By Gregory Childress

gchildress@heraldsun.com; 419-6645

Chapel Hill -- The UNC Board of Governors could be asked to vote on a systemwide policy governing campus hate crimes as early as next month.

The board's committee on education planning, policies and programs is expected to recommend this week that the board adopt a policy that forbids students from engaging in unlawful harassment that "threaten, coerce, harass or intimidate another person or identifiable group of persons ..."

The policy, currently in draft form, is the byproduct of racist threats against Barack Obama spray-painted on the wall of N.C. State's Free Expression Tunnel a day after Obama made history by becoming the first African American elected to the nation's highest office.

The racist markings included messages such as "kill that nigger" and "Shoot Obama" among others.

Four students, whom the university declined to identify, took credit for the remarks and later apologized.

Committee members acknowledged that protecting free speech rights was a big consideration in drafting the new policy.

"The Board of Governors is committed to preserving and protecting these freedoms, while recognizing that certain conduct, which intentionally targets a person or identifiable group of persons ... may interfere with the university's core mission of advancing knowledge and understanding," the committee explained in the document.

The American Civil Liberties Union initially expressed concern about UNC system efforts to adopt hate speech codes, contending that such policies amount to government censorship.

But on Tuesday after reviewing the committee's recommended policy, Katherine Lewis Parker, legal director of the ACLU in North Carolina, said system officials have made a good attempt to protect the free speech rights of students, faculty and employees.

"It looks good," Parker said of the draft. "It seems they are focused on protecting free speech. We'll have to see how it's actually implemented."

If there is a lingering concern, Parker said it's that some of the words in one section of the policy need to be defined. For example, she said the committee needs to explain what it means by "threat" and "intimidation."

"Someone might feel intimidated by something that is constitutionally covered speech," Parker said.

She said the committee did a better job defining unlawful harassment, which it defines as "behavior that creates a hostile environment because it is: directed toward a particular person or persons, based upon the person's race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, creed, disability or veteran status."

In addition, unlawful harassment would include behavior that is "unwelcome, severe or pervasive, objectively offensive and so unreasonable interferes with the target person's employment, academic pursuits, or participation in university-sponsored activities as to effectively deny equal access to the university's resources and opportunities."

Hundreds of N.C. State students rallied in the days after the hate-laced graffiti was discovered to denounce the authors' words. And civil rights organizations such as the state NAACP took the lead in challenging the UNC system to adopt a hate crimes policy.