The morningcall.com
Of The Morning Call
1:10 PM EST, November 11, 2008
Lehigh University has called a town hall meeting tonight to discuss reports of racist comments made toward black students in the aftermath of Barack Obama's election as the first black U.S. president.Lehigh President Alice P. Gast said in a campus-wide e-mail obtained by The Morning Call that several students have reported several incidents of "racist and hateful comments" directed at them since last Tuesday, when Obama won the election. Gast met Friday with the students who were targeted."I am deeply saddened by the incidents that have been reported to me," Gast wrote. "Rather than celebrating a landmark event in American history, we are addressing hateful acts of racism and ignorance."
The campus meeting, hosted by the university's Council for Equity and Community, is at 8 p.m. today in the Perella Auditorium of Rauch Business Center.
Gast said there would be "additional events and actions to address these incidents and to allow us to show each other what we value as a community." She also urged students to "take an active role."Last week some first-year students, all black women, "were targeted and called racial and sexist names by other Lehigh students," according to CalvinJohn Smiley, a Lehigh graduate student and former undergraduate.
[Full story: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-lehigh-1111,0,2807556.story]
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