It's not just Cal Poly — racist frat video outrages NY campus, prompts suspension

Only a day after a spiraling incidents of racism pushed Cal Poly to suspend the majority of its Greek organizations, Syracuse University in New York suspended one of its own fraternities for a racist video showing members imitating sex acts and using racial slurs for black, Jewish and Hispanic people.

The video, which was originally published by campus newspaper The Daily Orange, appears to show a scripted performance by members of Theta Tau, a professional engineering fraternity.

At one point in the video, two men repeat a racial slur-filled oath swearing to "always have hatred in my heart for n-----s, sp-cs, and most importantly ... the f---in' k-kes."

According to the campus paper, the video was posted to a private Facebook group called Tau of Theta Tau.

In a statement to the campus Wednesday, Chancellor Kent Syverud called the conduct extremely troubling and disturbing.

He said the university suspended the fraternity immediately upon confirming its involvement. The school's Department of Public Safety has launched a formal investigation to take additional legal and disciplinary action, he said.

"This behavior is unacceptable and contradicts our moral standards," Syverud said. "What happened at Theta Tau serves as a reminder that violations of codes of honor, behavior and values will be met with swift and appropriate consequences."

Roughly 100 people marched through the campus carrying signs and chanting on Wednesday, and around 400 attended a three-hour discussion to vent what they described as systemic racism and sexism at the school, the Associated Press reported.

The scandal comes only a day after Cal Poly — more than 2,400 miles away — suspended Interfraternity and Panhellenic Greek organizations after a second racially charged incident in as many weeks.

In a letter to campus Tuesday, Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong said the university learned Tuesday morning of another incident of racial and cultural appropriation at the Sigma Nu fraternity in March.

A picture circulating on social media appeared to show three Sigma Nu members wearing baggy pants, white ribbed tank tops, bandanas and a fake mustache, with the caption "When you get he (sic) holmes to take a photo of la familia."

Cal Poly has yet to confirm whether the photo in question is the incident cited in Armstrong's letter.

Prior to that, Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity also came under fire for photos of a member in blackface and others dressed as gang member stereotypes, with the caption: "She want a gangster not a pretty boy."

"This suspension is not intended to punish those individuals, or even any particular organizations, but rather to say: 'Greek culture as a whole is broken,'" Cal Poly spokesman Matt Lazier said after Tuesday's suspension. "'Too many people have been hurt by the actions and by the failures to act of Greek organizations at Cal Poly. This stops now.'"

The suspension did not apply to Cal Poly's cultural Greek organizations, which are governed separately by the United Sorority and Fraternities Council.

Cal Poly is expected to release details of the suspension and how it will work in the coming days.

Meanwhile the campus has also been besieged by racist fliers, graffiti and vandalized signs, including the racial slur "n-----" writen in a bathroom stall.

Lazier said that any actions found to contain threats of violence, criminal or severe harassment or defamation, "will result in discipline from the university up to and including expulsion/termination, and potentially criminal charges if criminal laws have been violated."

This story was originally published April 19, 2018 at 2:58 PM with the headline "It's not just Cal Poly — racist frat video outrages NY campus, prompts suspension."