At this point, the best solution for all involved is for the two students to be allowed to voluntarily withdraw effective the day before the expulsion order. This would be in exchange for them agreeing to not sue the University or ever apply to be readmitted. OU would keep their names confidential and their disciplinary records would be untainted, so they would be able to transfer to another school.
IMO, this would be the likely eventual outcome of a negotiation. I think the students could possibly (but not certainly) win a case for re-admission, but it would be a Pyrrhic victory since a public court battle would brand them as racists for the rest of their lives. They screwed up and remaining at OU isn’t a viable option anymore for them. That’s what you get for singing racist songs.
It could be argued that in the song, these kids were stating their organization’s policy that any African American who dared to pledge SAE might find himself hung from a tree as a result. That is intimidation. One could even call it terrorism. Lynchings were done in the South for decades to accomplish this same kind of goal–keeping blacks out of white organizations, away from white women, polling stations, etc. I am no legal expert, but I think Boren does have a leg to stand on here. Even privately stating such intentions is not protected by free speech guarantees.
Am I nevertheless troubled by the stifling of free speech on college campuses and in this country in general? Yes.
At this point the names of the expelled students are public and published on multiple sites. The public universities in Oklahoma do not consider disciplinary records when admitting transfers. It’s strictly GPA based.
That horse is out of the barn. Parker Rice, a former football player (because of course he was) at Jesuit Dallas High School, was one of the guys leading the singing in the video. His high school threw him under the bus.
@hunt I hear what you are saying, but there have to be some limits to enable learning on a campus, don’t there? I mean you can’t just scream “hang the f@@@ing n@@@@@@” in the middle of a lecture and expect no consequences, can you?
I hear what you are saying but I am trying to reconcile it with creating a hostile environment on campus, which would seem to undermine the entire point of having a campus.
@Hunt, suppose a group of students sang the same cheery song on the way to class in the hearing of lots of other students. Would you say that their free speech rights could not be abrogated by the college, and they should not face any discipline?
I have a vague recollection from my former professional life that Boren is not absolutely immune from personal liability If he violated these students’ Constitutional rights by expelling them. (i.e., the Bivens case and the qualified immunity doctrine). But I am not up to date on where the courts stand on this today. Boren certainly has the credentials to be held to the highest standards in this regard.
I could care less about these frat boys’ 1st Amendment right to spew racist vitriole with impugnity. All disinterested parties can pontificate about some slippery slope of government impinging on free speech.
However, as a parent of black kids, I worry about the slippery slope of tolerating racist speech among privileged college frat boys. The chant leader apparently came from Jesuit Prep School, where he didn’t appear to be any sort of racist. Yet there he is at a college event talking about lynching and exclusion of N… Why is this well heeled, well educated frat boy spewing hatred towards nameless minority OU students?
I had a nice little theory about racism being borne of ignorance and only used by those who know better to create political divide. But this sort of behavior by the best and the brightest just blows my comfortable notion out the water. Dishearteningly, the dehumanization of black people serves the purpose of more than just political pundits.
My theory is that sometimes the kids who are the most shielded and coached about doing only what is right and not wrong are the ones most likely to act out when they go off to college. Like the ones who never drank in high school who end up bingeing and barfing every weekend when they are finally “free” of the watchful eye of their parents/teachers/coaches, etc. I have observed my own S make stupid decisions during his freshman year that went against what I taught him while he was growing up.
Of course, all of that ^ doesn’t mean the boys shouldn’t be punished for their actions.
“I would point out, just in passing, that Jesuit Dallas may exhibit a hostile environment to people who support abortion rights.”
If one doesn’t like the schools philosophy and finds it a hostile enovironment, one doesn’t need to attend Jesuit Dallas.
OU OTOH is a public university and one in which I am sure many Oklahomans want to attend because it is their state flagship school and therefore affordable to them and is one of only a few 4 year state universities available to them.
Question for those who believe 100% that the students 1st Amendments right have been violated - if it was a child of yours involved in this incident and expelled from OU - would you want them to sue? Would you pay for an attorney to take the case? Just curious - this is not intended to be a “gotcha” question. I am pretty certain I wouldn’t sue because I would be too appalled at my kid’s behavior to help him fight that battle.
^^ I couldn’t agree more. The recent incidents of well-educated, well-to-do college students engaging in racism and anti-Semitism, in 2015, are shocking. On the 50th anniversity of the Selma march we have college students singing about lynching? How does this not create a hostile environment for students of color? If I were a student there I would feel that it created a hostile environment for me, as well, even though I’m white. The offenses would not have to be against my particular ethnic group for me to feel violated by them. I feel violated sitting a couple of thousand miles away.
If I were a taxpayer in Oklahoma I would not be happy about my tax dollars being used to provide a college education to people who behave this way.
I am sure that these students will not sue. Their best hope is that this incident does not get any more attention.
I just saw a story on this on CNN and not once did they mention the First Amendment implications of all this.
If you can’t stand up for the First Amendment rights of racists, Nazis, KKK, SDS, Black Panthers, Communists, Socialists, pro-abortion, anti-abortion, whatever all along the spectrum, then you don’t really understand our Constitution.
FIRE weighs in agreeing that this is a First Amendment rights violation. Boren also failed to exercise due process by affording the students sufficient notice and the opportunity of a hearing before expelling them.
Or it could be very interested parties who know that eventually the alligator makes its way around to eating them. Not caring is really no different than forfeiting one’s own rights at some time in the future.
