Over 100 students gathered Thursday night at a town hall meeting hosted by the Black Student Alliance and the Georgetown chapter of NAACP to address recent incidents of racism at Georgetown and to formulate a movement for increased vigilance against hate speech.

Representatives from the two groups discussed recent incidents of racism at Georgetown and proposed measures the university could take to better address these problems.

“The university really needs to reevaluate its current policies toward racism and intolerance,” Veronica Root (MSB ’05) said, as she opened the meeting, which was also attended by several faculty members and students from Howard University.

The meeting came after an anonymous e-mail was sent to the accounts of the Black Student Alliance and NAACP earlier this week. The e-mail, which opened with “Dear Niggers,” included numerous racist and derogatory statements and called for blacks to “go back to Africa, and [not] come back.”

It accused blacks and women of being “in competition to make it look like white males are evil.”

According to Root, University Information Systems was tracing the source of the e-mail, and, as of Thursday evening, officials believed the e-mail may have come from someone at Georgetown.

She said that she has contacted the Center for Minority Educational Affairs, the Center for Student Programs and the Office of Student Conduct about the e-mail, and a report will be filed with the Metropolitan Police Department, classifying the e-mail as a hate crime.

If a student from Georgetown is found to be responsible for it, a meeting will be held with the Office of Student Conduct to address it.

She and others attending the meeting called on the Georgetown administration to publicly denounce the e-mail and establish a system for addressing hate crimes on campus.

Students will also protest against racial intolerance at 2 p.m. today in Red Square.

The meeting concluded with a petition of resolutions signed by most in attendance. The resolutions included suggestions to revise New Student Orientation programming to better educate freshmen regarding diversity at Georgetown and to raise awareness among faculty members of minority student concerns.

“The resolutions that have been proposed are very constructive,” Rosemary Kilkenny (LAW ’87), special assistant to the president for affirmative action programs, said.

Todd Olson, interim vice president for student affairs, said that while nothing concrete is planned, he takes the issue of racism seriously and plans to move forward on such issues in dialogue with the student community.

“There’s obviously a lot of outrage and anger,” Olson said. “I came [to the meeting] here tonight to learn, and I’ve learned a lot too.”

The e-mail did not represent an isolated incident at Georgetown.

Last week, a flier from a group called The New Current, which was critical of minority groups and gays, was inserted anonymously in copies of the recent issue of The Fire This Time, a magazine of commentary by students of Georgetown’s minority community. The fliers were also left throughout campus.

Posted fliers publicizing Black History Month were also removed, and, in some cases, defaced.

Mary Garvey (SFS ’05), the vice president of public relations for Georgetown’s NAACP, said that earlier in the year the NAACP had hosted a party in the Georgetown neighborhood. As some students were leaving, she said, water was thrown on them from a nearby residence.

“That’s something reminiscent of the racial tensions of the 1950s,” Garvey said.

In 2000, threatening letters against minorities were sent to the university, sparking discussions about and protests against racial intolerance on campus.