'Too many Asians' - Racist message adds to growing problem for Sheffield Hallam University

A racist message left on a library whiteboard is the fourth racist incident in the last month at Sheffield Hallam University

The notice had been put up in the University library calling for feedback from students regarding extra library staff to which someone wrote: "Too many Asians (brown ones)."

The whiteboard had been placed on the second floor of the Adsetts library which is located in the Sheffield Hallam University city campus.

Maisie Bithell, who is currently at student at Sheffield Hallam, spotted the message and turned to Twitter to report the incident to the university.

She said: "It definitely disappointed and angered me knowing that something like that could be written in the university I attend, but I wasn't completely shocked as it's well known that there's problems with racism on university campus' all over the UK.

Sheffield Hallam University has condemned the incident saying: "racism and hate speech are not welcome in our university community, and won't be tolerated."

Luke Renwick, president of Sheffield Hallam University's Students Union issued a statement regarding four incidents of racism relating to students of the university.

In the blog post, he said: "In the last four weeks alone, I have been made aware of four separate incidents on our campus or at a university event where a student has allegedly been subjected to racism.

"University campuses are not the bastion of acceptance and equality that they’re purported to be and that is a reality we all need to face."

Renwick has urged victims and witnesses of hate crime within the student community to report it to the Students’ Union Advice Centre. He said: "Let's call out and report hate where ever it occurs and let’s highlight the scale of this problem and work towards solving it."

The latest incident comes after a banana was thrown at a black Sheffield Hallam University student at a Varsity game and a university staff member allegedly referred to a student as a 'monkey'.

Details of another incident have been passed to the university involving a staff member making a comment about a 'foreign' student.

Tim Ward of Sheffield Hallam University said: "The welfare and safety of our students is our top priority. We pride ourselves on being a diverse, welcoming and supportive University for all our students. Racism and hate speech will not be tolerated in any form in our University community.

"The recent incidents that have taken place involving our students are in the process of being thoroughly investigated and all possible action will be taken to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

"We take any incident regarding racism, hate speech or other abusive acts extremely seriously. If you are aware of any such incidents we would ask you to report it immediately."

He added: "Following an investigation into the writing of hateful racist language on a University whiteboard in the Library, it has unfortunately not been possible to identify the perpetrators as this location is not covered by security cameras.

"Although the whiteboard has been used successfully to gather student feedback for many years, due to this and further misuse, it has now been removed from the library."

A protest is to be held today at 1pm outside Firth Court over the University of Sheffield's handling of racist incidents.

It will be held by the Sheffield University's BME society, and will be open to students from both Universities.