Fliers advocating opposing sides of a “hot button” topic were found on campus within the past month, University Police said.
University Police Chief Dave Baer said the department is only aware of the three fliers, but said students that have received fliers should notify police.
The department has “an idea” of who is behind the KKK flier, Baer said. Police are keeping a closer eye on campus in the meantime.
“We’re being a little more observant,” Baer said. “Obviously no one wants to be seen leaving these leaflets.”
In late January, fliers calling for locals to speak out against a Peorian allegedly involved in the Illinois National Socialist Front, a neo-Nazi organization, were discovered on campus. About two weeks later, a flyer describing the goals of the Knights Party, also known as the Ku Klux Klan, was also found.
The first report of the fliers came about 1 p.m. Jan. 21 when Eugenia Kyle, an employee in the Multicultural Student Services Department, alerted police that two men were attempting to hand out fliers at the Garrett Center.
The leaflet, apparently distributed through South Side Chicago Anti-Racist Action, an organization seeking to fight racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and discrimination, called for locals to protest against purported NSF member Philip Anderson.
It listed Anderson’s last known home address in Peoria Heights, an e-mail address for the Illinois NSF as well as Anderson’s supposed personal e-mail address, his phone number and other information.
The flier urged Peorians to speak out against Anderson.
“Let’s make clear to Phil and his hate organization that they are not welcome,” it read.
Williams Hall Director Jeff De Chavez found one of the fliers at the back entrance of Williams that same day. De Chavez said he was shocked when he discovered the flier and he took it down immediately.
“It’s something to be kind of alarmed about because this is a campus … and we are getting these around a school that is so diverse,” he said.
Two weeks later, about 2 p.m. Feb. 6, a student found a flier on the windshield of a car parked in the 1400 block of St. James Avenue. The student turned the flier in to food service staff at the Student Center, who then called campus police.
This flier explained the Knights Party, claiming that “the position of whites are vilified” and that other races and cultures have “a hatred of white culture, a jealousy for all that [whites] have accomplished.”
“Where is White Entertainment Television? Where is White History Month?” the flier read. It also gave contact information for the KKK.
