ATHENS, Ohio — Ohio University students gathered on campus Thursday to protest while police investigate a series of incidents in the past week.
About 100 students, along with university president Hugh Sherman, voiced their concerns in response to the incidents that some students believe to be racially motivated.
The first incident reported to campus police involved a Black doll taped to a residence hall room door. Posts about the doll were shared on social media, but it was not reported to police.
Over the weekend in Sargent Hall, someone left a note containing racial and misogynistic epithets on a bag of trash outside a room. After police found the bag and recovered evidence, detectives began to review video and speak with hall residents to find possible witnesses.
The third incident happened on early Monday morning. Police said a male student urinated on the door of junior Christopher Brown, who is Black and a resident advisor in James Hall. The student, who police said lived in the residence hall, was cited with public urination.
Investigators later found that the urine damaged Brown’s property and the student was then charged with criminal mischief.
After interviewing the student and the resident advisor twice, police did not find a motive for the crime or evidence that the victim had been specifically targeted.
However, Brown expressed that the incident was racially motivated.
"The person who did this lives all the way down the hall and came to the only black RA's room, urinated and ran. Of course, my situation is extreme but things like this happen. Mine was the one that got the exposure, so we are forcing their hand to talk right now," he said.
The fourth incident was reported on Wednesday afternoon when Brown received an anonymous message on Twitter. According to police, the message stated that a post was made on Snapchat where an unknown person wanted to see him lynched.
Police are working to identify the Twitter user and further investigate the post.
As students marched on campus, they hope that the protest will change the way the university addresses racism on campus.
"A lot of people have experienced racial instances at Ohio University," said senior Maurice Swift. "In my opinion, it's happened every semester since I've been enrolled at school here and we want to give everybody a chance to let their voices be heard."
In a statement from campus police, Lt. Tim Ryan expressed that the police department is concerned about the incidents and their impacts on communities of color.
“These are rapidly evolving events, but we are committed to using every resource at our disposal to investigate incidents such as these and hold those responsible fully accountable under the law,” Ryan said in the statement.
Sherman issued his own statement, saying the school is providing support to build a more inclusive community.
"Our community will not tolerate a culture that threatens, physically or emotionally, any group or individual on our campus. These types of incidents set us back from our educational mission and our efforts to build and support a diverse University community.," he said.