Noose At Columbia U. Stirs Tensions

Black Professor Discovers Noose On Office Door; Investigated As Possible Hate Crime

(CBS/AP)  The president of Columbia University's Teachers College sent an e-mail to students and faculty members deploring the discovery of a hangman's noose on the office door of one of its professors.

Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime, and Columbia planned a town hall Wednesday for faculty and students to address the incident.

The university did not immediately say which professor was targeted, but she was identified in the local media as Madonna Constantine, a professor of psychology and education and author of a book entitled "Addressing Racism: Facilitating Cultural Competence in Mental Health and Educational Settings."

Students said Constantine, who is black, teaches a class on racial justice.

Graduate students at Columbia's Teachers College have threatened to strike if the administration doesn't do more to stop hate crimes on campus, reports CBS station WCBS-TV.

"We're willing to strike if we must. That's why the sign is there. We're saying that we're willing to strike if we must -- willing to walk out if we must. We really want the University to respond to the recent hate crimes on the campus," one student said.

Teachers College, founded in 1887, describes itself as the nation's oldest and largest graduate school of education.

"You would think, Columbia being such a diverse campus and New York being such a diverse city, it shouldn't happen here," said student Mikayla Graham.

In the message to the college's 5,000 students and 150 faculty members explaining why police were on campus Tuesday, college president Susan H. Fuhrman said: "The Teachers College community and I deplore this hateful act, which violates every Teachers College and societal norm."

According to its Web page, the college brought black teachers from the South to New York for teacher training in the early part of the 20th century, when schools in the South were segregated.

The college has a diverse student body, including students from nearly 80 countries. The racial breakdown is 12 percent black, 11 percent Asian American and 7 percent Hispanic.

The hangman's noose was discovered Tuesday morning, in an echo of other recent incidents involving the symbol reviled by many for its association with lynchings in the Old South.

"We were talking about the Jena incident in the classroom. I said, 'Well, we don't have to go to Louisiana,' " Professor Arlene Ackerman, a black female teacher at the college told the New York Post.

"Frankly, I was shocked and stunned and had to sit back in my chair," Ackerman said of the Columbia incident. "I'm trying to figure out why somebody thought this was OK."

Last year in Jena, La., three white students hung nooses from a big oak tree outside Jena High School. They were suspended but not prosecuted.

Racial tensions rose and a white student was beaten unconscious three months later. Recently, thousands of people protested the arrests of six black students in the incident.

A noose was also found recently dangling in the locker room of the headquarters of the Hempstead Police Department on Long Island.

Columbia has been the site of other campus turmoil, most recently in September when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was invited to speak, prompting protests by groups angry over his statements questioning the existence of the Holocaust.

Last fall, Columbia was in the spotlight when a group of students stormed a stage to silence a speech by Jim Gilchrist, the founder of a group opposed to illegal immigration.