Two Columbia college students who confessed to vandalizing a college dormitory in December will walk free after undergoing sensitivity training, according to one of the student’s lawyers.

Stephen Searles, entering his junior year, and Matthew Brown, entering his senior year, were arrested in early December after they allegedly admitted they covered the wall of a dormitory in graffiti that included swastikas, homophobic slurs, and racist epithets using red and purple markers. They were allegedly attempting to paint over the graffiti when the police arrived and charged them with criminal mischief as a hate crime.

A court hearing in the case is scheduled for today, but last week the students’ lawyers struck a deal for the cases to be dismissed without further punishment beyond the sensitivity training the students have already completed, the lawyer for Mr. Searles, Howard Weiswasser, said.

“Both young men were under the influence of alcohol,” Mr. Weiswasser told The New York Sun. The graffiti, he said, was therefore “truly not indicative of a hate crime.”

The Manhattan district attorney’s chief spokeswoman, Barbara Thompson, did not return a phone message asking for comment on the case.

Although their legal troubles are behind them, the students could still face discipline from Columbia. A Columbia spokeswoman said the school was not aware of the recent developments in the case and could not comment.

A Columbia college student whose dorm door had a swastika drawn on it in an unrelated incident in November, Emily Baneman, said she was disappointed with the decision. “I was hoping there would be more serious consequences. Because, even though they were under the influence, it was still really terrible and hateful.”