University of Maryland suspends tennis club after members allegedly distributed racist imagery

The University of Maryland (UMD) has suspended its tennis club after officials learned that racist imagery was included in program materials sent to other tennis organizations about a weekend fall tournament held at the College Park campus. 

The imagery was discovered Saturday by officials at UMD's Recreation and Wellness (RecWell), the office that handles recreation activities for the university, said a statement provided to CBS News Baltimore by UMD.

"The Maryland Club Tennis student organization distributed programming material with a graphic containing racist imagery targeting people who are Black or African American," the statement said. "They emailed this information to other university tennis clubs in the region about this weekend's fall tournament at College Park."

The racist imagery reportedly included a graphic that depicted Ku Klux Klan hoods.   

Howard University, a Historically Black University (HBCU) in Washington, D.C., was among the club teams participating in the weekend tournament at UMD.

UMD was "horrified" by the incident and expressed "its regret and sincere apology for the harm that this has caused." 

"In addition to UMD club tennis apologizing and forfeiting its matches, UMD's director of [RecWell] issued an apology to the club presidents of all the participating teams," it added. 

Officials from RecWell said they immediately referred the matter to UMD's police department. The incident is also being investigated by the university's Office of Student Conduct. 

RecWell suspended UMD's entire club tennis sports team, while noting that only a few student team members had taken part, the statement said. UMD staff also provided on-site support to players and met with visiting teams.

As a result of the club's suspension, club tennis teams forfeited their matches during the weekend tournament.