Mercer University dorm defaced with racial epithet

Mercer University police are investigating after a vandal scrawled a racial epithet on several doors inside a campus dorm early Wednesday morning.

The defacing of the doors in Sherwood Hall prompted Mercer President Bill Underwood to send a campuswide email to staff and students Wednesday afternoon.

“This type of hateful behavior has no place anywhere, and surely not at a university that strives to be a community of respect,” the president wrote. “Mercer’s continued progress on issues of race over the past fifty years is evident simply by looking around our campus. Mercer has become a vibrant, exciting, and diverse community, ranked among the best universities in the South and also among the most racially diverse.”

Underwood said he appointed a task force several years ago to study ways to better foster an environment of mutual respect on campus. The university has implemented several initiatives since then, but Underwood said there’s much more work to be done.

“This shameful and ignorant conduct reminds us, however, that the old hatreds have not yet passed. It is a grievous fact that campuses across the country continue to experience these kinds of incidents,” the president wrote. “We came together just over two years ago to commemorate the integration of Mercer, and indeed to celebrate our progress on issues of race in the fifty years that have intervened. My hope and expectation is that this incident will remind us that our work is far from done and will further strengthen our resolve to eliminate bigotry and hatred within our community and beyond.”

Anyone with information about the vandalism is asked to call Mercer Police Chief Gary Collins at 301-2970 or email him at collins_g@mercer.edu.

This story was originally published April 27, 2016 at 3:40 PM with the headline "Mercer University dorm defaced with racial epithet."