Dive Brief:
- Colleges across the country are looking more closely at racist activities by their own students and fraternities following the expulsion of SAE from the University of Oklahoma for its behavior.
- The University of Maryland at College Park is investigating an incident from 2014 in which a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity allegedly sent a racist and sexist email, and the college president took to Twitter to discuss the issue, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports.
- SAE chapters at Louisiana Tech University and the University of Texas at Austin are under investigation for racist actions, including, at Louisiana Tech, the use of a chant similar to the one in the University of Oklahoma case, according to the Chronicle.
Dive Insight:
In the age of social media, isolated incidents can get national attention in a matter of hours. The 20-second clip of the University of Oklahoma SAE brothers yelling a racist chant went viral and had their fraternity evicted from campus within 24 hours. At least one football player changed his mind about attending the university after seeing the video, and the fallout likely will continue throughout the course of the investigation into the incident. As further scandals erupt at other campuses throughout the country, prospective students will continue to use them to help decide whether a school’s climate is a good fit. College and university administrators would do well to recognize this as they decide how to respond to allegations of racist behavior.