An openly gay Palomar College professor said that county, university and federal investigators launched inquiries late last month into a series of disturbing, threatening postcards sent anonymously to him and two other instructors since mid-2008.

English professor Fergal O’Doherty said an FBI agent contacted him Jan. 21 to tell him an investigation was under way.

Two male instructors – one in the social and behavioral sciences division and the other in the languages and literature division – have also received cards. Both have declined to speak about them publicly, but are cooperating with authorities, said Steve McDonald, dean of Palomar’s languages and literature division.

College officials have triangulated class rosters for the three professors, looking for students they have in common, but that produced no leads, McDonald said.

The cards were the catalyst for the creation of the Palomar College Committee to Combat Hate, a group of faculty members devoted to the civil rights and safety of bisexual, homosexual and transgender people on campus.