School: Racist chant cam e from SAE event
OU president says it wasform alized, tau ght to pledges.
— Members NORMAN, OKLA. of a University of Oklahoma fraternity ap - p arently learned a racist chant that recently got their chap ter disbanded during a national leadership cruise four years ago that w as sp onsored by the fraternity’s national administration, the university’s p resident said Friday.
President David Boren said the school interview ed more than 160 p eop le during its investigation into members of its now -defunct Sigma Alp ha Ep silon chap ter w ho w ere cap tured on video taking p art in the chant. It included references to lynching, a racial slur and the p romise that the fraternity w ould never accep t a black member.
“That chant w as learned and brought back to the local chap ter,” Boren said at a new s conference on the school investigation’s (indings. “Over time, the chant w as formalized by the local chap ter and w as taught to p ledges as p art of the formal and informal p ledgeship p rocess.”
A statement released Friday by the Evanston, Ill.-based national Sigma Alp ha Ep silon Fraternity said its ow n investigation is ongoing but con(irmed the chant likely w as shared during its annual six-day retreat. SAE Executive Director Blaine Ayers said in the statement he believes some members shared the chant during an informal “social gathering” outside of the normal slate of classes, seminars and other educational functions.
“But our investigation to date show s no evidence the song w as w idely shared across the broader organization,” Ayers said.
Boren said about 25 members of the school’s SAE chap ter w ill face p unishments ranging from tw o exp ulsions the school announced p reviously to mandatory community service and cultural sensitivity training. The video, w hich surfaced earlier this month, show ed fraternity members chanting on a chartered bus w hile headed to a formal event at an Oklahoma City country club w ith their dates, Boren said.
Boren said the investigation found alcohol w as “readily available” at the fraternity house before the start of the event, and that about a dozen high school students w hom he described as “p otential recruits” w ere also on the bus.
Beginning in the fall, Boren said, all OU students w ill be required to take diversity training.
After the video surfaced, Boren immediately severed ties w ith the local SAE chap ter, shuttered the fraternity house and exp elled the tw o members w ho led the chant.
One of those students, Dallas-area resident Levi Pettit, p ublicly ap ologized at a new s conference Wednesday.