Video: KGW report - Obama effigy hung on University building

Larger screen

NEWBERG, Ore. -- Administrators at George Fox University are trying to figure out who hung what appears to be a life-sized effigy of Barack Obama outside the college campus in Newburg.

It appeared whoever did it had a specific target.

The attached message referred to the “Act Six” program at George Fox University which is a scholarship program for minorities.

Late Tuesday night, a university spokesman confirmed to Newschannel 8 that someone discovered the life-sized effigy of Barack Obama around 7 a.m. Tuesday.

It was hanging from the neck with fishing line at the campus communications building, a campus spokesman confirmed.

Rob Felton, a spokesperson for the university, described the item as a “cardboard cut out” of Obama which had the words "act six reject" written on it.

George Fox University

George Fox University, located in Newberg, Oregon.

School officials immediately took it down.

The school has 17 students enrolled in the Act Six program, according to a release. It said most are members of minority groups. Students in the program receive full scholarships, according to school officials, and they are selected based on their leadership potential.

Few people saw the effigy or were aware of it, Felton said Wednesday.

The likeness was commercially produced rather than homemade, he said. He said local police were notified, and they will decide whether the act was a crime.

Felton said he had been at the school since he enrolled two decades ago, and "I've never experienced or heard of any type of overt racial act."

The school does not know who is responsible,” he added.

Felton said they've never had any problems like this before.

George Fox University President Robin Baker said in a statement that he met with the students in the Act Six program late Tuesday and planned to address the school's undergraduate student body Wednesday morning at the school's regular chapel service.

The school promotes diversity and is meant to reflect the "character of God," Baker said. "We will not tolerate such displays and condemn it in the strongest terms," he said.

George Fox University was founded in 1891 by Quaker pioneers. Its campus is in Newberg in the Willamette Valley south of Portland. About 1,800 students are enrolled. The school said Wednesday that nearly a quarter of first-year undergraduate students at the school are members of minority groups.