<span class="RACopyBody">EUGENE, Ore. — A petition is calling for a senior law professor to resign from his position at the University of Oregon after she wore blackface for Halloween.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">Law School Dean Michael Moffitt said the unidentified professor has been placed on administrative leave pending the completion of a civil rights investigation, <a href="https://is.gd/qaNjMy">The Register-Guard</a> reported.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">"The use of blackface, even in jest at a Halloween party, is patently offensive and reinforces historically racist stereotypes," university President Michael Schill wrote in an email he sent to students. "It was a stupid act and is in no way defensible."</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">Undergraduate Opal Farrell said students and faculty discussed the incident in all of her classes Wednesday.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">"People are pissed. Professors are upset. Students in general are upset," Farrell said. "The university should absolutely release the professor’s name. The students have a right to know — and the right to choose not to take a class from this person."</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">The university’s Black Student Union planned a meeting Wednesday evening to discuss a response.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">Witnesses who saw the professor say she was dressed as "Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine," a recent autobiography by Dr. Damon Tweedy that recounts the racism he encountered in medical school.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">In his email to students, Schill said the professor has apologized for the decision and expressed concern about how her costume could potentially have impacted members of the university community.</span>

<span class="RACopyBody">"This incident makes us even more determined to ensure that no member of the UO community feels isolated or alienated on this campus as a result of intentional or unintentional racist behavior," he wrote in the email, which also was signed by Provost Scott Coltrane, Vice President Yvette Alex Assensoh and Moffitt, the law dean.</span>