(CNN)Even
with the national chapter shutting the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house at the
University of Oklahoma, the school president said the university's
affiliation with the fraternity is permanently done as a campus group
called for the expulsion of fraternity members.
The
members have until midnight Tuesday to get their things out of the
house, university President David Boren said in a Monday afternoon news
conference.
"The house will be closed,
and as far as I'm concerned, they won't be back," he said, adding that
the university is exploring what actions it can take against individual
fraternity members.
A Saturday video
showing party-bound fraternity members on a bus chanting a racial
epithet found its way anonymously to the school newspaper and a campus
organization, which both promptly publicized the nine-second clip.
The
students on the bus clap and pump their fists as they boisterously
chant, "There will never be a ni**** SAE. You can hang him from a tree,
but he can never sign with me."
By
Sunday night, SAE's national chapter had suspended the University of
Oklahoma members and threatened lifelong suspensions for anyone
responsible for the chant, but Boren took it a step further.
He
appeared at a campus rally and told students over a bullhorn, "I have a
message for those who have misused their freedom of speech in this way.
My message to them is: You're disgraceful. You have violated every
principle that this university stands for."
He said that he was angered,
outraged and saddened by what he saw in the video. Boren stressed that
the fraternity members' behavior is not indicative of what University of
Oklahoma students, nicknamed Sooners, represent.
"It
was unbelievable that this could have possibly occurred with UO
students," he said. "Sooners are not racists. They're not bigots. They
are people who respect each other and care about each other."
He called for zero tolerance.
"The
only way you put a stop to it is have zero tolerance when it is found
out. Clearly, I think some of our students wanted this exposed. They
wanted this video out there, and I've asked them to please let me know
when they're other things like this that happen," Boren told CNN.
How it surfaced
The
student newspaper, The Oklahoma Daily, received the video in a Sunday
email, said print Editor Katelyn Griffith. The fraternity celebrated its
Founder's Day on Saturday, and the video showed members traveling to a
formal event that evening, she said.
"We
decided that this was definitely a story they needed to cover without
question," she told CNN. "This was something that we knew wouldn't be
tolerated by the students at OU and the university at large."
Unheard, a campus organization
launched in response to the police shooting of Michael Brown in
Ferguson, Missouri, received the video Sunday via anonymous text and
immediately moved to "let our community and our university know that
this behavior is not tolerated, that's it's unacceptable and it's
extremely, extremely offensive," said the group's co-director, Chelsea
Davis.
This mentality is not new to
campus, and it's not confined to one fraternity, Davis told CNN, but
it's the first time people have been caught on video.
"Unfortunately,
it took them getting caught on video camera for this to happen, but
this is definitely not something that is brand-new. It's not something
that's only seen within this one organization," she said.
Davis
said the only acceptable response is to expel -- not suspend, as that
would send the wrong message -- all the students involved.
"I
was hurt that my fellow peers that I walk to class with every day,
people that I see every day, could say such hateful things about me and
my culture, about my friends, about my brothers and my sisters," she
said.
At a news conference, Boren said
the school was looking into punishing the individuals involved,
especially against those "who have taken a lead" in the chanting. While
expulsion is an option, any punishment must be "carefully directed" if
it's to pass constitutional muster. One key will be whether the
offending students created a hostile environment on campus, he said.
Boren emphasized that "there is no room for racists and bigots" at Oklahoma.
"I
think some of the students themselves may take themselves off the
campus, and I hope they do because this is not a place that wants
racists," he told CNN later.
That
sentiment echoed throughout campus, as a large crowd of students
attended a protest at the university's North Oval, some of them arriving
with tape over their mouths with the word, "Unheard," written across
it.
Other students took to social
media to express their disappointment, with one person urging students
to change their profile picture to an image that says in Sooner crimson,
"Not on our campus," the "ou" in "our" offset in gray. OU is shorthand
for the University of Oklahoma.
'Racism is alive'
Unheard
posted the video online Sunday with the comment, "Racism is alive at
The University of Oklahoma." It was addressed to @President_Boren, the
university president's Twitter handle. Boren quickly threatened to throw
the fraternity off-campus if the allegations were true.
The SAE's national chapter also moved promptly, saying in a statement
it had closed the chapter "following the discovery of an inappropriate
video." The group further apologized for the "unacceptable and racist
behavior of the individuals in the video."
"I
was not only shocked and disappointed, but disgusted by the outright
display of racism displayed in the video," SAE national President
Bradley Cohen said in a statement.
A
group of students gathered to pray over the racist insults. One of them
told CNN affiliate KFOR-TV he was "nauseated, frustrated," but he was
happy with the SAE headquarters' decision.
"We should be past this. This is disgusting," he said.
Spray
paint marked a wall of SAE's fraternity house at the university. "Tear
it down," the graffiti appeared to say. Police posted squad cars in
front of the house.
Members of the Oklahoma football team protested, marching in lieu of meeting and practice.
Backlash extended beyond
campus as well, with hip-hop star Waka Flocka Flame saying on Instagram
that he was canceling an upcoming show for the SAEs.
"All races partying have a
good time and enjoying themselves together peacefully. That's what Waka
Flocka is all about. For that reason, I must say I'm disgusted and
disappointed in the actions of the SAE fraternity at University of
Oklahoma and I will be canceling my scheduled performance for them next
month. Racism is something I will not tolerate," the Atlanta rapper
wrote. VIDEO & PHOTOS
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