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On the same day Black students at UC Berkeley stood in solidarity with their peers at UC San Diego to condemn racist acts on campus, a KKK-style hood was found outside UCSD’s main campus library. 

According to a UCSD news release , campus police are investigating a white pillowcase crudely fashioned into a KKK-style hood with a hand-drawn symbol that was discovered on a statue about 11 p.m. Monday. 

A rose was found inserted into the statue’s fingers. The objects have been removed and processed by police for evidence, including fingerprinting and DNA analysis, according to the news release. 

University officials have said that the incident will be aggressively pursued and the individuals found responsible punished to the full extent of the Student Code of Conduct and all applicable laws, the news release said. 

“We will not allow this incident, or any incident, to deter the progress we are making to change and heal our university community,” UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox said in the news release. “We will not tolerate these despicable actions. We stand in firm solidarity with our students and are fully committed to instituting their recommendations. We know these changes will make this university a better place and will help us improve our campus climate.” 

UCSD administrators Monday detailed a plan to address escalating racial tensions, which includes making greater attempts to recruit minority faculty, creating an African American Resource Center, establishing a commission to address the campus climate, and holding quarterly meetings between the administration and the Black Student Union. 

Some of these ideas were suggested by the university’s Black Student Union in 2006, when members became concerned about racist incidents and started feeling alienated on campus. 

Tensions erupted on the UCSD campus in February when students came across a Facebook event called the “Compton Cookout” which mocked Black History Month and asked guests to dress like ghetto steretypes. 

A YouTube video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGfFSZ2kcRg) titled UCSD Compton Cookout Event/DVD Release Party shows Black comedian Jiggaboo Jones explaining that the off campus party was not meant to be racist. 

“Everybody had a good time,” Jones says in the video. “It was like Halloween, but it wasn’t in October ... People are making so much out of nothing. News people should do more fact checking.”