What Were They Thinking?

NUVO's Dave Hoppe has a chilling article in this week's issue of the newsweekly about a very strange decision by Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis.

IUPUI employee (and student) Keith John "Sampson received a letter, dated Nov. 25, 2007, from Lillian Charleston, of IUPUI’s Affirmative Action Office. The letter begins by saying that the AAO has completed its investigation of a coworker’s allegation that Sampson 'racially harassed her by repeatedly reading the book Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan by Todd Tucker in the presence of Black employees'."

This Indianapolis Observer is astonished. What in the world is going on in the administrative offices of IUPUI?

UPDATED (10 March):
The story's been picked up by Townhall.com. As Kathleen Parker writes, "What could be more hostile in a university environment than investigating a student's reading choices on the basis of a bystander's perceptions? That's not just hostile, but sinister."

Still nothing in The Indianapolis Star, though. This Indianapolis Observer wants to know why? Other than the fact that The Star no longer knows what local news is.... (What's with the new "My Life" section instead of "Indiana Living" if not an admission that they're clueless about Indy?)