MADISON, Wis. ― The University of Wisconsin has suspended the Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter at its flagship campus after finding that members of the fraternity repeatedly used racist and bigoted slurs and ostracized a Black member who tried to stop it.
The suspension handed down Tuesday by the school’s Committee on Student Organizations comes a year after the fraternity’s University of Oklahoma chapter was disbanded after video emerged showing members engaging in a racist chant.
Under the Wisconsin suspension, the chapter cannot participate in any Greek activities until Nov. 1 and can’t recruit new members this fall. Members also have to undergo diversity and mental health training before the chapter can be reinstated. The chapter had already been on probation for an unrelated incident of underage drinking.
The Wisconsin incidents allegedly occurred from the fall of 2014 until February of this year and were reported by a Black member of the fraternity, according to university documents.
That student, who wasn’t named in the report and who was listed as an active member as of its March filing, said fellow members regularly used racist, anti-gay and anti-Semitic language. He said a particular anti-Black slur was often used, including in March 2015 when a fraternity member ran down a main commercial street near campus yelling it. School officials said that student was kicked out of the fraternity.
The reporting student also accused a fellow fraternity member of assaulting him, and school officials said that member was disciplined by the fraternity as a result, though it didn’t say how.
After video was posted online last year showing the Oklahoma SAE members engaging in a racist chant on a bus, the fraternity’s Evanston, Illinois-based national leadership made several changes. In addition to disbanding the Oklahoma chapter, it hired a director of diversity and inclusion, said it was reviewing all 237 of its chapters for racially offensive behavior and required all of its members to complete online diversity training.
