Several hundred students joined a rally at York University Thursday in protest of racist graffiti scrawled in the school's student centre.
The slurs targeted the school's black community and were written outside the offices of York University Black Students' Alliance (YUBSA).
The rally was also in protest of what some students called a slow response by university officials to call the incident a hate crime.
University President Mamdouh Shoukri tried to ease tensions by showing up at the rally and posting a note on the school's website condemning the act.
"I was dismayed to learn of the racist graffiti in the Student Centre earlier this week," he said in the posted statement. "These acts are deplorable and unacceptable anywhere and at any time.
"York is comprised of a community of communities; an attack on any group at York is an attack on our entire community" the letter continued. "That's why it's important that we all speak up loud and clear to condemn racism and oppression of every kind."
At the rally Shoukri said the school will conduct a review to see where improvements can be made.
"We are going to a third party evaluation of all our safety and all our security systems and it will be a very transparent process," he said. "The students will be part of selecting the third party to do that."
Programs will also be reviewed to see where improvements can be made with African-Canadian contributions, Shoukri said.
Students had called for a security review after a girl was sexually assaulted on campus last week.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Roger Petersen
