Hate crimes up on campuses, group says

philly.com
By Susan Snyder
Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted on Sat, Nov. 15, 2008

La Salle University has disciplined a fraternity and suspended several students over an off-campus fight last weekend in which several black students said they were assaulted and subjected to racial slurs that drew on the presidential election.
The Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, also known as Fiji, has lost its privileges pending the outcome of the investigation, and 12 to 15 students are expected to face disciplinary charges, school officials said. University officials declined to say whether the students were members of the fraternity.
Meanwhile, students at St. Joseph's University were planning a candlelight vigil and other events to strike back against racially charged graffiti found in a campus classroom on Oct. 29.
At Lehigh University, the Black Student Union and others called for curriculum changes and the hiring of a chief diversity officer following reports of racial taunts being made toward black students after the election.
The actions come as two national groups report a surge of similar acts on campuses and elsewhere around the country, all in the wake of Barack Obama's election as president. [Full story:

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Lehigh U. president to discuss racist comments

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]