Minnesota college president: Racist message was fabricated

NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The president of St. Olaf College in southern Minnesota says a note left on a black student’s car with racist content was fabricated and not a genuine threat.

In emails to students Wednesday, David R. Anderson said it was apparently meant “to draw attentions to concern about the campus climate.”

Citing student privacy laws, his emails did not name the author who confessed or say whether the person is a student or otherwise affiliated with the private Lutheran college. The student body is 74 per cent white and 2 per cent black.

The April 29 incident prompted a rally that night and a bigger protest May 1 that led administrators to cancel classes for the day.

Anderson says the college continues to investigate other reports of racist messages since last fall.