Syracuse University suspended an engineering fraternity Wednesday after footage surfaced of members speaking and acting in ways “that are extremely racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist…
Syracuse University suspended an engineering fraternity Wednesday after footage surfaced of members speaking and acting in ways “that are extremely racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist and hostile to people with disabilities,” the university’s chancellor said.
The video — which The Daily Orange, Syracuse’s independent student newspaper, obtained and published after the university declined to release it, citing its continuing investigation — includes a pledge “to always have hatred in my heart” for African-Americans, Hispanics and Jews, all of whom are referred to with slurs.
One member of the fraternity, Theta Tau, tells Jews to get in the shower, an allusion to the Nazis’ gas chambers. The video, about six minutes long, also shows members of the fraternity laughing while pretending to masturbate each other and perform oral sex.
The video was posted to a secret Facebook group called “Tau of Theta Tau.” Asked how administrators had become aware of it, a spokeswoman for Syracuse said it had been “sent to university officials.”
“There is absolutely no place at Syracuse University for behavior or language that degrades any individual or group’s race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity, disability or religious beliefs,” the university’s chancellor, Kent Syverud, wrote in an email to students and faculty Wednesday morning . “Upon confirming Theta Tau’s involvement, the university’s Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities immediately suspended the fraternity, effectively halting all activities.”
Syverud added that Syracuse’s Department of Public Safety was working “to identify individuals involved and to take additional legal and disciplinary action.”
By midafternoon Wednesday, the chapter’s website and Facebook page were no longer accessible. Three student leaders listed on a cached version of the website did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Michael Abraham, executive director of the national Theta Tau organization, said that he had not yet seen the video but that the organization was “investigating the allegations and will decide on the best course of action when it is more complete.”
“The behaviors described are not representative of our very diverse organization, locally or nationally, nor rational or comprehensible for the multiethnic Syracuse chapter itself,” Abraham said. “While the language that has been described is troubling and inconsistent with our values, we tend to distinguish between words and deeds as well as between individuals and groups when determining appropriate remedies and penalties.”
Theta Tau is not the first fraternity, nor Syracuse the first university, to be involved in a scandal involving racism or sexism. In 2015, Sigma Alpha Epsilon closed its University of Oklahoma chapter — and two students were expelled — after members were filmed chanting that African-Americans would never be allowed to join. Last year, Cornell University’s Psi Upsilon chapter was shuttered after people believed to be involved in it attacked a black student. And just last week, California Polytechnic State University suspended Lambda Chi Alpha after a member was pictured in blackface.
Students note that these problems, although perhaps more prominent in Greek organizations, are not confined to them.
“This is not the first incident like this on campus,” said Liam McMonagle, 19, a sophomore at Syracuse who helped organize a protest and discussion Wednesday evening. “It’s the same response every time. It’s, ‘Here’s counseling, we’re here if you need us, there’s resource centers, and we promise we’ll punish them.’ But there’s no mechanisms for change.”
These issues have “nothing to do with politics or partisanship,” he said. “It’s about larger systemic issues.”
At a university-organized forum Wednesday afternoon, students shared their own experiences with bigotry and called on the administration to take action not just against Theta Tau but against what they described as a broader culture of intolerance. And on Wednesday evening, student protesters gathered outside the chancellor’s house, then marched to the campus chapel for a second forum. Along the way, they chanted “Release the video” and “We’re tired of being sick and tired.”
By the time the march began, McMonagle said, there were 300 people in the group chat being used to organize it.
Charity Luster, vice president of the Syracuse chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, told the crowd in the chapel, “I hope this event does not just spark a conversation on one video but that it sparks a conversation around how people of color and underrepresented people are treated on this campus.”
That treatment routinely includes slurs, McMonagle said in an interview.
“Now today there’s a video, and today it’s on social media, and today it’s proven,” he said, and he and his fellow organizers want to “use this opportunity to say: ‘Look, here it is. It’s real. We’re not making it up. It’s happening, and it’s really time for us to do something about it.’”
