U. of Massachusetts Investigates Swastikas, Anti-Semitic Letters

The University of Massachusetts at Boston is investigating a rash of anti-Semitic incidents on campus, including the appearance of swastikas on doors and bulletin boards, and letters sent to two faculty members, officials said Monday.

“We consider them to be a series of isolated incidents and not reflective at all of the general tone on the campus,” said Robert A. Corrigan, the university’s chancellor.

“We will not accept or tolerate behavior which threatens the rights and beliefs of any member of the community--to insult one of us is to insult all of us,” Corrigan said in a letter to the university community.

Kevin Whitfield, a part-time instructor in the college’s law and justice program, said he received two letters filled with racist, sexist and anti-Semitic statements and one that was a card with facts about his life.

Effort Against Bigotry

The card, which arrived at his home Saturday, said his “case” had been assigned to the “werewolf section of the SS in Urbana, Ill.”

Whitfield said he believes he is a target because he is a communist and the adviser to the campus chapter of the International Committee Against Racism, a militant leftist group that advocates strong tactics to combat bigotry.

Prof. Paul Watanabe, chairman of the political science department, found a swastika sticker on his office door Feb. 2 and had received an anonymous letter last semester.

Prof. Charles Shively of the law and justice program said a swastika was placed on his door last semester after he had given a lecture on Nazi Germany.