No member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s Virginia Tau chapter at University of Richmond attended the national leadership cruise where members of the former University of Oklahoma chapter learned the racist chant that has since sparked national controversy, said Tucker White, SAE's Virginia Tau president.
Following a university-led investigation, Oklahoma President David Boren said OU members had learned the chant at an SAE national leadership cruise, and the OU chapter had formalized the chant and had taught it to pledges.
On Friday, SAE confirmed that members of the now-disbanded OU chapter “likely learned a racist chant while attending a national Leadership School about four years ago.”
Boren wrote a letter to SAE executive director Blaine Ayers, calling for continued national attention toward the racist chant, despite Oklahoma's findings.
“The matter cannot be closed in our view, however, until the culture at the national level has also been addressed,” the letter read.
SAE is in the process of conducting an in-depth investigation of all its chapters, Ayers said.
“We remain committed to identifying and rooting out racist behavior from SAE,” Ayers said “and we are actively investigating all of our local organizations to determine whether there are issues in any other location.”
Nationals has not contacted Virginia Tau in regard to the national investigation, White said.
Contact Editor-In-Chief Jack Nicholson at jack.nicholson@richmond.edu
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