Christian College Secludes Students After Hate Letters
By JODI WILGOREN
The New York Times
Published: April 23, 2005
BANNOCKBURN, Ill., April 22 - Scores of African-American and Hispanic students at a small Evangelical Christian college here missed classes and were set to spend a second night in seclusion on Friday, after a series of threatening racist letters spurred their evacuation from the campus.
Officials at Trinity International University, a conservative Bible-based school headquartered in this village 30 miles north of Chicago, said three students, two of them black and one Hispanic, had received hate-filled handwritten notes through the campus mail over two weeks.
The officials said they urged nearly 200 minority undergraduates to leave their dormitories after the third letter arrived on Thursday because it included growing threats of violence and was sent within days of the anniversaries of the Columbine school shooting in Colorado, the Oklahoma City bombing and Hitler's birth.
It was not clear when, or if, the black and Hispanic students would return. The university president, Gregory L. Waybright, said they would be able to complete their academic work for the year. Mr. Waybright said Trinity embraced racial diversity but could not shield itself from the ugliness of an "imperfect world."
"Just as the crucifixion led to a resurrection," he told reporters at an afternoon news conference, "sometimes a challenge like this can help an entity like ours become what it wants to be."
Police Chief Kevin Tracz said he believed that the letters were written by one person, most likely a Trinity student, and that the threats were specific to the recipients, not to large groups. Chief Tracz said that local and federal investigators had found no connection among the recipients and that the letters, on notebook paper, were being sent to a crime laboratory for analysis.
"We have no leads or suspects," he said, declining to detail the length or contents of the letters except to say they constituted a hate crime.
Extra guards and police officers patrolled the campus of squat brick buildings as more than 20 students held hands in a circle to pray in the gray chill. The dining hall was half empty at lunch, with a handful of nonwhites at the tables. Officials said 43 black and Hispanic students, along with a popular African-American administrator, spent Thursday night at a nearby hotel. Other students stayed with neighboring families.
Of the 1,104 undergraduates, 14 percent are black and 4 percent Hispanic. The graduate school has 1,011 students; 1,600 additional students attend campuses in Miami and Santa Ana, Calif.
The university, affiliated with the Evangelical Free Church of America, says in its mission statement that its education is based on "the authority of God's inerrant word, Holy Scripture," and that it seeks an international identity with "people drawn from 'every tribe and tongue.' "
The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, who met on Friday afternoon with recipients of the letters as well as other students, professors and parents, praised the institution's record on race and its response to the letters.
"What is painful to me today is to talk to these students - so young, so beautiful - who feel like a target is on their back because they are black," he told reporters. "Today their faith is tested in real time. Will they face evil with courage or will they face evil with fear?"
Reporters were confined to a building and barred from speaking with most students. But in brief conversations, a few students expressed anger at the disruption along with faith that it would not mar the campus for long.
"God is just," Peter Hilden, a white senior who is majoring in pastoral studies, said. "So he'll give what's due for the ultimate salvation of that person."
"Crazy people do crazy things," said Charlie Dates, a black student who is working on a master's in divinity. "It's nothing to be terrified over."
In the cafeteria, two white students who were prevented by a guard from giving their names said that many white students fled the campus on Thursday.
"It's almost like terrorism," a sophomore said. "If you let them think that they've won and you don't go to class the next day, then whenever they don't want to have class they'll send a threatening letter."
The New York Times
Published: April 23, 2005
BANNOCKBURN, Ill., April 22 - Scores of African-American and Hispanic students at a small Evangelical Christian college here missed classes and were set to spend a second night in seclusion on Friday, after a series of threatening racist letters spurred their evacuation from the campus.
Officials at Trinity International University, a conservative Bible-based school headquartered in this village 30 miles north of Chicago, said three students, two of them black and one Hispanic, had received hate-filled handwritten notes through the campus mail over two weeks.
The officials said they urged nearly 200 minority undergraduates to leave their dormitories after the third letter arrived on Thursday because it included growing threats of violence and was sent within days of the anniversaries of the Columbine school shooting in Colorado, the Oklahoma City bombing and Hitler's birth.
It was not clear when, or if, the black and Hispanic students would return. The university president, Gregory L. Waybright, said they would be able to complete their academic work for the year. Mr. Waybright said Trinity embraced racial diversity but could not shield itself from the ugliness of an "imperfect world."
"Just as the crucifixion led to a resurrection," he told reporters at an afternoon news conference, "sometimes a challenge like this can help an entity like ours become what it wants to be."
Police Chief Kevin Tracz said he believed that the letters were written by one person, most likely a Trinity student, and that the threats were specific to the recipients, not to large groups. Chief Tracz said that local and federal investigators had found no connection among the recipients and that the letters, on notebook paper, were being sent to a crime laboratory for analysis.
"We have no leads or suspects," he said, declining to detail the length or contents of the letters except to say they constituted a hate crime.
Extra guards and police officers patrolled the campus of squat brick buildings as more than 20 students held hands in a circle to pray in the gray chill. The dining hall was half empty at lunch, with a handful of nonwhites at the tables. Officials said 43 black and Hispanic students, along with a popular African-American administrator, spent Thursday night at a nearby hotel. Other students stayed with neighboring families.
Of the 1,104 undergraduates, 14 percent are black and 4 percent Hispanic. The graduate school has 1,011 students; 1,600 additional students attend campuses in Miami and Santa Ana, Calif.
The university, affiliated with the Evangelical Free Church of America, says in its mission statement that its education is based on "the authority of God's inerrant word, Holy Scripture," and that it seeks an international identity with "people drawn from 'every tribe and tongue.' "
The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, who met on Friday afternoon with recipients of the letters as well as other students, professors and parents, praised the institution's record on race and its response to the letters.
"What is painful to me today is to talk to these students - so young, so beautiful - who feel like a target is on their back because they are black," he told reporters. "Today their faith is tested in real time. Will they face evil with courage or will they face evil with fear?"
Reporters were confined to a building and barred from speaking with most students. But in brief conversations, a few students expressed anger at the disruption along with faith that it would not mar the campus for long.
"God is just," Peter Hilden, a white senior who is majoring in pastoral studies, said. "So he'll give what's due for the ultimate salvation of that person."
"Crazy people do crazy things," said Charlie Dates, a black student who is working on a master's in divinity. "It's nothing to be terrified over."
In the cafeteria, two white students who were prevented by a guard from giving their names said that many white students fled the campus on Thursday.
"It's almost like terrorism," a sophomore said. "If you let them think that they've won and you don't go to class the next day, then whenever they don't want to have class they'll send a threatening letter."
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