Confederate flag posters bearing chunks of cotton were found Tuesday on the campus of American University, according to school officials, who decried the latest racially charged display to appear at the institution.

Fanta Aw, AU’s vice president of campus life, said in the statement that 10 posters were reported at three campus locations, including the Mary Graydon Center. AU Police and the university’s Office of Campus Life are investigating the matter, according to the statement.

The statement described the displays as “Confederate flag posters with cotton attached to them.” Pictures circulating on social media late Tuesday evening matched that description.

Sylvia Burwell, the university’s president, said in a statement released Wednesday morning that cameras had captured a suspect hanging the posters. The footage shows “the perpetrator(s)” coming onto the campus in Northwest Washington and posting the flyers, the statement said.

“We must stand together strongly against this act, which was intended to frighten and divide our community,” she said in the statement.

AU’s campus community was invited to meet Wednesday afternoon to discuss the matter, according to Burwell’s statement.

“I ask you to join me in standing together and show that we will not be intimidated,” she said in the statement. “AU will respond strongly to attempts designed to harm and create fear. Instead, we will recommit to creating a community that does not stand by. When one of us is attacked, all of us are attacked.”

The university has released a crime alert with details and a photograph of a suspect in the incident. He is described as a white man, who is about 40 years old. In the photo, the man is wearing what appears to be safety gear, including an orange hard hat and a yellow vest.

Aw’s statement noted that the Confederate posters were reported the same night that historian Ibram Kendi offered a presentation to introduce the Antiracist Research and Policy Center. The Eagle, the school’s student newspaper, has reported that the center is new to AU.

“AU is committed to the vision of the Center and Dr. Kendi’s work and we will not be deterred by this cowardly attempt at intimidation,” Aw’s statement said.

The university’s student government also issued a statement on the matter, praising those who reported the posters to campus police and thanking the university for acting quickly.

“To American University students who are concerned with their safety as a result of this and other acts that we have faced as a community this year, know that we will not stop advocating for a safer, more inclusive and united student body,” it read. “This will not begin or end with a statement by AU or AUSG. AUSG is working on further actions with our campus partners for this week and beyond.”

The news comes just months after another racially charged incident on AU’s campus. That incident – which occurred in May, at the end of the last academic term – involved bananas found hanging from strings “in the shape of nooses,” according to the school.

A statement explained that the bananas were “marked with the letters AKA.” Those are the letters for Alpha Kappa Alpha, a sorority whose membership is predominantly African American.

Photo by Max Spivak via Twitter.

A suspect in the posting of confederate flag posters. Surveillance image courtesy American University.

Photo by Max Spivak via Twitter.