Hate crime targets Columbia professor

NEW YORK, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Demonstrators at New York’s Columbia University Wednesday protested the placing of a noose on the office door of a black professor.

Author and psychologist Madonna Constantine, 44, found the rope Tuesday morning at her office at Columbia's Teachers College, The New York Post reported. The New York City Police Department's Hate Crimes Task Force was investigating the incident.

Constantine co-wrote the book, “Addressing Racism: Facilitating Cultural Competence in Mental Health and Educational Settings.”

Sources told the Post police were looking into whether another professor put the noose on Constantine's office door.

"They have someone they're looking at, another professor who had a rivalry with her and was jealous over the work she did," the source said.

More than 150 students attended a campus meeting Tuesday night. University President Lee Bollinger issued a statement calling the incident “an assault on African-Americans and therefore an assault on every one of us,” CNN reported.

Wednesday afternoon’s protest was followed by a town hall meeting for professors, students and staff that was to be closed to the public, CNN said.

College President Susan Fuhrman told students and faculty in an e-mail the "(Teachers College) community and I deplore this hateful act, which violates every Teachers College and societal norm."