Purdue picture defaced with racist word

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Purdue police are investigating a racially-motivated incident on campus that could bring federal charges.

Detectives said a picture of Dr. Cornell Bell inside the Krannert School of Management was defaced with the "n" word written on the glass last week with a felt-tipped marker.
    
Police were called Friday afternoon, after the slur had been cleaned and the picture replaced by staff earlier in the week.

Bell was a long-time faculty member who headed up the Business Opportunity Program named in his honor.

Because no permanent damage was done to the picture, Purdue Police Chief John Cox said it's not technically a hate crime.  But the person who wrote the slur could be charged with a "bias incident" which is a federal charge.

"We take every case like this very, very seriously," said Cox.  "It's an unfortunate incident, that here we are in 2012 and we're still having to deal with this kind of thing on a college campus like ours.  So we do take these things very seriously."

Cox said there will be a town hall meeting to discuss race relations at the Krannert auditorium at 6:45 p.m. Thursday.

If you have any information about this incident, Cox asks you to call Purdue police or the anonymous We-Tip hotline at 1-800-78-CRIME.