SOUTH KINGSTOWN — The University of Rhode Island police have been asked to probe what the school’s provost calls “insensitive, inappropriate and degrading messages relating to the race/ethnicity” of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama that were left on two public-access computers on campus.

“This type of behavior will not be tolerated in our community,” Donald H. DeHayes, provost and vice president for academic affairs, declared in a three-paragraph e-mail sent Wednesday to the university community.

DeHayes would not provide the exact contents of the messages, which he said were found on a computer in the Memorial Union, the student life building, and at Swan Hall. In an interview yesterday, he would say only that they were a “characterization” of Obama.

DeHayes said a student brought the messages to his attention. As the computers are accessible to the public, he pointed out that the messages weren’t necessarily left by a member of the university community.

On campus yesterday, more than a dozen students interviewed said neither they nor their peers knew about the messages. Some, including junior Hadyn Serby, 20, had seen the provost’s e-mail and said that was the first they heard of the incident. Others, among them sophomore Bianca Parker and junior Jalesia Terry, both 20, hadn’t seen the provost’s message, perhaps, they said, because they sometimes overlook the multiple university-wide e-mails they get or those messages automatically go to their e-mail accounts’ junk boxes.

DeHayes said he responded as quickly as possible.

“I wanted to inform our community that we don’t condone or tolerate this behavior and to be sensitive to students, faculty and staff of color who would be hurt –– and to say I apologize on behalf of our community,” he said.

In his e-mail, DeHayes wrote, “While each of us is entitled to our own political views, none of us should be allowed to openly and maliciously insult others on the basis of race or religion without consequences.”

DeHayes said he has asked the campus police to investigate the matter, and they are working to determine where the messages came from. While he said in his e-mail that the messages “may rise to the level of a hate crime,” he characterized them as “hate speech” in the interview yesterday afternoon.

In his e-mail, he asked anyone in the university community to cooperate if they are asked for information that may help URI identify who is responsible “for this despicable behavior.”

kbramson@projo.com