Ohio students receive racist letters

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- School officials have told Ohio State University students not to respond to racist letters sent from someone in North Dakota.

The letters, hand-addressed to "occupant," were received Tuesday by some students living at OSU's Drackett Tower, The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reported Thursday.

Letters with the same signature and a North Dakota postmark also were sent to three Notre Dame University dormitories in January and to some OSU students in 2006 and 2007, said OSU spokesman Jim Lynch.

The letters contained bigoted statements about blacks and called for limiting the immigration of Africans, the Dispatch reported, noting the letters were turned over to police.

In an e-mail to OSU students Tuesday night, university President E. Gordon Lee condemned the letters as "ignorant and offensive."

"I am utterly convinced that we do not tolerate racism here," Gee said. "We are, simply put, better than that."