"I solemnly swear to always have hatred in my heart" - Syracuse University suspends fraternity after video of ‘extremely racist’ behavior surfaces
The Syracuse University chapter of Theta Tau was suspended Wednesday morning after the university confirmed it was involved in the creation of online videos showing fraternity members engaging in behaviors that were “extremely racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, and hostile to people with disabilities,” Chancellor Kent Syverud said in a campus-wide email.
In recordings obtained by The Daily Orange showing the videos, which were filmed in Theta Tau’s house, a person forces another person to his knees and asks him to repeat an “oath” including racial slurs.
“I solemnly swear to always have hatred in my heart for n*ggers, sp*cs and most importantly the f*ckin’ k*kes,” the person on his knees repeats.
The videos were posted in a secret Facebook group called “Tau of Theta Tau” by a user named David Yankowy III, the recordings show. Yankowy was listed as a member of Theta Tau on the SU fraternity chapter’s website before the site was made inaccessible Wednesday afternoon. Yankowy, who is listed in SU’s directory as a senior in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
S everal videos filmed in the house were uploaded in the secret Facebook group. In one recording, a person, using anti-Semitic language, yells at two other people.
“You f*ckin’ k*kes, get in the f*ckin’ showers,” he says, and the two people run out of the room as others laugh.
In another recording, a person sits down in a rolling chair and a different person yells, “He’s drooling out of his mouth because he’s retarded in a wheelchair.”
At one point, one person tells others to “… Get together and (talk) about their significant others while drinking different wines and talking in gay girly accents.”
The following recording is one of several obtained by The Daily Orange. The D.O. could not publish every video as it could not confirm that each video was posted on the “Tau of Theta Tau” page.
“I am appalled and shaken by this and deeply concerned for all members of our community,” Syverud said in the email.
The chancellor said that, upon confirming Theta Tau’s involvement in the videos, the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities immediately suspended the fraternity.
SU’s Department of Public Safety has launched an investigation into the incident to identify individuals and to take additional legal and disciplinary action, Syverud said.
Theta Tau is a professional engineering fraternity at 1105 Harrison St. The fraternity’s national office did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Alexander Fox, who was listed on the SU chapter’s website as the fraternity’s regent, also did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Fox was listed as an administrator or moderator in the secret Facebook group.
I am appalled and shaken by this and deeply concerned for all members of our community.
Kent Syverud, Syracuse University Chancellor
A protest erupted on campus Wednesday evening as students demanded that the university release the videos. Protesters gathered outside Syverud’s house, which is across the street from Theta Tau. Some students on Twitter started posting the hashtag “#WheresTheVideoSU.”
“We are not (Theta Tau),” said Liam McMonagle, a protest organizer and sophomore broadcast and digital journalism major. “They are not us. And they do not represent this community.”
Tayla Myree, a sophomore studying political science and history, spoke and chanted in a megaphone as she held up a sign that read, “Apathy is complicity.” She said most of the students protesting were people of color, despite SU having a predominantly white population.
Zach Hammond, a senior mechanical engineering major who was listed as a member of Theta Tau on the fraternity’s website, said “there were certainly some things I disapproved of, but I certainly didn’t realize that bad of things were being said. It’s just disgusting.”
Hammond’s name was mentioned in the video published by The D.O. on Wednesday night. Hammond said he was not at the event shown in the recordings and was rarely active in the chapter.
Several other students who were listed as members of Theta Tau on the fraternity’s website did not respond to requests for comment.
Syverud, during a forum at Hendricks Chapel on Wednesday afternoon organized after his campus-wide email, said he watched “parts of the videos from Theta Tau.”
“The thing I have been asked most frequently is, ‘I’d like to see them myself.’ I don’t particularly want to be the person who disseminates those videos for complicated reasons, but I’m sure that will happen,” Syverud said. “I want to say that I am shaken and deeply disturbed by what is on them, as I would hope anyone in the community would be.”
In his email, Syverud said SU is committed to “fostering a community where all our students feel welcome and are treated with dignity and respect. This behavior is unacceptable and contradicts our moral standards.”
Student Association President James Franco said Wednesday afternoon the fraternity’s conduct was antithetical to his personal values and the values of the university.
“I think we also, too, should have an audit of Greek life on campus to re-evaluate its impact on the campus community and its value,” Franco said.
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By ASSOCIATED PRESS 11:01 AM EDT
(SYRACUSE, N.Y.) — A fraternity suspended at Syracuse University over an offensive video said in an apologetic statement on Friday that the activities were intended as a “satirical sketch” depicting an uneducated, intolerant person.
“Each semester our new members are given the opportunity to write and act out a skit, in order to roast the active brothers. This event was never intended to be centered around racism or hate. This year, one of these brothers is a conservative Republican, and the new members roasted him by playing the part of a racist conservative character,” the New York school’s Theta Tau chapter says on its website .
