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Swastika in snow at Mount A created by youths from outside Sackville

A swastika carved in the snow at Mount Allison University was created by "youths from outside the Sackville community," according to an internal investigation by the university.

"Those individuals have accepted responsibility and expressed their remorse for their actions," Robert Hiscock, director of communications for the university told CBC News early Monday evening.

They have been banned from the campus, he said.

Hiscock could not say how the youths were caught, how many were involved or their approximate ages.

"I don't have any details as to the specifics of the youths in question," he said.

"I was not a party to the actual investigation. It was handled entirely through our security office."

The swastika was carved in the snow on Alumni Field on Friday night, but there was no security camera footage showing who was responsible. It was erased Saturday morning.

A photo of the swastika circulated on social media over the weekend, prompting a Mount Allison professor to call on the university and the Town of Sackville to speak out against racism.

Tasia Alexopoulos, a professor of women and gender studies, said she had a mixed reaction when she saw a picture of the symbol of hate stamped into the snow of the football field.

"First I felt really sad about it," she told Information Morning Moncton. "I felt mildly surprised, and then I felt kind of angry that I wasn't more surprised."

"In my position as a professor at the university, in my role in the community ... I've heard so many stories about people's experiences with racism in Sackville and on campus and I felt that this was just another example."

Alexopoulos is looking to leaders at Mount Allison and in the town to make a strong statement.

"What everybody wants to see is just a statement saying, 'This is our campus, this is our community and this is not acceptable — we will not tolerate this,'" Alexopoulos said.

RCMP notified

Hiscock said the university took the incident "very seriously" and began investigating as soon as it became aware of it early Saturday morning.

"We will be sending something to all of our community today ... reinforcing that this is not to be tolerated at all, that there's no tolerance on this and we take it very seriously," Hiscock said.

Phil Handrahan, chief administrative officer with the Town of Sackville, said Monday that RCMP were notified about the incident and were asked to follow up.

​Hiscock said the university has had a racism policy in place for years.

"About three or four months ago, an initiative was started to review and update that policy," he said.

"So that process is very advanced and we'll be seeing that wrap up this term."

The university also plans to continue to focus on "awareness building and education around racism," he said.

Hiscock said he doesn't see the incident as an indication that racism is a growing problem on campus or in Sackville but also didn't want to minimize what happened.

"Any types of incidents like this are inappropriate and unacceptable frankly, because they affect everyone in different ways, so that's why we take it seriously."

Alexopoulos believes it does illustrate a growing problem where people feel "emboldened" to express hateful and racist views.

"There was a group created to sponsor refugees in Sackville during the refugee crisis ... they received violent, hateful, racist threats," she said.

Alexopoulos is calling on Sackville and Mount Allison administrators to "draw a line in the sand" and let people know racism will not be tolerated in their community.