The University of Wisconsin-Madison is under scrutiny after a homecoming video featuring only white students was released on Sunday, immediately sparking backlash for the lack of inclusion of the school’s “underrepresented populations.”
According to NBC News, the school has since apologized and the video has been deleted.
“The student committee took down the video after the concerns were raised and the committee and the association have apologized,” the university said in a statement. “We, too, are sorry for the pain this has caused.”
One senior at UW-Madison called out the school in a Facebook post, noting that she and other members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, a historically Black sorority, were asked to participate in the video, only to not be represented.
“Not only did we tell them what we thought home was but we also took hours out of our day to film as well and were told we would be in the video and notified when it was completed,” Payton Wade wrote. “As you can see we were not featured in the video as we were told, but not only were we not featured no Black students were featured but instead they choose to show videos of people’s butts as they jumped into the lake.”
“Being Black at this school is a daily struggle both mentally and physically. It is hard to have pride for a school where you know you are not wanted and where they obviously do not consider this our home as well,” she added.