“It was a satirical sketch of an uneducated, racist, homophobic, misogynist, sexist, ableist and intolerant person. The young man playing the part of this character nor the young man being roasted do not hold any of the horrible views espoused as a part of that sketch.”
The chapter said it’s embarrassed, disappointed and ashamed, adding, “Anyone of color or of any marginalized group who has seen this video has every right to be angry and upset with the despicable contents of that video.”
“First and foremost, every single member of Theta Tau would like to apologize to everyone affected by the racist video,” the chapter said.
The national engineering fraternity said in its own statement that despite the context, there’s no excuse.
Both the national group and the chapter stressed that they support inclusiveness.
On Friday morning, a group of students demanding change confronted Chancellor Ken Syverud, who previously called the video racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist and hostile to people with disabilities.
Syverud said on the school’s website that it will conduct “a top to bottom review” of its fraternity and sorority policies, activities and culture, and many aspects of college life will include diversity and inclusion training.
Syverud said he would be consulting with a wide range of students, faculty and staff on Friday and over the weekend.
I suppose they did they best they could to try and smooth things over , but I doubt it will work.
I watched the video, which is about 6 minutes long.
In my old neighborhood we used to refer to guys like this as jagoffs.
My thought now, why? What is this all about? I am not young anymore. What am I missing here?
These guys sound like fledgling Trump voters.
no doubt
What in the hell is wrong with you? You just can't help your poltical Tourettes, can you?
These people are wrong and they are paying the price for that. It has nothing to do with politics-only a complete idiot would try to make that stretch.
Who else are racist morons going to vote for?
Well, you voted for Obama twice.
How is voting for Obama racist? I voted for him and I'm white.
Do I hate my own race because I voted for the black guy twice? I voted for Hillary so do I now hate white men?
Why are you obsessed with race? Do you see their skin color before you see the person?
I take it you voted for the King of the Birthers?
podesta? no
When was John Podesta a candidate for national elected public office?
Don't be obtuse. It was Trump, Orly Taitz and then Joe Arpaio that made a name for themselves as birthers. All of them were TEAparty heroes.
Liberal doctrine states that if you did not vote for Obama, or you criticized his policies, you are a racist. White liberal apologists voted for him just so they do not get stuffed into yet another liberal identity class.
He wasn't. However, everyone with at least a half a brain cell firing off knew that members of the Clinton campaign(Podesta and Blumenthal) in 2009 started the birther movement.
Now, do your duty and post one of the "fact checking" sites that claim otherwise. We know you will.
Pretzel much?
Pretzels are straight, too.
No, those are sticks that taste like pretzels.
You got a problem with straights?
No, do you?
I criticized more than a few of Obama's policies just as I did for Hillary's ideas. I've never seen a liberal identity class listed on a college schedule of classes or the syllabus of such class. Do those classes have a tuition or are they subsidized by George Soros?
I voted for him because he was the lesser of two evils and I am a lily white democratic socialist, a progressive and a humanist.
In 2016 I would have preferred to vote for the old white Jewish socialist, but Bernie wasn't on the November ballot. I don't like the queen of ugly pantsuits and sensible shoes but she would have been much preferred to the Mango Mussolini.
Do you also feel persecuted because LGBT people have the very same constitutional rights that you do?
Obama's citizenship as being eligible to be POTUS was mentioned in 2008 during the primary, but it was quickly settled. It was the TEAparty that made it a significant political issue in 2009 because it appealed to their racism. McCain's birthplace was also questioned because he was born outside the borders, despite the fact that his father was a member of the military and was on duty in Panama.
Nope. I found them easier to handle than the twisted ones.
I prefer the soft ones all twisted and, hot covered in butter, I can pull them apart and, eat them at will, of course Will gets upset if I don't share.
There was nothing socialist about Hillary Clinton unless you believe her lies about being a lefty progressive. Trump's economic ideas are laughable if you can somehow divorce his fairytale economic ideas from his amoral beliefs and his constant lies.
Warm soft pretzels need spicy brown mustard.
Is that what we were talking about?? Damn!
I thought that we were, but its Friday and I'm tired.
Well, I do like pretzels that are all warm and, soft.
Maybe the ACLU will step up and help defend their right to free speech. We don’t have to agree with their views but we should agree they have a right to hold and express their own beliefs. It sounds like another school is attempting to create safe spaces and stifle free speech.
Dean,
While I agree they have the right to say what they want, in the real world we own our words and the repercussion from those words.
If you go to your boss and call him an A hole, expect to be fired. That is the real world.
When you go to a private university and and break the rules not only of the university, but also the fraternity, expect some repercussions.
When you go to a private university and and break the rules not only of the university, but also the fraternity, expect some repercussions.
