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$5 Million Got His Name on His Alma Mater. A Facebook Post May Erase It.

Oxford Square on an Ole Miss game day in Oxford, Miss. In a racially insensitive Facebook post, Ed Meek, a Mississippi graduate and donor, complained of deteriorating property values around campus.Credit...Wes Frazer for The New York Times

When Daniel Payne, a white junior at the University of Mississippi, saw that a major benefactor of the journalism school he attends had posted racially insensitive comments on social media, he immediately thought “it was going to be really, really bad.”

The post on Facebook was written by Ed Meek, 77, a Mississippi graduate and media entrepreneur. In his post, Mr. Meek complained of deteriorating property values around the university campus and declining enrollment. He attached a photo of two young black students wearing party dresses, suggesting that they — or people who looked like them — were responsible for the problems on campus and in town.

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Ole Miss Faculty Response to Racial Controversy

The dean and faculty of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi released this video statement in response to a racially charged Facebook post by a prominent benefactor.

Less than 24 hours ago the donor, whose name is on our school, Ed Meek, published a post on his personal Facebook account. We quickly condemned it as reprehensible. In the words of the university chancellor Jeffrey Vitter, the photos in the post suggested an unjustified racial overtone that is highly offensive. It’s our responsibility. We take it very seriously. We have heard the calls for the Meek name to be removed from our building. We have heard the comments that suggest that that response would be too harsh. We are continuing to listen and continue to respond. We expect to make a recommendation to Chancellor Vitter in the very near future.

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The dean and faculty of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi released this video statement in response to a racially charged Facebook post by a prominent benefactor.CreditCredit...Meek School of Journalism and New Media

The post spread quickly on social media, and within hours it looked as though the University of Mississippi, a name almost synonymous with racial strife, would be rocked by yet another controversy. But students, faculty and community members have been surprised by how the episode was handled. Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter immediately condemned the post. The journalism school faculty held an emergency meeting at 7 a.m. the following day, and two public forums were scheduled for that night.

Mr. Meek had donated $5.3 million to the journalism school, which was renamed the Meek School of Journalism and New Media in 2009. The school also denounced Mr. Meek’s post. A letter was sent to the entire university community explaining the process of removing Mr. Meek’s name from the building. A subsequent note explained that Mr. Vitter planned to expedite the process.

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A decorative Ole Miss pillow. In recent years, the Rebels replaced their mascot, Colonel Reb.Credit...Wes Frazer for The New York Times

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The university’s swift response was a striking contrast to recent events in which it was forced to reckon with racial controversy on campus. In 2012, racial epithets against President Barack Obama were chanted at a student protest. In 2014, a noose was placed around a statue of James Meredith, the university’s first black student, whose enrollment in 1962 led to deadly rioting on campus. There were no immediate attempts in the aftermath of those events to open up talks between students and the administration.

The way the school sprang into action to address Mr. Meek’s post caught many students and faculty off guard. It was the latest signal that the administration is taking steps to break with the past. Others include replacing the mascot, Colonel Reb; renaming a street that was called Confederate Drive; and removing the name of a white supremacist from a building.

Alexis Rhoden, a black journalism student, attended one of the campus forums. “They were literally looking us in the eyes and just listening to us,” Ms. Rhoden said of the administrators. “So I thought, ‘This is actually different, this could mean something.’” Mr. Payne, one of those who supported removing Mr. Meek’s name from the journalism school, added: “I don’t think it’s just another day at Ole Miss.”

The university received the students’ message at the forums. “Anytime there’s anything that touches on a racial incident, we want to be sure that we can deal with it, or put our best face possible on it,” said Curtis Wilkie, a professor at the journalism school.

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The Meek School of Journalism in Farley Hall on the University of Mississippi campus. The school is named for Ed Meek, an alumnus whose recent social media post drew condemnation from the university.Credit...Semaj Jordan for The Daily Mississippian

“And I think that was what was behind some of the quickness of action on this,” he added. “It was just the sense we needed to disabuse the public that this major donor and this Facebook posting was not at all something that we approved of, so there was a very quick condemnation of it.”

Some who know Mr. Meek said the post was out of character. “Those pictures should not have been posted, but it doesn’t make him a racist,” Nic Lott, a prominent black alumnus who works for the state’s Republican governor, wrote in a Facebook post. (Mr. Meek did not respond to a message requesting comment.)

Mr. Meek deleted his post shortly after it went viral. The students in the photograph were identified as Mahoghany Jordan and Kiyona Crawford. Ms. Jordan, a senior general studies major, responded to Mr. Meek in an opinion article for the student newspaper. “I deserve to feel secure in my skin on this campus and in this town just as my counterparts do and I will continue to carry on as such,” she wrote.

Whether Mr. Meek’s name will be removed from the journalism school remains unclear. A state board will make the final decision, and Mr. Wilkie observed that Mr. Meek is “close to the power brokers in this state, who are all Republicans and all very conservative.”

Students are eagerly awaiting the university’s next move. The school’s response to Mr. Meek’s post was laudable, but it “will not end the story,” Israel Rivas, 22, a senior from Los Angeles, said. “People are still going to be talking about the post and the issue of race relations on campus.”

A statue of a Confederate soldier still stands prominently on campus. Not far from it is the statue of Mr. Meredith, much newer, that had been vandalized with a noose.

Audra D. S. Burch contributed reporting.

Follow Adeel Hassan on Twitter @adeelnyt.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 13 of the New York edition with the headline: Name on a University Building, And on a Crass Facebook Post. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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