Columbia U. Suspends Wrestling Team Over Offensive Texts

Columbia University has suspended its wrestling team’s season while it investigates racist, sexist, and homophobic texts sent by some of the team’s members, The New York Times reports.

The texts, which the university has called “appalling,” were disclosed last week by a student-operated website called Bwog. The site said the texts had been sent over the course of three years.

The revelations from Columbia occurred just a week after Harvard suspended its men’s soccer team over a similar disclosure: a sexually explicit “scouting report” that players had compiled on new recruits for the women’s soccer team.

The news of the wrestling team has spurred protests on the Columbia campus as well as a petition calling for the wrestlers’ expulsion. As of Monday night, the petition had drawn nearly 900 signatures.