University police today were investigating a report that a noose was placed on the campus of UCSD for the second time this year.
The alleged noose -- a thin piece of rope crudely fashioned in a loop -- was found July 21 suspended from a stairwell in Mandeville Hall, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Racial tensions have run high at UCSD since February, when students hosted an "Compton Cookout" themed off-campus party mocking Black History Month. An invitation on Facebook urged female participants to dress as "ghetto chicks" and said fried chicken, watermelon and malt liquor would be served.
School officials agreed that the event perpetuated racist stereotypes but said they had no power to discipline anyone because it took place off-campus.
The situation was later exacerbated by racially insensitive language used on a student-run television station, the discovery of a noose found in the library and a Ku Klux Klan-style hood on a statue in the heart of campus.
An unidentified student was suspended for the first noose incident.
In the wake of the racial tension, University of California President Mark Yudof said he would work with students to develop campus hate crime legislation. He also called on alumni and university supporters to launch a private effort to raise scholarship funds for minorities on all UC campuses.
