When Kevyn Perkins walked back to his dorm room at the University of St Thomas on Friday morning, he says he first noticed something written across his door.
"The wood of the door said, "N***** Go Back" in red marker," Perkins said. "Words can't describe how mad I was."
Perkins, a freshman from Menomonie, Wisconsin, says he immediately scrubbed his door clean and called his brother to tell him he was leaving school.
"I was packing my bags, thinking I just want to go straight home," Perkins said. "Then he was like, 'You can't do that. That's what they want you to do. You have to be strong and stay there.'"
That's when Perkins decided to confide in friends, who helped him report the incident to campus investigators. He says those friends have also offered much needed support as the news spread throughout campus during the weekend.
"I mean, it's nice to be around them, a support group, but they can't be with me all the time," Perkins said. "When I'm alone, I'm on edge, looking over my shoulder more than usual, wondering what's going to happen next."
University President Julie Sullivan says she is taking the report seriously.
"I'm ashamed, I'm distressed, I'm just really dismayed that this has happened," Sullivan said. "Our office of public safety is overseeing the investigation, asking anyone to come forward who has any knowledge related to the incident."
Anonymous tips may be submitted at (651) 962-TIPS (8477) or email pstips@stthomas.edu. According to Sullivan, any student found to be involved will be referred through the student conduct process and subject to sanctions up to and including expulsion.
Sullivan says it's not the first racial slur the university has spent time investigating on campus in recent years. It's actual the third report in three years. Racial slurs were discovered inside and outside Ireland Hall in 2016 and 2017.
Kent Erdahl: "Do you believe there is a problem on this campus?"
President Sullivan: "I believe there is a problem in our society, and I believe this is an opportunity for us to stand up for what we believe in."
Perkins: "I feel like it's more the people that come here on the campus. I feel like the campus didn't make them that way, they came here that way in the first place."
Despite his early thoughts about leaving campus, Perkins says he now plans on staying and attending a sit-in that will take place inside the student union on Thursday. He says he also has a message to whoever wrote the message on his door.
"I would say they're cowards, to write it on my door and not say it to my face," Perkins said. "Maybe they're the ones who don't belong here on this campus."
The University of St Thomas has scheduled time for student dialogue related to the incident on both Tuesday, 10/23 (Noon) and Thursday, 10/24 (following a sit-in at 4pm).