From Staff Reports

SWANNANOA — Warren Wilson College and local authorities are investigating what are described in an email to the campus community as “possible hate crimes” at the school.

Students and staff met Dec. 8 to discuss the incidents. That meeting was not open to the news media, according to Kyle McCurry, director of media relations for WWC.

A priority for the college is making sure students are “encouraged to discuss the way they feel about the campus, whether they feel safe or not,” McCurry noted afterward. He said that WWC takes “what we hear in these meetings to heart.”

Emails to the students and staff outline the incidents, which began in November:

• A computer belonging to a student of color was stolen and smashed.

• A senior project belonging to another student of color was stolen and ripped up, with a racial slur written on one piece of paper.

• A laptop and other items were stolen from the room of a transgender student.

“Events of the last few weeks have reminded us all that the struggle against bigotry and discrimination will be a long one,” WWC President Steven L. Solnick wrote in an email to the college’s students, faculty and staff.