Officials at Duke University announced they know who hung a noose on campus early Wednesday morning.
According to the Charlotte Observer, a student admitted to it and is now awaiting the school's disciplinary process. Not identifying the person, Duke officials said he or she is no longer on campus and will face student conduct violations as well as possible criminal charges.
First and foremost, the student could be expelled if found responsible for hanging a noose on a tree outside the Bryan Center Plaza. At a news conference Thursday, officials also said they included the State and Federal Bureaus of Investigation in their probe.
"At this point, we're not in a position to discuss motivation or anything beyond that," Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations at Duke, said at the news conference.
He news conference came one day after the Duke community rallied together in large numbers to show their displeasure in the incident. In a news release Wednesday, the school estimated more than 1,000 people gathered in front of the Duke Chapel, where university president Richard H. Brodhead gave an address.
"This is a beautiful day and this is a beautiful place, but we are gathered here because something ugly happened here today," Brodhead said in an address in which he reportedly recounted the South's ugly history of lynching and racism. "We have no intention of going back now.
"I repudiate that. That's not the Duke I know."
The Duke Black Student Alliance organized a march earlier in the day, which apparently culminated in the massive forum outside the chapel. In addition to Brodhead's address, other administrators, faculty and students had the chance to speak.
"It's nice that they caught the guy," David Ivey, a student at Duke, told the Observer. "It still doesn't resolve any of the structural problems that exist."
