University of Oklahoma officials have set an example that can teach other institutions how to confront racist behavior.
When a video of University of Oklahoma fraternity members engaging in a racist chants surfaced last week, university officials took strong action.
The video shows students participating in a chant that referenced lynching and indicates Black students would never be admitted to OU’s chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
In response, OU President David Boren swiftly booted the fraternity from campus and expelled two of its members for creating a hostile learning environment.
On March 11, Boren also announced the creation of a new position—vice president for the university community. The person in that role, who has not yet been hired, will be responsible for overseeing diversity programs and will report directly to the president.
There is no question that even more can be done.
Students’ proposals included greater representation of Black students at the university’s orientation camp and on various committees, to ensure more diversity of the university’s campus is represented. Among the group’s grievances are low numbers of Black faculty and administrators, poor retention rates among Black students and a lack of programs aimed at supporting Black students.
Boren said that university officials already had been working with Unheard, which formed after the police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., to address some of their concerns and that those efforts would continue.
“They met with me. They had some very positive suggestions,” Boren said
The board of trustees and alumni of the University of Oklahoma’s SAE chapter released a statement late last Wednesday night acknowledging the chant surfaced at the chapter “three to four years ago and was not immediately and totally stopped. It should have been.”
This is the problem—when fraternity leaders should have acted they said and did nothing when they saw racist behavior.
Racism is taught. It can not go ignored or tolerated.
OU President David Boren should be commended for taking swift action against it.
(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune)
Guest Editorial…University takes swift action against racism
