Feds Will Investigate Racial Hostility at Lehigh University

The federal government is investigating whether Lehigh University has created a racially hostile environment by not adequately addressing harassment complaints made by minority students, according to reports.

The complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights was filed in November by an alumna of the university after a residence hall that houses minority students was vandalized with eggs and graffiti, according to The Express Times.

The graffiti sprayed on Umoja House, a 28-bed dormitory at 101 Sayre Park Road, included racial slurs. Umoja is the Swahili word for “unity.”

Campus police are still investigating the vandalism and no arrests have been made, the newspaper reported.

Immediately after the incident, university President Alice Gast called the vandalism “a cowardly and hateful act” and an “affront” to everyone in the Lehigh community.

“This type of behavior will not be tolerated,” Gast wrote in an email to faculty, staff and students. Gast has since accepted a position as president of Imperial College London and will leave Lehigh at the end of July.