Frat members 'disgraceful' for racist chant, University of Oklahoma president says

NORMAN, Okla. -- The president of the University of Oklahoma severed the school's ties with a national fraternity Monday and ordered its on-campus house be shuttered after several members took part in a racist chant caught in an online video.

President David Boren said he was sickened and couldn't eat or sleep after learning about the video Sunday afternoon. It shows several people on a bus participating in a chant that included a racial slur, referenced lynching and indicated black students never would be admitted to OU's chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

Boren attended a predawn rally organized by students and lambasted those fraternity members as "disgraceful," calling their behavior "reprehensible."

He said the university was looking into a range of punishments, including expulsion.

"This is not who we are," Boren said at a midday news conference. "I'd be glad if they left. I might even pay the bus fare for them."

National leaders of Sigma Alpha Epsilon said late Sunday its investigation confirmed members took part in the chant and announced it would close the local chapter. The national group said it was "embarrassed" by the "unacceptable and racist" behavior.

Boren said members have until midnight Tuesday to remove their personal belongings from the fraternity house. He said the fraternity was "not totally forthcoming," and he still was trying to find out who was on the bus so the school could consider disciplinary action against them.

A link to the online video was posted by OU Unheard, a black student group on campus, after someone anonymously called it to the group's attention Sunday, communications director Alexis Hall said Monday.

"We immediately needed to share that with the OU student body," said Hall, a junior. "For students to say they're going to lynch an entire group of people ... it's disgusting."

It's unclear who recorded the video, when it was recorded and who posted it online. Boren suggested it likely was taken by a student who didn't agree with what was being chanted.

The video appears to have been taken on a charter bus, with at least one of the chanting young men wearing a tuxedo.

"I was shocked they were just doing it openly on the bus, like they were proud of it," said Jared Scarborough, a junior. "From the chant, you could tell they had done it before. It wasn't a first-time thing. And it was everybody. And the fist-pumping."

A university police cruiser was parked Monday outside the fraternity house, just west of the center of campus.

The University of Oklahoma, located in the southern Oklahoma City suburb of Norman, has about 27,000 students, about 5 percent of whom are black. The Greek system is largely segregated.

Before a late-morning news conference, Boren said fraternity members had "violated all that we stand for."

"Effective immediately, all ties and affiliations between this University and the local SAE chapter are hereby severed. I direct that the house be closed and that members will remove their personal belongings from the house by midnight tomorrow," he said in a statement.