Source:  NY Times

A white Cornell University student who was facing an assault charge for a September incident, in which he is said to have called a black student a racial slur and then punched him in the face, on Monday was also charged with a hate crime.

“This was something we knew was a possibility from the beginning,” Matthew Van Houten, the Tompkins County district attorney, said of the hate crime charge. “That kind of charge is not something you want to bring hastily; you have to carefully review all the evidence and take a deep breath. But when someone is selected based on their race or national origin or some other protected category, that’s what makes it a hate crime.”

The white student, John P.A. Greenwood, has now been charged with attempted assault in the third degree as a hate crime, aggravated harassment in the second degree, and criminal mischief in the fourth degree.

The student Mr. Greenwood is alleged to have assaulted, identified in court documents as Solomon Shewit, has said that he was coming home in the early hours of a Friday morning when he found a group of students outside his home arguing with his housemates. As he was trying to get them to leave, someone called him a racial epithet, and when he confronted them, several people punched him the face.

Some of the alleged attackers may have been affiliated with the Psi Upsilon fraternity. The organization’s alumni board has closed its Cornell chapter indefinitely.

Cornell, an Ivy League university in Ithaca, N.Y., has been struggling to manage a series of racially and ethnically charged events. In September, at least one student chanted about “building a wall” near the Latino Living Center. In October, signs were posted around campus that said, “Just say no to Jewish lies!” according to the student newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun.

Cornell’s president, Martha E. Pollack, convened a task force in September to “examine and address persistent problems of bigotry and intolerance” at the school.

Raymond M. Schlather, Mr. Greenwood’s lawyer, said in an email: “Unfortunately, Mr. Shewit has misled the police, the prosecutor, and this community. Mr. Greenwood was not involved in any physical altercation.”

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