Bowles appoints panel to study hate-crimes policy

Chapel Hill, N.C. — University of North Carolina President Erskine Bowles on Friday appointed an 11-member commission to examine whether the system needs a policy to address possible hate crimes on its 16 campuses.

The UNC Study Commission to Review Student Codes of Conduct as They Relate to Hate Crimes will be led by Harold L. Martin, UNC senior vice president for academic affairs and a former chancellor of Winston-Salem State University. The group includes students, staff and faculty from 10 UNC campuses.

The group will meet next Wednesday and will hold a public forum in late January or early February. Bowles wants the group's recommendations by March 31.

Four North Carolina State University students painted racist graffiti in the "Free Expression Tunnel" on campus the night that Barack Obama was elected president. Two of the messages said: "Let's shoot that (N-word) in the head" and "Hang Obama by a noose."

Officials with the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People called for the students to be expelled, and they criticized what they termed a "tepid response" to the incident by N.C. State officials.

Wake County prosecutors said the graffiti didn't amount to a hate crime, the U.S. Secret Service said there was not an actual threat to Obama, and university officials said they had no grounds to expel the students.

One option the new commission will consider would be requiring all UNC students to take diversity training.

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Latest Comments

4 guys painted some distasteful remarks in the free expression tunnel. So now 100,000+ students must go through diversity training. Yep.

That's efficient use of tax dollars and a very good reason to raise tuition to cover the additional costs. (please note the sarcasm)

beachboater
December 15, 2008 11:00 a.m.

Whatever. There's another article on this site about a real hate crime where a man was shot and dumped in the woods dead. That is a real hate crime. Study that. Do something about black people hating other black people. Do you think the occasional idiotic graffiti by white people about a presidential candidate is a worse for black America than the huge problem of black people pointing a gun at another black person and pulling the trigger?

readme
December 12, 2008 7:14 p.m.

ITS CALLED THE FREE EXPRESSION TUNNEL FOR A REASON...IN MY FOUR YEAR YEARS THERE WAS AN INSANSE AMOUNT OF OFFENSIVE THINGS WRITTEN ON THAT WALL ON CAMPUS ANY THING WENT!...NOW ITS IN THE NEWS SINCE THERE IS SOMETHING FOR THE MEDIA TO TALK ABOUT..GET OVER IT WRAL

raleighpack
December 12, 2008 6:51 p.m.

Someone should assemble a group to study the NAACP.

Justabum
December 12, 2008 6:45 p.m.

I agree with diversity training. Each university could set up a diversity training center on its campus. Give each student a stamp on the hand with a unique number to make sure everyone has gone through the process. Choose more cooperative students to be in charge of those that resist and allow the trustees to report to the authorities the names of those that do not go along with the program.

daMoFo
December 12, 2008 6:35 p.m.