An unidentified male undergraduate has confessed to scrawling racist slurs on the message board and door of a room occupied by two Asian-American students living in the Choate dormitories, Safety and Security said yesterday.
The student, who reportedly wrote words like "chink" and "bastard" on the door earlier this month, lives in the same wing of Little Hall as the victims, College Proctor Bob McEwen said.
Last week the victims, Michael Yoo '98 and Jon Jun '98, moved to the Lodge because of the incident.
Jun said the perpetrator sent a formal apology to his roommate and himself that "basically said, 'I beg of you not to go to the papers about me'" and "he was drunk" at the time.
Although angry about the incident, Jun said he does not hold a grudge against the vandal and said, "I'm not out to get him."
Jun said he has drafted a letter regarding the incident and today will send it to both the perpetrator and to Lisa Thum, dean of the Class of 1998.
McEwen said Hanover Police will have the prerogative to charge the student. Jun said the Safety and Security officers he spoke with assured him that the College is "taking care of it."
"If it is a crime it would be in the form of vandalism," he said.
McEwen said Hanover Police and Safety and Security cooperated in the investigation, interviewing 10 or 11 students. The vandal was one of the students interviewed.
"The person responsible finally came forward after being interviewed," he said. McEwen said no one witnessed the incident.
Although Dean of the College Lee Pelton would not comment on whether the student will face discipline from the College, he said free speech is always protected.
"Even speech which is reprehensible and harmful and hurtful is not subject to disciplinary action," he said.
Because of the nature of the speech, however, Pelton said "the College is very much poised to act and to communicate with the community about what happened and what it means."
Pelton said he was unsure what form this response would take.
"I will be meeting with the person who was responsible within the next several days," he said. "One of the conversations we will have will be about how we can best respond to what occurred."
Destruction of College property and harassment both violate College regulations.
But "harassment is generally considered repeated behavior over time," Pelton said.
In the case of vandalism, the Office of Residential Life "can remove a student from its facilities, or revoke a student's privilege to live in College housing," Pelton said.
Chris Chambers, the area director for the west side of campus, said Office of Residential Life officials "haven't necessarily discarded any options" for responding to the incident.
But he said, "Anything we do would be part of carrying out the sanction the dean's office provides."
Jun said he had no plans to take action against the vandal through either legal channels or the College, but added, "If I don't see anything happening, I will take some steps."
Sixteen campus organizations collaborated to create a flyer condemning the incident.
The flyer also mentions the homophobic attacks that took place in Lord Hall during Fall term and the reading of an allegedly racist and sexist poem at Beta Theta Pi fraternity during the Summer term.
"We, as members of the Dartmouth community, refuse to accept these hostile attacks," the advertisement states. "We hereby commit ourselves to the prevention of such blatant acts of hatred."
"Your silence supports this behavior," it states.
Tiffany West '97, who helped create the flyer, said she wanted "to show campus we can work together."
West said she hopes students will post the flyers on their doors to protest the alleged hate incidents.
But not all students think the flyer is a good idea.
"I'm all for protesting racism," Kishan Putta '96 said. But "I didn't see that as the appropriate form of protest."
"You cannot turn it into an us-versus-them thing," he said. "To say it is The Sisterhood [Group] or the women of color warning the rest of campus ... seems very polarizing."
An electronic-mail message written by West and signed by The Sisterhood Group states, "We, as women of Dartmouth College should present a united front more often ... We're interested in mobilizing women into instant action."
Thirteen of the 16 organizations sponsoring the advertisement are women's groups. Four of those 13 are sororities.
