[Updated (9/28/2016, 4:47 p.m.) with news that the fraternity was suspended.]
Two black students at the University of Missouri at Columbia say they were verbally assaulted outside a fraternity house late Tuesday night when students yelled racial slurs and obscenities at them, according to a statement by the university’s Legion of Black Collegians.
University officials announced on Wednesday afternoon that the fraternity involved, Delta Upsilon, had been temporarily suspended. In the statement, the university said members of the fraternity had been involved in the incident. The national organization for the fraternity suspended the chapter earlier in the day.
The reported incident has echoes of the events that preceded the turmoil on the campus last year, when protests and a boycott by the football team led the system president and the flagship chancellor to step down. The president of the student body at the time reported being accosted and called a racist epithet, as did members of the Legion of Black Collegians.
In the wake of the protests, which included a graduate student’s hunger strike, the university rolled out a series of diversity initiatives.
“I am outraged and saddened to hear of this!” Hank Foley, interim chancellor of the Columbia campus, said in a written statement. “The safety and security of our campus is our No. 1 priority; the University of Missouri is committed to fostering an inclusive campus environment where all students, faculty, staff, and visitors can live, learn, work, and feel safe.”
The university said in a statement that the campus police had identified the student involved and that the Office of Student Conduct had been notified.
The Legion of Black Collegians said this latest incident shows how much work is left to do.
“It is blatantly obvious that all of this superficial work has been nothing more than a discussion with little action behind it,” the group’s statement read.
The group also said it was working with administrators “to develop policies and identify follow-up actions to eradicate these instances in the now and in the future.”
For more, see this Chronicle article.
