The University of Oklahoma said Tuesday that its president had expelled two students identified as playing a leadership role in the singing of a racist chant caught on video as part of a fraternity event.
Officials at the university shut down the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity after the video emerged and sparked a national outcry. The university's President David Boren said Tuesday that the two students had been expelled for creating a "hostile learning environment for others."
"I have emphasized that there is zero tolerance for this kind of threatening racist behavior at the University of Oklahoma," he said in a statement. "I hope that the entire nation will join us in having zero tolerance of such racism when it raises its ugly head in other situations across our country."
He said the school would continue its investigation of the incident and that once the identities of other students involved have been confirmed, "they will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action."
On Monday, Boren ordered the SAE house closed and gave the fraternity members two days to make other living arrangements. The national fraternity apologized and said that it would also expel all the members involved.
The university, located in the southern Oklahoma City suburb of Norman, has roughly 27,000 students, about 5 percent of whom are black.
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