NDSU Community, 

I am writing to follow-up on my earlier update, with what I find to be heart-wrenchingly unfortunate news about two more potential hate speech incidents involving NDSU students.

As I promised, NDSU will aggressively and quickly move to investigate all such matters, and if the facts warrant, we will take all legally allowable action. These incidents will be investigated by our Equity Office. The Equity Office plans to retain a consultant/expert to ensure that NDSU is being consistent with all best national practices. 

I am also moving to populate and charge the crisis task force that I mentioned earlier today. It is expected that the findings and recommendations provided from this taskforce would help inform the long-term strategic planning work of the President’s Council on Diversity, Inclusion, and Respect.

I want to thank the people who are coming forward with information about these incidents. We need to know about these incidents in order to deal with them. Incidents can be reported to the Equity Office here.