St. Thomas administrators are speaking out against a racist slur that was etched into a paper on a bulletin board in Ireland Hall.

Junior Bisrat Bayou, a resident adviser in Ireland, discovered Monday that the N-word had been scratched into a paper that was part of a display used to introduce himself to his residents.

“We denounce acts of hate,” Karen Lange, vice president for student affairs, said in a Tuesday email to students who live on campus. “As a community and university, we stand firm in our convictions of dignity and diversity.”

President Julie Sullivan posted a statement in the OneSt. Thomas intranet Tuesday afternoon. She sent an email with the statement to the students, faculty and staff on Wednesday after it became clear that many people had not seen the intranet post.

“Our solidarity mandates that we are all part of one human family,” Sullivan wrote. “We are called to be empathetic, and we cannot remain untouched by the suffering or injustice against any brother or sister anywhere on our planet, and certainly not within our own community.”

Bayou condemned the racial slur on Facebook after discovering the etching while updating the hallway display in his residence hall. The post has over 400 reactions and 42 shares as of Wednesday afternoon.

“It’s sad to see this, but unfortunately I am not surprised,” Bayou wrote. “This is modern society. I pray for peace and unity.”

This incident comes about a year after a St. Thomas student discovered the N-word written on a sidewalk of the Upper Quad. The next day, the Anti-Racism Coalition hosted a rally that drew hundreds of students.

Residence Life will host events for Ireland residents “to discuss the climate we have… in our halls” in the coming days, Lange said.

Lange reported that because the paper had been on the bulletin board since the start of the semester, administrators do not know when the act occurred or who wrote the word.

Students with any information about the incident can report it to PSTIPS@stthomas.edu or 651-962-TIPS.