Simon sent the first email on Oct. 4 after an unidentified individual wrote the phrase “No Ni***rs Please” on the door of a 20-year-old female student in West Akers Hall. The incident was followed a few days later by a racial slur on a wall in Butterfield Hall and a black doll hanging by its neck in the Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building.

Simon’s first letter offended some students as it backed up the university’s support of free speech stating, “The University supports free speech, including the use of words that are offensive to most in our community.”

The statement angered a number of students who interpreted the remark as condoning the acts.
In the letter circulated Tuesday, which also ran as a full page advertisement in The State News, Simon reiterated that racism doesn’t have a place at MSU.

Although the new letter shows Simon’s passion regarding the incidents, Lemons said Simon failing to mention t“he work of Intercultural Aides and the Black Student Alliance”:http://statenews.com/index.php/article/2011/10/students_search_for_solutions_to_racial_incidents along with the wait between emails has some students feeling it’s too late.

“In one respect, people don’t want to nitpick … we don’t want to be that group that cannot be satisfied,” Lemons said. “In some respects, it’s a day late and a dollar short, but a lot of people do appreciate it … because she took the effort to send it out.”

The original email was to inform MSU students that the university was aware of the incidents and dealing with them accordingly, said Paulette Granberry Russell, the director of the Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives .

Granberry Russell said Simon recognized the racially insensitive remarks have affected more than just MSU students.

“What happened has had an impact on individuals and on the community at large,” she said. “What happened does not represent the values of Michigan State. The fact that it might happen someplace else does not suggest that it’s okay (here).”

Advertising senior Brian Matuszak said it was important for Simon to send a second email to make clear she didn’t condone the incidents. Because there haven’t been any incidents in the past couple weeks, Matuszak said it’s tough to know if the incidents were isolated.

“I saw a spray-painted sketch of Martin Luther King, Jr. with a gun to his head,” he said. “I think there are pockets of it, but I don’t think it’s widespread.”

At a University Council meeting this week, MSU Provost Kim Wilcox also voiced his concern about the racial incidents. Various student groups and faculty members have been working to identify the issues as well as the perpetrator to help those affected by the incidents, he said.

“Who we are is under question not only by ourselves, but by those outside the university looking in,” Wilcox said.