Hundreds of Columbia University teachers and students voiced outrage Wednesday over a noose found hanging from a black professor’s office door, while police investigated whether it was the work of disgruntled students or a colleague.
The 4-foot-long twine noose was found Tuesday on Madonna Constantine’s door at Teachers College, a graduate school affiliated with Columbia.
Constantine, whose specialty is racial identity and multiculturalism, thanked her supporters during a midday protest.
“I am upset that the Teachers College community has been exposed to such an unbelievably vile incident,” she said, “and I would like us to stay strong in the face of such a blatant act of racism.”
Police were testing the noose for DNA evidence, said Deputy Inspector Michael Osgood, commander of the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force.
Constantine, 44, told police there was “ill will” between her and another professor, a police official said. But the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, emphasized that the dispute was only one possible lead, and that police were also looking into whether disgruntled students or anyone upset with grades was involved.
Osgood ruled out any possibility that Constantine had hung the rope herself, saying, “Our victim is a victim.”
The state attorney general’s office has sent lawyers from its civil rights bureau and investigators to look into the incident, said spokesman Jeffrey Lerner.
Derald Wing Sue, an adjunct professor who does research with Constantine, said he was at work Tuesday morning when another colleague spotted the noose hanging on the door. She wasn’t in her office at the time.
Christien Tompkins, 21, co-chairman of the United Students of Color Council, said of the noose: “It’s like throwing a match on a haystack. This obviously really touched a nerve for a lot of folks.”
Constantine’s writings include a book titled “Addressing Racism: Facilitating Cultural Competence in Mental Health and Educational Settings.”
Teachers College describes itself as the nation’s oldest and largest graduate school of education. According to its Web page, the college brought black teachers from the South to New York for training in the early 20th Century, when schools in the South were segregated.
The college has a diverse student body; 12 percent of its students are African-American, 11 percent Asian-American and 7 percent Hispanic.
Columbia has been the site of other campus turmoil, most recently last month when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke, prompting protests by groups angry over his statements calling into doubt the Holocaust.
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Other noose incidents
Monday: At a store under construction in South Elgin, Ill., a racial slur was found spray-painted on a counter and a noose hanging from an exit.
Sunday: A white woman in Queens, N.Y., was accused of hanging a noose over a tree limb and threatening a black family living next door.
Oct. 2: A noose was found on a utility pole at the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama.
Sept. 29: A noose appeared in the locker room of the Hempstead, N.Y., Police Department.
Sept. 27: A student at Warren Township High School in Lake County, Ill., was charged with disorderly conduct after driving onto campus with a noose and then making racial remarks, officials said.
Early September: A noose was discovered at the University of Maryland near a building housing black campus groups.
Mid-July: A noose was left in the bag of a black Coast Guard cadet.
September 2006: Nooses were found hung from a tree in Jena, La., in an apparent warning for black students to not sit there. Various clashes followed, including the beating of a white student that led to attempted murder charges against black students. Those charges were later reduced.
— Tribune staff and news services
