On March 7, 2015, two videos were recorded of SAE members and their dates riding on a chartered bus to the Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club, where an event celebrating the national organization's Founder's Day was being held.
Simultaneously, OU officials ordered the closure of the chapter house and gave SAE members until the end of March 10, 2015 to move out.
[11] University of Oklahoma president David Boren ordered the expulsion of the two students who led the chant, Michael Levi Pettit[12] and Parker Rice.
[12] Through two letters addressed to them, Boren justified their expulsions on the grounds that they "played a leadership role" in creating "an extremely hostile learning environment".
The Los Angeles Times reported that Boren appeared to be alluding to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bans racial discrimination at universities receiving federal money.
[20] A Washington Post article reported that a Sigma Chi fraternity successfully challenged similar action taken against them by George Mason University in 1992.
[26][27] Meanwhile, a student from the rival Oklahoma State University, who also bears the name Parker Rice, became the subject of hate mail and death threats in a case of mistaken identity.
He admits his membership at the Oklahoma State University chapter of Alpha Phi Omega while condemning the racist chant incident.
[citation needed] In response to the video the Oklahoma Sooners college football team held arm-in-arm protest vigils instead of attending practice.
[28] Several news media reports highlighted the fact that SAE, which was founded before the American Civil War in the South had a history of discriminatory incidents.
[29][30][31] Robby Soave of the Reason Foundation wrote that the OU had failed to expel a freshman football player "caught on tape punching a female student in the face" in 2014.
Within the Student Veterans' Association's lounge, there is a small exhibit a part of the Henderson Scholars Program in the lower lobby of the former chapter house, to notable university alumni such as Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher who performed a significant role in the civil rights movement in Oklahoma.