House Apology Letter Condemns KKK Note

Two hundred Winthrop House residents have signed a letter sympathizing with a black student who found a piece of pater marked "KKK" slipped under the door of his room last week. The letter also apologizes to a Jewish student on whose door someone had scrawled "Tod den Juden" (death to the Jews) the same night.

Neither student expressed anxiety about the messages, although the black student informed the house office of the KKK note.

Winthrop House Senior Tutor Lance C. Buhl drafted the letter of apology. "Perhapsthis was meant as a joke, but it up-set me." he said. "I thought the House ought not to take it lightly."

The note appeared under the black student's door after a House meeting at which he had voiced support for last week's attack on the Center for International Studies. His comment started a heated discussion at the meeting. "The KKK note seemed a direct response to what went on at the meeting." Buhl said.

Buhl sent copies of the letter, which circulated for signatures in the Winthrop House dining hall, to the two students.

The letter read in part: "We trust that all members of Winthrop House believe with us that there is no place in a community of free men for intimidation, coercion, or the threat of coercion, or racism and ask that they join with us in extending our sincere apologies to the persons against whom these notes wore directed."