ITHACA, N.Y. -- Ithaca police are investigating a possible hate crime after a fight this weekend hospitalized a black Cornell University student.
The Cornell Daily Sun reports that a student has been arrested and charged with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, following the fight in Ithaca's Collegetown neighborhood.
The Daily Sun spoke with the victim, who was treated for a possible concussion at Cayuga Medical Center early Friday morning.
The student newspaper did not identify the victim. Police have not released the suspect's name.
The victim, a junior, said he was walking home along Eddy Street in Collegetown around 1 a.m. when he arrived to find a group of four or five white men fighting with his friends.
The victim yelled at the unwanted guests to leave, when he says they began shouting racial slurs at him. The argument got physical, and the victim said he was punched several times in the face by the group of men.
Police responded to 306 Eddy St. at 1:38 a.m., according to the report. Officials said there were no significant injuries to any of the students.
Mayor Svante Myrick, an alumnus of the university, told The Cornell Daily Sun police are investigating the student's beating as a hate crime. Myrick said the student was repeatedly called the N-word during the altercation.
The fight appears to be among a series of arguments on Eddy Street throughout the night. The Daily Sun published video capturing one exchange in which some of the students involved can be heard using the N-word and other racially charged language.
Cornell officials sent a message to the campus community over the weekend confirming the assault and arrest.
In the email, officials suggest that the arrested student and others involved might belong to a fraternity that is not officially recognized by the university.
A day after the fight, that fraternity's former house was vandalized, the Sun reported.
Officials said that pending an investigation, the students involved would be sanctioned and the fraternity would not be allowed to return to campus.
"Cornell will not tolerate action that impact the safety of our students," officials said in the message.
Cornell's Black Student Union declared the university community in a "state of emergency," the Sun reported. BSU leaders questioned whether black students were safe on campus and in the surrounding off-campus neighborhood of Collegetown.
Public Affairs Reporter Julie McMahon covers federal courts, government and other issues affecting taxpayers. She can be reached anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-412-1992
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