Racist flyers that were discovered in the university’s parking lot Nov. 5 have been deemed a “random act,” according to Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding.

“There are these groups of people that might be traveling across country or state to state and place propaganda on places of learning,” Wedding said. “They place it on a university campus because a lot of people are out there and it is easy to spread propaganda.”

Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s deputies have begun to keep a closer eye on the parking lots, looking for people who may be lurking around cars, Wedding said.

“With USI being a fairly large campus, there are a lot of cars, and a guy or gal could slip flyers on windshields pretty quickly,” he said. “We want to make sure anytime a student sees something that seems odd or against the norm, that they reach out to campus security or our deputies on campus.”

Wedding said the USI partnership with the VCSO has strengthened the overall security presence on campus.

“By having academy trained law enforcement officers alongside existing public safety, that strengthens what USI already had (in place),” he said.

Wedding said there is a lot of hate in the world and people tend to act on their predisposed ideas.

The flyers were originally being investigated as a hate crime, according to the USI Incident Security log.