A noose was spotted hanging outside a residence hall in Stanford on Sunday — potentially the third time in which the hateful symbol was spotted on the prestigious Bay Area university’s campus.
University heads confirmed that the noose was spotted Sunday evening outside Branner Hall, an undergraduate dormitory for juniors and seniors on campus.
“We would like to express our gratitude to those who reported the noose and contacted DPS, and are working this evening to support directly impacted students, faculty and staff,” Stanford vice provosts Susie Brubaker-Cole and Patrick Dunkley wrote in a statement, the student-run Stanford Daily reported. “We are sharing this message with the full university community so that everyone is informed and we can move forward as one committed to ending anti-Black racism.”
The Stanford Daily reported that Brubaker-Cole and Dunkley added that the university has set up “an outreach plan to provide assistance to all who are in need, bearing in mind that this is not the first time this has occurred at Stanford in recent years.”
This is the third confirmed incident in as many years in which a noose or noose-like cord was found hanging on campus. The first was in 2019, when a noose was spotted in a bush in front of Columbae House by a student living in the neighboring Storey House, according to a report by the Stanford Department of Public Safety. At the time, Storey House’s residents were majority Black high schoolers staying on campus for a summer program. (The university received backlash for its failure to publicly respond to this incident within a timely manner.)
The second incident took place last year, when two ropes were found near the popular Lake Lagunita walking trail. University officials said that those ropes had been hanging on the tree for at least 18 months prior to their discovery, but the discovery came just weeks after a university survey found that 63% of Black students on campus “indicated at least one experience with microaggression.”
“We cannot be certain whether the ropes were deliberately fashioned in the shape of nooses, or were part of an abandoned swing or rope ladder,” Dunkley and Senior Associate Vice Provost and Dean of Students Mona Hicks told the Palo Alto Weekly in 2021.
Representatives for Stanford did not immediately respond to a request for comment from SFGATE.
