University of Oklahoma: Racist song came from national fraternity

OKLAHOMA CITY — A racist song chanted by members of a University of Oklahoma fraternity was learned at a national Sigma Alpha Epsilon leadership cruise four years ago and became a part of the chapter’s culture, school President David Boren said on Friday.

Boren told a news conference that about 25 students have been disciplined over the incident, which was recorded and shown on the Internet. Punishments range from leaving the university to sensitivity training.

The school previously shut the Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter at the university and expelled two students who led the song.

After Sigma Alpha Epsilon members at the university heard the song at the cruise event, “that chant was learned and brought back to the local chapter,” Boren said, adding it was taught to pledges and he has asked the fraternity’s national leadership to explain how the song was disseminated.

Boren did not provide details about the cruise event.

The 10-second video was shot on a bus chartered for a date night by the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and posted online this month. Students are seen and heard chanting in unison, using offensive language referring to black people and vowing never to admit them to the fraternity.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon officials were not immediately available for comment. The fraternity, one of the largest and oldest in the United States, earlier this month said it would root out racism.

Its houses and chapters have been linked to at least six deaths in the past eight years from excessive drinking or hazing violence. Sigma Alpha Epsilon has denied any wrongdoing.

The fraternity’s chapters have been punished before because of racially charged incidents at other campuses.

Duke University is investigating a report of someone singing the “SAE chant” at its campus, an official said on Friday.

Boren said his school wants to turn a new page and use the incident to stamp out racism on campus and in the United States.

“This is a problem in America. We have had an epidemic of racism all across our country,” he said.