earlier this month, one of the school’s professors posted a message on Facebook, comparing the efforts of Gazan Palestinians to the antics of a “rabid pit bull.” Professor Andrew Pessin wrote that Gazan Palestinians were like pit bulls “chained in a cage, regularly making mass efforts to escape.”
Pessin was placed on leave after the post was discovered.
The school’s president said that students needed a day off to address and fully process both incidents. “By now, there have been many opinions expressed about the original Facebook post, as well as about subsequent comments on Yik Yak and elsewhere,” President Katherine Bergeron said. “But one thing has become extremely clear: the level of harm that incendiary language can have on a community. The post caused an outpouring of anger and pain among many different groups of students, faculty and staff.”
A campuswide meeting was scheduled for Monday night to address the incidents.
Read more at Raw Story.