At the University of Iowa, a professor who studies same-sex relationships is in some trouble after firing off a hasty message containing the naughty four-letter F word in response to a mass email from a Republican group on her campus.

Ellen Lewin, a professor of anthropology and gender, women's & sexuality studies, hit the all-caps button and wrote "F#$% YOU, REPUBLICANS" in response to a campus GOP group's announcement of "Conservative Coming Out" week.

Problem: The professor's vulgar response came from her official University of Iowa. Her missive and the predictable responses to it all found a home on the Iowa Republican, a GOP news website, according to this story in the local newspaper, the Press-Citizen.

Lewin later apologized, sort of. She acknowledged her inappropriate language but took the college Republicans group to task for the term "conservative coming out" day, which she said essentially hijacked terminology used by the gay and lesbian movement.

It wasn't a hate crime. In fact, it wasn't a crime after all.

That's the takeaway from the false police report filed by UNC-Chapel Hill freshman Quinn Matney, whose claim that he was assaulted apparently due to his sexual orientation sent the campus into a brief frenzy.

But here's a question I haven't yet answered: why even use the "hate crime" classification? To what end?

Here's the deal: North Carolina has no specific law dealing with hate crimes. That means had Matney's claim been true and police had made an arrest, that person could not be charged with a hate crime under state law.

But universities that receive federal Title IV student financial assistance money must conform to the Higher Education Opportunity Act, one requirement of which being an annual report of crimes identified in the Clery act, which requires universities to report crime statistics.

A hate crime on the UNC-CH campus would have met the Clery crime definition of a hate crime and as such would have been included in the university's annual report, said Jeff McCracken, the campus police chief.

Reporting it as such doesn't automatically trigger any action, McCracken said, but would allow local police to request FBI assistance in investigating the situation, and federal charges could be filed.

Of course, it's all moot now.

McCracken said Thursday his agency will likely charge Matney with filing a false report. It isn't clear when Matney will be charged, though. For now, the student has returned home to Asheville to be with his family.
 

It's been quite a week for the gay community at UNC-Chapel Hill.

First, word trickled out that a gay student had been viciously attacked because of his sexual orientation.

Then, last night, the stunning news: Freshman Quinn Matney invented his story about being attacked in the middle of the night by a man who pressed a scalding piece of metal to his wrist.

Now, more questions than answers, said Jeff DeLuca, co-president of the university's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Straight Alliance, a student organization.

"It was certainly shocking, almost as shocking as hearing a hate crime could have happened on this campus," DeLuca said Wednesday, a day after hearing that the student he'd sought out and supported had made up the story. "People put a pretty emotional investment in this, trying to find out what happened. Though this didn't turn out to be be what we thought it was, the roller coaster ride was real. People are shocked and confused."

But DeLuca's student group is moving forward with a previously scheduled campus forum Thursday night - at 6:30 in Gardner Hall - where the issue will be discussed.

And DeLuca still wants to reach out to Matney.

"We have to keep supporting Quinn," DeLuca said. "Even if it's a different type of support we have to give him."

Authorities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are investigating an assault on campus last week as a hate crime.

"As a university community, we condemn this act of violence," said UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp in a statement on Alert Carolina, the campus website that disseminates safety-related information to students, faculty and staff. "Our Department of Public Safety will bring the strongest possible charges against the attacker."

The attack, which was reported to police April 5, occurred on the foot bridge between Craige Residence Hall and the intersection of Ridge Road and Manning Drive. Police said the student was treated for burns at the student health center. The student, freshman Quinn Matney, told police a person he recognized but did not know pressed a hot piece of metal to his left wrist, scalding it and doing tendon damage.

The burn left an imprint that looks something like a figure 8.

Police have no suspects yet, Chief Jeff McCracken said Tuesday. Matney said he stopped to speak to another acquaintance just prior to the attack, but didn't know that person by name, either, McCracken said.

Thorp said in the statement that the aggravated assault "appears to have been motivated by the sexual orientation of a male student."

Thorp said the university intends to report the assault as a hate crime to the federal government.

"Everyone in our community has the right to a safe, inclusive and welcome living and learning environment," Thorp said. "And all of us have a responsibility to stand against acts of violence, harassment, bullying and intimidation and to treat each other with civility and respect."

Outside of a bare bones incident report on hand at the police station, the attack was not made public by the university until Monday, a week later. That lag time has bothered some members of the gay community at UNC-CH.

"It's troubling when the only way we find out about a hate crime on campus is by word of mouth," said Jeff DeLuca, a sophomore and co-president of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Straight Alliance.