University officials sent out the first campus-wide “Bias-motivated Incident Report” Thursday night after a sign stating “It’s OK to be white” was found taped to a city-owned electrical box on the southeast corner of Cretin and Summit avenues.

The report came a day after a crowd of over 5,000 gathered in the field house of the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex to discuss a collective commitment to a new action plan to combat racism at the university.

“St. Thomas condemns the efforts of fringe groups and individuals that seek to divide our communities,” officials announced in a news release. “We also condemn the use of technology and computational propaganda to sow division in our communities. We stand up to hate and to those who seek to divide us.”

The poster was similar to signs found Wednesday night at Tufts University in Massachusetts, according to an incident report. University officials denounced the message as a “part of an organized and documented campaign to create racial and political division.”

Last year on Halloween night, posters with the same message were placed on campuses across the country, including at St. Thomas. The university took the posters down and investigated the incident, according to the news release, but chose not to issue a public statement about the posters because “to do so would have furthered goals of hate and division through media attention.” The university community responded by posting a variety of positive signs, including: “It’s OK to be human.”

Following last year’s incidents, the Washington Post reported that a thread on online chat space 4chan instructed people to print the signs and post them on college campuses. They further reported that white-nationalist groups have made efforts to recruit from college campuses and other mainstream settings with claims of growing white maltreatment.

“As discussed yesterday at our campus-wide gathering, we want to be mindful, support each other, document and disseminate information,” the news release read. “We are committed to full transparency in combating racism and hate.”

Emily Sweeney can be reached at swee4225@stthomas.edu.