I say “that person” because I am pretty sure that this is the work of one or a small number of people. (It may not even be an Ole). This person uses the same modus operandi every time this happens; even the handwriting on the notes is similar from incident to incident. This person has adopted a strategy similar to the one terrorists use: under the cover of darkness and anonymity engage in acts that frighten, dishearten, and frustrate people with a goal of unsettling the community and turning people against one another.

When this person first struck in the fall, I swiftly informed the community and unequivocally denounced the person and this person’s acts. I implored anyone in the community with information about the perpetrator to come forward, and I reinforced the values of this place. I have deliberately not repeated my announcement every time this person scrawls another racial epithet somewhere because then this person wins. I don’t want to give this person the power to evoke at will a message to the campus from the President.

Nevertheless, whenever this person acts, we announce it, we denounce it, and we assert the strength of the community over against these terrible actions. We cannot let this person win.

This is a painful and challenging matter for our community. We have an open campus, and while that is generally a very good thing it does provide opportunities for a vile coward like this person to keep on committing these acts. We can’t post a guard at every wall on campus, or blanket the campus with cameras, or invoke a curfew after dark. Instead, this ends when someone on campus — student, faculty or staff — tells us who this person is or helps us with information that enables us to identify this person.

This person’s actions don’t define us. We won’t let this person win.