The University of Oklahoma on Friday, disclosed the results of an internal investigation into a racist fraternity chant that was captured on video, in which students used offensive language regarding membership of black students in their fraternity.
The university president, David Boren, who discussed the school’s findings at a midday press conference, called on the country to join the university in learning from this experience.
“This is not just the problem here at this campus or at other universities and college campuses. This is a problem in America. We’ve had an epidemic of racism all across our country. Ferguson, Missouri, might be the best-known case,” he said, calling on the rest of the country to join the university in its zero-tolerance stance on racism.
“Every single one of us here, every single one seeing me or hearing my voice, we can stop it. We can stop it if all of us … say we have zero tolerance for racism in America. That’s not who we are.”
Boren also announced that the university will start sensitivity training for all its students in the autumn and is currently determining how to deliver that training.
The school has already disbanded its Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter and expelled two students who it said led the chant. In the video, students on a bus can be seen taking part in a chant that includes references to lynching and uses a racial slur to describe how the fraternity would never accept black members.
A lawyer for the SAE chapter said this week that an agreement had been reached in which no other members of the fraternity will be expelled. Attorney Stephen Jones also said the two students whom Boren expelled actually withdrew from the university first.
One of those students, Levi Pettit, publicly apologized for his role in the chant at a new conference on Wednesday in which he was flanked by black community leaders. Pettit, who is from the Dallas enclave of Highland Park, answered a few questions from reporters but declined to say who taught him the chant.
“The truth is what was said in that chant is disgusting ... and after meeting with these people I’ve learned these words should never be repeated,” Pettit said.
A second student from the Dallas area, Parker Rice, also issued a statement apologizing for his role in the chant.
The university’s investigation found that the chant was learned by members on a leadership cruise sponsored by the national organization of SAE. The chant was then formalized by the local SAE chapter and was taught to the pledges as part of the pledging process. The investigation also found that a number of chapter members had consumed alcohol prior to boarding the bus where the chant was sung.
About a dozen high school students, who were participating in the fraternity’s recruitment events, were also exposed to the chant.
The investigation and the disciplinary actions undertaken by the university were only the first stage of the process, Boren said, adding that the next stage is to rebuild trust. Other fraternities and sororities at the University of Oklahoma will have to partake in that process and help make people feel safe on campus, he said.
Boren also called on the national SAE organization to conduct its own investigation into the chant.
Isaac Hill, the president of the university’s Black Student Association, met personally with Pettit and said he believes his apology was sincere. But he said he would like to hear from the others who took part in the racist chant.
“As we know, it wasn’t just Levi and Parker on that bus. There were multiple people,” said Hill, a junior from Midwest City. “We look forward and hope to get more than just his apology, but an apology from everyone.”
The board of trustees and alumni of the school’s SAE chapter released a statement a few days after the video was released acknowledging the chant surfaced at the chapter “three to four years ago and was not immediately and totally stopped. It should have been.
The national Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity also disbanded its OU chapter and announced it was taking steps to become more inclusive, including by requiring all of its members, nationwide, to go through diversity training and by setting up a confidential hotline for people to report inappropriate behavior.
SAE began collecting racial and ethnic data in 2013. Approximately 3% of SAE’s reporting members identified as African American and 20% identified as non-white, according to Blaine Ayers, the national fraternity’s executive director.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
