The University of California - Berkeley (UCB) has addressed the three cardboard cutouts of black men and women hung from nooses found on campus over the weekend.

In a public statement issued Sunday, Chancellor Nicholas B. Dirks and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Claude Steele said no person or group has claimed the lynching effigies. They called the depictions "deeply disturbing."

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, police removed two of the nooses while students took down the third Saturday morning. The cutouts were complete with the names of past lynching victims and the dates of their deaths. Also on the cutouts was the phrase "I Can't Breathe," which has become a pointed statement on police violence against unarmed black men.

The lynching depictions at UCB are expected to be in lieu of the recent Grand Jury decisions not to indict the police officers responsible for killing Michael Brown and Eric Garner in St. Louis, Mo. and Staten Island, N.Y., respectively.

"I came down and huddled with the students and attempted to help talk them through what they were experiencing, considering the options of it being an art protest, considering the options that it was of malicious intent," Michael McBride, pastor of The Way Christian Center in Berkeley, told the Chronicle. "I don't know what the intention is or was because of the anonymity associated with it."

Claire Holmes, a UCB spokeswoman, told the Chronicle the school does not know much about the incident, but said police are investigating.

"This is definitely something of concern," she said. "We're not sure what the motivation was."

Dirks and Steele encouraged the person or group responsible to step forward, acknowledging the social climate and recent events that may have sparked the demonstration.

"We have been and will continue to work with the student leadership, the Black Student Union and others on campus staff and groups to create opportunities to address the concerns and develop a plan for improving our campus climate, not only related to these effigies but also the events of the past several weeks," the statement reads. "We recognize the stress and anxiety that current events are generating for the members of our extended community, and have faith that we will emerge stronger and more unified, precisely through our commitment to realizing the inclusion and justice that have long been the promise of this institution and this country."