Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based organization, sent letters Thursday to city and university officials asking them to remove crosses on a tower at the entrance to Texas A&M University-San Antonio, saying they give the appearance that the government is endorsing Christianity in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

Though the tower sits on private land, it was paid for with city funds and displays the seal of A&M-San Antonio, a publicly funded university.

“Texas A&M has placed its approval upon the tower in the most public way possible — by affixing its seal to the tower directly below the crosses. A reasonable observer would plainly understand both the City and the University to endorse the tower's religious message,” the letter stated.

Maria Hernandez Ferrier, president of A&M-San Antonio, is traveling in Spain and did not return a late afternoon call for comment. City officials said they received the letter and are reviewing it.

On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas filed public information requests for documents clarifying who paid for the tower, who designed the tower, who owns the tower itself and the land it sits on.

Dotty Griffith, public education director for the ACLU of Texas, said it is “premature to be talking lawsuit,” but the organization's lawyers are trying to sort out confusion.

Initially, Texas A&M University officials said the tower was owned and paid for by the Verano Land Group, private investors who donated 700 acres to Texas A&M for the San Antonio campus.

Verano owns the land beneath the tower but has granted an easement to the city to make improvements, said Thomas D'Alesandro, CEO of Verano Land Group.

Peter Zanoni, an assistant city manager, said the tower was paid for with city money as part of a road project but was designed by the VTLM Group, a private developer associated with Verano.

The tower sits at the entrance to University Way, a mile-long boulevard leading into campus from the Loop 410 access road. Designed to look like the San Antonio missions, the tower features a small cross above the phrase “Torre de Esperanza,” or “Tower of Hope.”

Ferrier said earlier that she reviewed plans for the tower before it was built, but none of the drawings included a cross. However, she believes the cross is appropriate because it evokes the city's Spanish missions.

“I think it is a wonderful reflection of the area, the history and the tradition,” Ferrier said.

The letter claims that “federal courts have repeatedly struck down governmental displays of crosses,” including three crosses and a Star of David in a public park in Houston.

Sissy Bradford, a criminology professor at A&M-San Antonio, was the first to publicly protest the crosses earlier this month. The issue sparked intense debate among students on Facebook, and some took aim at Bradford.

Cresencio Davila, a master's student, former student body president and former student regent for the Texas A&M University System, said he wanted to get T-shirts made that read, “Don't be a Sissy. Practice tolerance.” He also suggested people who were offended by the cross could use a different entrance to the university.

“We have to practice tolerance, and that means that we have to accept things that we may not agree upon,” Davila said. “We have just got to suck it up and deal with it.”

Bradford did not respond to a request for comment.