Four racial incidents occurred in the dorms last year, the lowest number reported in five years.”It surprises me. I think that seems really low,” said Cassie Horseman, a junior majoring in psychology.Steve Kremer, director of residence life, requested the tracking of racial incidents in order to have exact numbers and information. “It’s not efficient to say it happens a handful of times,” Kremer said. The information came from the Communication Information forms filled out in the dorms by participants or witnesses of the incidents. Any student can fill out the forms, which are available at each dorm’s front desk or from the hall director.According to the records, 40 incidents took place from 1993 to 1997. Three times as many reports were made in 1996 as in 1997. Thirteen reports were made in 1995, six in 1994, and five in 1993. Kremer said he hopes residence life’s information will show patterns and frequencies of racial incidents in the dorms. “In no way did we anticipate that the number found would indicate the full picture of race and race relations,” Kremer said.Simply looking for outrageous incidents would yield a much smaller number, Kremer said. He asked for any occurrence with racial undertones, not just hate crimes investigated by police. In order to be a hate crime, “there must be something demonstrable about the incident which gives motivation as to why it was committed,” said University Police Capt. John Hartsock. An incident involving a black and a white student, or a Jewish and a non-Jewish student, is not enough to be called a hate crime, he said.The latest incident took place last October at Drackett Tower, where a resident wrote graffiti across five surfaces in the dorm. Only one was a racial slur, which was directed at a female resident.The student was caught within two days and admitted guilt. He was immediately reassigned to another dorm and later suspended for student misconduct by the Office of Judicial Affairs. He was also brought before the Franklin County prosecutor on a charge of criminal mischief.Not all incidents result in extreme measures. Some information forms require only follow-up questioning, and some situations are too subtle to be reported to the police, Kremer said.The everyday subtle events that occur around campus are like garbage that blows around, but never completely goes away, Kremer said.”We’re not going to be able to stop that,” he said. “It’s hard to get rid of, it’s just like it’s always there.”