The Des Moines Register

A former Drake University student has pleaded guilty to making false reports to law enforcement in connection with racist notes found in November on campus.

Kissie Ram, 19, pleaded guilty earlier this month to the simple misdemeanor, court records show. She faced up to a year in jail but received a deferred judgment that placed her on probation for 12 months.

Ram's charge related to a report filed after a racist note was found on campus Nov. 28, police said. In all, five racist notes were found on campus in November. University officials considered four of the notes hoaxes and could be tied to Ram.

Drake officials said Ram admitted to writing one of the five notes found on campus. She also reported receiving at least one of the notes.

The first note was received in early November by a freshman, who wrote about his experience in a social media post. That note was not connected to the other four.

University spokesman Jarad Bernstein said Ram was no longer enrolled at Drake. Ram would not return to the university in the spring, though he declined to comment further.

In December, Bernstein said Ram would be subject to the disciplinary process outlined in Drake’s Code of Student Conduct, which could result in expulsion.

As part of her sentence, Ram was also ordered to pay a $200 civil penalty and an undetermined amount of restitution. She must also complete 50 hours of community service within 180 days, court records show.

Thousands of students and others held a rally in mid-November at Drake to celebrate diversity and to call for unity on campus. At the rally, a student speaker said she felt her life was in danger at the Des Moines university.

A robocall denigrating African-Americans then went out to hundreds of Drake landline phone numbers. The call was made by a white supremacist group that, in August, claimed responsibility for phone calls from a Brooklyn, Iowa, phone number that used the death of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts to promote white nationalist messages.