A Black theater student at Coastal Carolina University told a visiting drama teacher she wanted to connect with nonwhite students, so the teacher drew up a list of names on a whiteboard, then forgot to erase it when they left the studio.

When several other students walked in, they saw the list and were left with the suspicion that those on it had been singled out with racist intent.

A committee of professors investigated and promptly sent out a departmentwide email clarifying what had happened that September day. Seeking to calm students, the professors wrote that the explanation “in no way undermines the feelings that any of you feel about the incident” and that the faculty was “deeply sorry.”

The visiting teacher also wrote an apology: “No matter the good intention. ... I still want you to know I’m an idiot and I am sorry.”