Administrators at a small liberal arts college in Pennsylvania are investigating a report that a student scratched a racial slur on another student’s chest in a campus residence hall this month.
The student who wrote the slur and the student who was slurred were both members of the Gettysburg College swim team in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The school and the family of the student said in a joint statement Sunday that the investigation was nearly complete and that the student who slurred the slur was no longer enrolled at the university. It was not immediately clear whether the student was expelled or decided to leave.
The names of the students have not been released. The family of the student involved said in a statement published Friday in The Gettysburgian, the college newspaper, that their son was “the victim of a hate crime” when a teammate used a box cutter to carve an anti-Black slur on their son’s chest during an informal swim team gathering on Sept. 6.
They said their son was the only person of color at the rally and that his teammate was a “trusted” friend. Their son was later questioned by swim team staff members and then dismissed from the team, according to their statement. It was unclear Sunday whether his status had changed.
The school and the family are now discussing “the most constructive way forward,” they said Sunday.
“Both the college and the family recognize the gravity of this situation and hope that it can serve as a transformative moment for our community and beyond,” the statement read.
The family previously said it supported the school’s investigation but filed complaints of racial discrimination, harassment and lack of due process with the Harrisburg chapter of the NAACP, the Pennsylvania NAACP Conference and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.
Gettysburg Police Chief Robert W. Glenny Jr. said in a statement Sunday that he contacted the university’s campus security department after seeing news reports. But Glenny said the victim has so far chosen not to report the matter to police and has let the school handle it. He added that they do not know the identities of the students involved.
In an email to students last week, Robert Iuliano, the school’s president, stressed his “deep distress over what happened, its impact on those who have long been underrepresented on this campus, and its implications for a community that continues its ever-evolving efforts to create a truly inclusive environment.”
“Regardless of the relationship and regardless of the motivation, there is no place on this campus for words or actions that demean, degrade or marginalize based on a person’s identity and history,” he added.
Mr. Iuliano said the incident was first reported by upperclassmen on the swim team.
Of Gettysburg College’s 2,207 students, 62 percent are white and 21 percent are nonwhite and originally from the United States, according to the school’s official website. International students make up 14 percent.
