A lower Manhattan university is investigating how a paperback copy of the Quran from the campus library ended up in a public toilet, school officials said Tuesday.
The discovery at Pace University was among three separate incidents in the past two weeks involving vandalism with racial or religious overtones. In the other two, racial slurs were scrawled on a student's car parked at a satellite campus in Westchester County and on a bathroom wall at the downtown campus.
University President David A. Caputo said the incidents did not appear to be related. But he called them "deeply disturbing" and invited faculty and students to discuss them Tuesday afternoon at a meeting.
"One of our university's greatest strengths is its diversity," Caputo wrote in a letter describing the incidents. "However, when speech is hurtful towards a class of people or incites violence, we must condemn it and take measures to stop it."
