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Posted: Wednesday, 10 October 2007 11:47AM
Noose Found at Columbia University
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NEW YORK (AP) -- The discovery of a hangman's noose on the office door of a black professor at Columbia University's Teachers College roiled the Ivy League campus Wednesday, prompting the school to schedule a town hall for upset and angry students and faculty.
 ``This is an assault on African Americans and therefore it is an assault on every one of us,'' President Bollinger said in a statement. ``I know I speak on behalf of every member of our communities in condemning this horrible action.''
The Teachers College, the graduate school of education, planned a community meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss the incident. Students said they would dress in black clothing for a rally before the town hall to protest the hate crime.
A team of NYPD detectives was investigating whether the incident stemmed from tension between the victim, Madonna Constantine, and another professor, a police official said Wednesday.
Constantine told police the other professor, a woman of Indian descent, had replaced her while she was on an extended leave, and grew upset when she returned to reclaim her position.
``There's apparently ill will about that,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation had not been completed.
The official stressed that the dispute was only one possible lead, and that there were no official suspects as of Wednesday morning.
Derald Wing Sue, an adjunct professor at the Teachers College who does research with Constantine, said he was at work Tuesday morning when another colleague spotted the noose hanging on Constantine's door. She wasn't in her office at the time.
Constantine, a professor of psychology and education, has written about race, including a book entitled ``Addressing Racism: Facilitating Cultural Competence in Mental Health and Educational Settings.''
``Clearly, it was symbolic act of racial hatred that was intended to intimate,'' Sue said. ``I felt outraged and anger that this was directed at such a close colleague and friend of mine.''
Sue, who also studies and writes about race issues, said he informed Constantine about the noose and she was devastated.
``She's doing fine,'' he said ``She's OK. I've talked to her. She's getting a lot of support.''
An e-mail to Constantine was not immediately returned Wednesday.
As word of the incident spread, both students and faculty expressed outraged.
``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 she deplored the ``hateful act,'' which she said ``violates every Teachers College and societal norm.''
Teachers College, founded in 1887, describes itself as the nation's oldest and largest graduate school of education.
According to the university's Web site, 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, echoing other recent incidents involving the symbol reviled for its association with lynchings in the Old South.
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.
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