The University of Maryland has suspended its tennis club after members of the group passed out a Google document that contained racist images.
The electronic files were sent to other tennis organizations and were meant to inform players and fans about a weekend fall tournament set to be held on the College Park campus.
One of the images on the program reportedly depicted people in KKK hoods, CBS News reported.
The offensive image has not been made public.
Officials at UMD’s Recreation and Wellness (RecWell) department saw the image on Saturday, and the school reacted quickly.
“The Maryland Club Tennis student organization distributed programming material with a graphic containing racist imagery targeting people who are Black or African American,” UMD’s statement said. “They emailed this information to other university tennis clubs in the region about this weekend’s fall tournament at College Park.”
Howard University, a Historically Black University (HBCU) in Washington, D.C., reportedly received the materials and was participating in the tournament.
UMD officials added that they are “horrified” by the materials and offered their “regret and sincere apology for the harm that this has caused.”
“In addition to UMD club tennis apologizing and forfeiting its matches, UMD’s director of [RecWell] issued an apology to the club presidents of all the participating teams,” UMD added.
The entire club was also suspended.
UMD police were notified, and an investigation has begun into the incident.
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