And in this case they should be permanently banned.,
They have every right to speak as they wish, they just don't have any right to do so without consequence. The school has every right to suspend their house affiliation with the school. Each school has a right to enforce their student code of conduct and can expel students as well as entire fraternities (though not all members of a fraternity, students must be expelled on an individual case by case basis) if the boards vote to do so. Schools have wide latitude in the law when it comes to their code of conduct and its enforcement.
Funny, I said the same thing about the Dixie Chicks way back when they decided to bash the sitting President. Amazing how people couldn't understand that back then, but can now.
Did the government threaten to fine or imprison them for their speech? Unless either of those occurs their free speech rights have not been threatened. They do not have the right not to be criticized for their behavior because doing so would limit the same free speech rights of others.
The national fraternity organization or the university has the right to remove them because of bad PR, as a student ethics violation, and that is likely what will happen.
Included within the sworn allegiances of many fraternal organizations are histories of racism, homophobia and antisemitism...
That really is nothing new and most have done things to make amends. Unfortunately vestiges of the past still exist in the US.
This is an engineering (professional) fraternity mocking another fraternity for supposedly being racist.
Apparently, that's a human rights violation these days.
It's working out real well for them, isn't it?
Yeah, it's the role of the university and the media to punish those who dare to mock racists. That'll teach those kids.
Here is the difference, Sean.. these guys were dumb enough to post it on social media, something that every high school advisor would tell you not to do.
I never heard anything about this mocking another frat. Where did you get that from?
I have looked at 5 or 6 articles about this from the NYT to the local Syracuse paper, to Heavy.com.
I haven't seen a word that indicates that this event and video was intended to mock or satirize racism by others.
It's bad enough that middle/high schoolers and their teachers post horrible things on social media, but we also see college "kids" and their professors thinking that it's appropriate, too.
"....Students, faculty, staff and visitors shouldn’t have to go through SU with a dark cloud of intolerance and discrimination cast by a single organization, and our fraternity system should work to change this stereotype in order to emphasize how fraternities can positively affect our campus community.
With that said, we vehemently detest the actions taken by the Syracuse chapter of Theta Tau, and we recommend that they be given the harshest punishment for their shameful behavior toward people of different religious beliefs, sexual orientations or racial identities. Delta Chi is welcoming of all gentlemen who want to make a positive difference to our fraternity and our campus community, and we won’t stand with another fraternity that holds backwards views on race, religions, genders and sexualities."
Sincerely,
The Syracuse chapter of the Delta Chi fraternity
Where is the evidence of the "prank" or satire that Sean was alluding to? Another frat there seems to have taken the incident very seriously.
They forgot to add the /s at the end of their videos. /s
If these were parodies they should have made that abundantly clear. Instead all you get is a bunch of young idiots screaming racist, insensitive slurs used in general and at each other. Much like some hazing can be "a joke" or supposedly "in good fun", it can also lead to kids dying of alcohol poisoning or suffering PTSD after the "jokes" go too far.
Sean I haven't found any news stories yet that say that this video and these actions and comments were a satire on racism at another fraternity.
Can you give us some links that have that information?
Did you check infowars or American Thinker?
"As our preliminary investigation progressed through the day, it was revealed that the video was a parody, skit, or roast of the active brothers by a pledge class, and not Chapter members hazing, humiliating, or disparaging its pledges as the university had described to our Central Office."
nice try, by you and them
Sean said they were mocking another, racist fraternity.
If it was the pledge class roasting the "active brothers", does that mean the active brothers are racists, homophobes and anti-semites?
I don't see how they put a good spin on it going by what you posted.
Oh heck, let's post their whole statement Dean
To our Brothers in Theta Tau,
We are aware of the video that was released showing members of the Theta Tau chapter at Syracuse University.
Theta Tau has a no tolerance policy for this troubling and offensive behavior, and the actions of these individuals are truly disgraceful. We are a professional and diverse fraternity that welcomes members of all backgrounds. The content of the video is unacceptable and directly violates the values and expectations that have been put in place for all of our chapters. We’re committed to investigating this situation thoroughly, and all individuals who are involved will be held appropriately accountable.
As our preliminary investigation progressed through the day, it was revealed that the video was a parody, skit, or roast of the active brothers by a pledge class, and not Chapter members hazing, humiliating, or disparaging its pledges as the university had described to our Central Office. However, this does not excuse the behavior.
I intend to hold our members and chapters to a higher standard than this. Please be assured that we will take appropriate action based on the findings of the investigation.
Any member asked to make a comment regarding the matter should direct the questioner to Michael Abraham in the Central Office.
In H & T,
'Performance Art' or not, Murica is rising.
Their parents must be quite proud of them. Chips off the old blockheads no doubt.