Police are continuing to search for clues and attempt to determine whether a hate crime occurred when a noose was left last week in the office of the black president of Abilene Christian University’s Student Congress.

According to ACU Police Chief Jimmy Ellison, “six to eight people” have been questioned so far in a case that ACU President Dr. Royce Money repeatedly has said cannot and will not be condoned.

Student Congress President Daniel Paul Watkins, a political science major and senior from Fredricksberg, Va., found the noose in his office last Wednesday.

“We still do not have any specific leads,” Ellison said. “Obviously we have been working the investigation, and we are working through interviews and seeing what information might come out of those interviews that might provide a better direction.”

There’s still no indication whether one or more individuals were involved in the incident or whether it could be considered a crime of bias — or a “hate crime” — because Watkins is black and a noose to many people is a racist symbol that evokes memories of a time when African-Americans were lynched.

University police, Ellison said, are investigating it as an “implied threat” because nothing other than the noose was found in or around Watkins’ office.

“Is it a biased crime? We don’t know yet,” Ellison said. “Right now, we’re just trying to determine who committed it and what the intent was.”

Meanwhile, Ellison said, there hasn’t been any determination — at least to this point — that there’s “any need for any special security measures” to protect Watkins.

“Not at all,” he said. “It’s important for the public to know there was no threat left with the noose.”

There was nothing put in writing on paper or spelled out on Watkins’ office door — or anywhere else — that further threatened Watkins, Ellison said.

Last Friday, Money condemned the act during campuswide chapel, and students echoed his comments afterward.

At that time, Money announced that Jean-Noel Thompson, ACU’s vice president and dean of student life, would handle any disciplinary action resulting from the incident.

“We obviously consider this a serious matter,” Money said.

The incident came at a time when minority enrollment is about 20 percent at ACU — with blacks making up about 12 or 13 percent of the student body. He said the percentage of blacks on ACU’s campus has doubled over the past decade. ACU’s total enrollment is about 4,700 students.

ACU has made significant steps in race relations over past decades, Money said, but the lesson Friday was “how far we have yet to go.”

In 1999, ACU held its first “One in Christ” Conference in which black and white leaders in Churches of Christ came together to discuss racial reconciliation.

As the conference concluded, Money and Don Crisp, chair of the board of trustees, publicly apologized for the school’s failure as a Christian college — in the early 1960s — to lead the way in denouncing racism, upholding integration and exemplifying the truth of the Gospel.