I was disgusted by an article in the Bismarck Tribune several weeks ago that reported anti-Semitic discrimination at the University of North Dakota. A Jewish student moved out of his dormitory after being harassed with ethnic epithets and drawings of swastikas. Since then, more swastikas have appeared on campus.

As a Jewish person, my visceral impulse was to take a drive to Grand Forks and rearrange some collegiate faces. As incensed as I am, however, I know that as adults, we must not rearrange faces but attitudes. I write this piece as a plea to UND officials not to pay lip service, but to halt this unacceptable behavior at their institution.

University President Charles Kupchella remained equivocal when presented with a cell-phone image of one of the swastikas. Did he think the perpetrators were referencing the swastika as the Indo-Persian symbol of good luck that it was before being co-opted by the Nazis in 1935 as a signifier of hate? Why did he not take a stroll across campus to see for himself?

I am amazed at his level of cowardice and concern for self-preservation. I understand that the investigation is ongoing, but simply to call the incidents "mindless" and "abhorrent" does little. I wonder, would he have been among the collaborators in Vichy France, when the country was occupied by the Germans in World War II? I challenge him to act by standing up for the minorities in the student populace and suspending or expelling students who have been orchestrating these hate crimes. Kupchella reimbursed the victim $458.60; no amount of blood money will ever silence justice. He is retiring, and if no action is taken, his legacy will amount to little more than a leader who did not lead; one who cravenly sat idle as racial and religious intolerance occurred on his campus.

This is not the first time Nazi sympathies have surfaced at UND. Benefactor Ralph Engelstad reportedly had a "bunker" in his Las Vegas Imperial Palace casino-hotel, which was filled with Third Reich memorabilia. Objects apparently included a portrait of Engelstad dressed in a Nazi uniform with the caption, "To Adolf from Ralphie," and bumper stickers that read "Hitler Was Right." On April 20, 1986 and 1988, Engelstad threw lavish soirees to celebrate Hitler's birthday. In 1989, the Nevada Gaming Commission fined Engelstad $1.5 million "for actions that damaged the reputation and image of Nevada's gaming industry." Anyone who has ever been to Sin City knows that one has to be pretty unsavory to tarnish Vegas' "reputation and image." Engelstad apologized, stating that the parties were intended as burlesque spoofs. Although he made amends, albeit under coercion, he clearly was no Mel Brooks. Years later, Engelstad donated more than $100 million for a new UND hockey arena. University officials should have been more principled and refused the money. Engelstad could have saved his Faustian dollars for more Nazi tchotchkes (baubles).

My wife and I, who hail from large cities, have experienced anti-Semitism first-hand in Bismarck. As we dined one evening in an upscale eatery, one of the proprietors muttered something about the Holocaust. We were astounded. I have heard people use the term, "Jewed him/her down," to describe the act of bartering to receive a better price, the implication being that Jews love money. Stereotypes are humorous because they sometimes reflect certain truths. Indeed, many Jews are industrious, shrewd and even wealthy business people. To evoke the Holocaust in such a flippant manner, however, is highly offensive. It is like mentioning lynching to a black, smallpox blankets to an American Indian, AIDS as a gay disease to a homosexual or rape to a woman. Too much political correctness evinces hypocrisy, but some things must remain out of bounds. Does the owner of this restaurant ask black patrons, "How was the braised beef with rosemary and thyme potatoes," addressing them with a racial epithet?

Most North Dakotans are enlightened enough not to be bigots. On Sunday April 27, I attended a Holocaust commemoration, hosted by the Bismarck Hebrew Congregation, to remember the victims of the systematic extermination by the Nazis of 6 million Jews and perhaps between 9 and 10 million other dissidents from National Socialism.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the majority of the perhaps some 50 attendees were not Jewish. It is good to know that people on the prairie will never forget. It would be nice if our institutions of higher learning were just as intolerant of intolerance.

I applaud North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven and Bismarck Mayor John Warford, both of whom have issued proclamations for years commemorating Days of Remembrance for Holocaust victims. Hoeven's 2008 edict in part reads that "the citizens of North Dakota should always remember the tragic events of the Holocaust and remain vigilant against hatred, persecution and tyranny." In dehumanizing others, we dehumanize ourselves. What will you do to curb and eradicate ethnic and racial discrimination?

(Brillman teaches history and sociology at the University of Mary. - Editor)