Syracuse University expelled an engineering fraternity after a racist video involving the members went viral over the weekend. A second video has led to disciplinary charges, TIME reports.
The university’s president announced the expulsion this past weekend after viewing what he called a “racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, ableist and sexist” video featuring Theta Tau members.
The video — which was first published last week by The Daily Orange, Syracuse’s independent student newspaper — shows new members of the fraternity swearing “hatred in my heart” for African Americans, Italians and Jews, all of whom are referred to with slurs.
A second video, which is full of disgusting sexual humor, also shows members mimicking sexual assault on a disabled person, CBS News reports.
The school newspaper said they published the video after the university declined to release it.
“There is absolutely no place at Syracuse University for behavior or language that degrades any individual or group’s race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity, disability or religious beliefs,” the university’s chancellor, Kent Syverud, wrote in an email to students and faculty on Wednesday.
He has since announced that there would be a review of the Greek system across the university.
Theta Tau apologized in a statement last week, saying the video was actually a sketch targeted at fraternity brothers.
“One of these brothers is a conservative Republican, and the new members roasted him by playing the part of a racist conservative character,” the statement said. “It was a satirical sketch of an uneducated, racist, homophobic, misogynist, sexist, ableist and intolerant person.”
It continued: “Hopefully, understanding the circumstances of the video — as well as our initial response — will help ease some of the pain caused by the horrible words that this video contains,” the statement said.
Syverud said he would soon be announcing disciplinary charges, likely suspension or expulsion, against students involved in the video.
