The University of Tennessee Knoxville deleted a tweet Thursday responding to concern over hate speech on the Rock in the midst of calls for the university to do more to condemn it.

The response came after someone painted the words "white pride" on the boulder, which serves as a campus message board.

Students and others were quick to condemn the message.

Many also reached out to the university on social media asking for UT to do more to condemn hate speech but were disappointed with the response.

"This was seen by a student of color, Aleah Vassell, and when addressing the fastest source I could think of, the school responded with indifference," UT student McKinley Merritt wrote in a Facebook post. "This is the reason why people continue to feel unsafe in the world. Don't be indifferent."

She also included a screenshot of the reply she received from UT Knoxville on Twitter. The response has since been deleted.

"Hi McKinley, While we sometimes disagree with what appears on the Rock, those who paint it are protected by the First Amendment. We trust that the Volunteer community will take care of this quickly," it said.

Facebook and Twitter users responded to the message and the university's response saying UT should do more to address racism.

Allies of Knoxville's Immigrant Neighbors, a local group involved with immigrants' rights, tweeted that UT's response was "not good enough."

It "shouldn't be hard to take a firm stance against hate speech on campus," it said.

"@ChancellorDav of UTK is remaining quiet about the rising occurrence of hate speech written on the boulder," wrote another Twitter user, alleging that the university removes messages it doesn't like about athletics. "FYI, UTK removes negative comments about their athletics programs but has yet to remove comments like 'white pride.'"

In a statement, the university said the tweet was deleted "because we felt like it didn’t convey our position about racism."

"As Chancellor (Beverly) Davenport has said on numerous occasions, there’s no place at the University of Tennessee for racism, bigotry and prejudice," the statement said. "The Chancellor is in constant communication with our students and various groups on campus and that dialogue will continue when students return to campus after the break."

The Rock: a free speech venue

There are no written policies that speak specifically to the messages on the Rock, though as part of the campus it is subject to UT's free speech policy and other guidelines regarding bias.

Messages are generally self-policed by the campus community and layers of paint are allowed to build up as students carry out different messages and works of art.

Vassell, a first-year graduate student at UT said that perhaps it's time for the university to rethink that after seeing Thursday's message.

"What if someone wrote f--- the chancellor?" she said. "It's inappropriate and disrespectful to the school and would probably be removed. So why would we disrespect our students as well?"

The incident comes as campuses across the nation weigh the line between free speech and hate speech, and as universities are grappling with a rise in hate speech incidents.

In September, UT removed several fliers advocating for a white nationalist group from John C. Hodges Library.

The fliers were removed not because of their content, but rather because they were in violation of a policy that requires posted literature to be affiliated with a student organization or on-campus department.

Time for a conversation?

Vassell, who is Jamaican and identifies as a student of color, said she was upset when she saw the message Thursday. She also said it's not the first time she's seen hate speech on the Rock.

"We shouldn’t just be covering them up and going on with our lives," she said. "We need to do something about it."

After seeing the message Thursday, Vassell said she sent a photo and email to Davenport.

She said she was heartened by the chancellor's response that she would like to initiate a "conversation about trying to fix things" but that it runs counter to the response the university was giving on social media.

"I think because today was graduation day, they knew a lot of people would be looking at their Twitter feed," Vassell said. "They didn't want the controversy of what was said or the indifference in their response to be seen by parents. But at this point it's making a statement. You know what you did is probably not the right thing if you're going to retract what was said."