In a statement from the University of Michigan’s Office of Public Affairs, the University announced it will be opening a joint investigation with the FBI in order to track the hacker who sent the racist emails to students Tuesday night.
Racist hate mail was sent using the email addresses of University faculty to engineering and computer science students. The emails directly targeted Black and Jewish students.
“The university was alerted about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday of several racist and anti-Semitic emails sent to email groups within the College of Engineering,” the statement read. “The University of Michigan Police Department and the FBI are conducting a joint criminal investigation into the incident. The university’s Information Assurance group also is involved in the investigation.”
The statement goes on to note the emails were forged or “spoofed,” where a message appears to be from someone who didn’t actually send it.
Protesters gathered outside University President Mark Schlissel’s house on South University last night to demand action from the University. About 40 people were in attendance. Later in the night, Schlissel came out to address the crowd.
“The most important thing you can do right now is stand together and call out this bullshit,” Schlissel said.