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April 24, 2008

RWU offers reward for information on acts of vandalism

BRISTOL -- Roger Williams University is offering a $1,000 reward to anyone with information about two recent acts of vandalism on campus in which racist messages were scrawled on cars and posted on a dormitory wall.

The more recent of the incidents occurred on the evening of April 15 when two student cars were keyed with racist words. The previous week someone had stuck a piece of paper with racist and derogatory messages targeting a faculty member on an interior wall of a residence hall.

Following the discovery of the second act of vandalism, John King, the university’s vice president for student affairs, sent out a campus-wide e-mail on April 16 telling the student body that the incidents were being investigated and announcing a reward for information that leads to any arrests.

In response to the news, at noon this past Wednesday, about 200 students, professors and administrators gathered in the campus’s main quadrangle to rally against racism. It was a peaceful protest, said university spokesman Brian Clark.

“Obviously, students were concerned,” he said.

Although the reward was initially offered to students on campus, Clark said that if persons outside the university are able to help with the investigation, they may receive it, too.

The incidents are being investigated by campus police. The Bristol Police Department is also participating in the investigation into the vandalism to the cars. King would not comment on whether police had received any tips about the incidents, saying the investigations are ongoing.

-- Journal staff writer Alex Kuffner

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 3:12 PM | Permalink

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