AROUND HIGHER EDUCATION: BU battles spate of hate crimes

The Daily (Boston U.) Free Press BOSTON, Mass. (U-WIRE) -- Boston University officials Wednesday night tried to assuage student concerns about an outbreak of hate crimes across the country, including an incident at BU where swastikas were burned into an elevator and painted on a student's door. "This makes students feel uncomfortable," said College of Engineering junior Michael Hirsch, the president of BU's Hillel. "How would it feel to come home and find racial slurs written all over? I just hope people learn from this experience." A Buildings and Grounds employee late last month found a swastika burned into the ceiling of a Warren Towers elevator on the eve of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. BU police are investigating the incident and plan to prosecute those responsible under hate-crime statutes, Lt. Anthony Diorio said during last night's meeting in the Warren Towers Cinema Room. Burning an elevator is a felony, he said. "Everyone should be affected by a swastika, not only Jews," said Sharon Goldschmidt, a College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences student. The incident comes amid a month of high-profile hate crimes in Boston and across the country. Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, died Monday after being lured from a bar, pistol-whipped and tied to a fence post by two men posing as gays. The savagery of the attack has prompted calls for federal hate-crime legislation to increase the penalties for those convicted of violence against people based on their sexual orientation. Police said the motive was robbery, but that Shepard's sexuality played a role in the attack. Two weeks ago, minority leaders at Boston College were shocked by an anonymous e-mail they received. "Hey monkees and apes," it read. "You all need to go back to where you came from. BC is for white men, not for any chinks, spicks, niggers or fags." The FBI Computer Crimes Unit and the Middlesex County and state attorneys general are helping BC investigate the e-mail, and administrators are trying to address student concerns, said BC spokesperson Reid Oslin. Also late last month, a Tufts University student shouted racial slurs at an Asian girl at a fraternity party. In the aftermath of the incident, students at Tufts complained race relations at the school are strained and that the university prefers to form committees rather than address the problem outright. "It's fairly calm here, but sometimes there are instances that happen here and are kept secret," said Isis Figueroa, a member of the Tufts Hispanic Society.