SCSU minority student reports 'Nazi salute’

By TIM HARLOW, Star Tribune

Last update: December 17, 2007 - 7:57 PM

A student of color at St. Cloud State University said she was spat at and shown a "Nazi salute" by white males as she walked across campus Friday night, school officials said.

The incident prompted school officials to issue a crime alert and came as police ramped up efforts to find who is behind a string of hate crimes reported on the campus in recent weeks.

According to the alert, three white males spat at but did not hit her as she walked north across a bridge at University Drive around 7:15 p.m. About five minutes later, the student encountered two other white males in an area between the Performing Arts Center and the Atwood Memorial Center. One of the males presented a raised-arm salute that the victim reported as a "Nazi salute," the crime alert said.

In both cases, the victim and the suspects kept walking in opposite directions and no further contact was made. The victim was unable to give authorities a description of the suspects, other than they were white males.

The incidents Friday came as St. Cloud police said they would allocate more time and resources to find out who has been behind a string of racist graffiti and anti-Semitic messages and symbols that have been left on campus during the fall semester.

An additional drawing of a swastika was found Friday in a bathroom in Stewart Hall.

In total, there have been more than a dozen cases in which swastikas and other hate symbols have been found on campus. This month somebody found a drawing of a burning cross and Ku Klux Klan hood in the Student Center restroom. In another case, somebody slipped a drawing under a faculty member's office door.

University President Earl Potter said last week that he doesn't know whether more than one person is behind the incidents, but he believes that most of them fall into the copycat category.

"The first one was premeditated and intended to hurt," he said. "The others seem to be comments from sympathizers and less premeditated."

Still, he acknowledged that people are frightened and the incidents affect the entire campus community.

"We know that when people feel a lack of safety, learning is impaired," he said. "This hurts the ability to focus and learn, and that strikes at the purpose of what we are about."

About 13 percent of St. Cloud State's 16,882 students are minority group members, and 20 percent of faculty members are people of color, Potter said.

No one has been arrested in any of the bias-motivated crimes. Anybody with information is asked to call St. Cloud Police at 1-320-251-1200.

Tim Harlow • 612-673-7768

Recent Local + Metro stories

Corrections and clarifications - December 17, 2007

Corrections and clarifications - A story about the Institute for Exercise Medicine and Prevention on Page B5 last Sunday should have noted that the institute is a 501-C3 nonprofit and that the doctors involved are volunteers and do not own the clinic. More