Noose on black professor's door sparks protests at Columbia
NEW YORK - Columbia University convened a meeting of education students and faculty after a hangman's noose was found on the door of a black professor's office, an incident the school's president called "an assault on every one of us."
The noose was discovered Tuesday at the office of Madonna Constantine, a professor at Teachers College, the graduate education school affiliated with Columbia in New York. The incident is under investigation by the hate-crimes task force of the city police, Teachers College president Susan Fuhrman said in a statement.
Nooses are considered emblems of the hangings of blacks that occurred in the United States for decades, mostly in the South. Racially charged incidents involving nooses have been reported recently at the US Coast Guard Academy and the University of Maryland. Students from throughout the nation staged protests last month over incidents triggered by nooses displayed at a high school in Jena, La.
"This is an assault on African-Americans and therefore it is an assault on every one of us," Columbia president Lee Bollinger said in a separate statement. "I know I speak on behalf of every member of our communities in condemning this horrible action."
The noose was discovered at 9:45 a.m. at an office building on West 120th Street, New York police Detective Brian Sessa said.
"I think the noose thing was despicable and disgraceful," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "I don't know if it was a crime or a sick joke, but we take every one of these very seriously."
The mayor is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
Teachers College spokesman Joe Levine said the building has security cameras on the ground floor. People entering the building are required to show security officers a valid college ID or be accompanied by someone who has one, he said.
Columbia students yesterday afternoon held an on-campus protest, attended by Fuhrman and Constantine. Later, faculty, staff, and students at Teachers College met in a session that was closed to the news media.
"What came out of the meeting was a very powerful sense that the community is pulling together," Levine said in an interview.
Founded in 1887, Teachers College has been affiliated with Columbia since 1898 and enrolls about 5,100 graduate students. It was the highest-ranked graduate school for education in the latest U.S. News & World Report listing.
Constantine, a professor of psychology and education, is co-editor of the book "Addressing Racism: Facilitating Cultural Competence in Mental Health and Educational Settings." She is the director of the Cultural Winter Roundtable on Psychology and Education, an annual national conference.
"I am upset that the Teachers College community has been exposed to such an unbelievably vile incident, and I would like us to stay strong in the face of such a blatant act of racism," Constantine said in a statement. "Hanging the noose on my office door reeks of cowardice and fear on many levels. I want the perpetrator to know that I will not be silenced." 