Noose, Swastikas Reported On U Of I Campus

Police at the University of Illinois' Urbana campus are investigating the appearance of three large swastikas in campus buildings while administrators say an employee has been fired over an apparently unrelated noose left on a table in a work area. 

Campus police spokesman Patrick Wade said Friday the swastikas were drawn Thursday and are being investigated. No arrests have been made. Wade said police are reviewing surveillance video but do not know enough yet to consider the symbols anything more than vandalism. 

Interim Chancellor Barbara Wilson said a maintenance employee was fired after admitting he made the noose and placed it on the table on April 6. 

Wilson in a written message to employees and students called for tolerance and criticized both the drawing of the swastikas and the noose.