In case you missed it, earlier this week several members of the University of Oklahoma’s chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity were caught on video singing that they would never allow a “n***r” to join them. Within 48 hours, school president David Boren had torn up the chapter’s charter, evicted its members from their house, and expelled two of the students identified as ringleaders. SAE’s national headquarters has also come down with hobnail boots on this chapter; it has suspended all of the now-former chapter’s members and has begun the process of permanently expelling them all from the organization. In the face of this, several alumni of the now-shuttered chapter have hired a high-profile Oklahoma attorney to help them consider their legal options–including a possible lawsuit.
This morning, Stephen Jones, who is best known for defending Tim McVeigh, said that he has been retained by several members of the chapter’s board who want a closer look at the legal issues surrounding the chapter’s ouster. He said that he wants to ensure that the remaining members’ “due process rights and First Amendment rights” are protected. Jones built on this talking point at a press conference on Friday afternoon. He said that while the actions depicted on that bus were “inexcusable,” he believes there was a “rush to judgment” on the part of school officials. He added that he stands ready to “protect the rights of the students,” and isn’t ruling out a lawsuit. However, he said, he prefers to set up a dialogue with Boren and other school officials to “make a teachable moment.”
Jones added that the alumni he represents are primarily concerned for the safety of the former SAE members. He said that many of them have received death threats and are afraid to go to class. He also wants to ensure that any members who are disciplined receive due process. However, he clarified that he doesn’t represent Parker Rice and Levi Petit, the two students who were expelled for their role in the chant. They likely ended any chance of prevailing in a lawsuit by apologizing for their actions on Tuesday.
If Jones is hoping to get Boren to go back on his edict that SAE won’t return to OU while he’s president, he’s going to have an uphill battle on his hands. For one thing, he’s going to have to explain why nobody stopped that chant while it was underway. As William James II, an OU alumnus who was only the second black ever accepted into the chapter, said in a moving interview on Tuesday, the mere fact anyone found that song acceptable says a lot about the culture in that house. It’s a culture that is not acceptable at any civilized university–and OU has a responsibility to all of its students to ensure that culture is rooted out before a new SAE chapter can set up shop. It’s equally unacceptable if any former SAE members are being threatened; that in no way helps the healing process that’s needed here.
About the only possible chance Jones might have of prevailing is in the event anyone else gets expelled solely for taking part in the chant. OU is a state university, and therefore doesn’t have a lot of latitude to punish students merely for speech–even speech as abhorrent as this. It would be a completely different ballgame, however, if it turned out the video had been uploaded to social media before a student organization at OU found out about it and reported it. As far as I’m concerned, uploading a video like that is no different from hanging a noose on a tree or burning a cross. If hanging a noose or burning a cross would be grounds for expulsion, how would uploading a video of people chanting “There will never be a n***r SAE” be any different? For that reason, Boren should disclose when that video was uploaded. It would significantly strengthen his hand in any talks with Jones. More importantly, it would do a lot to appease the concerns of people like me, who abhor racism but also believe in free speech.
