Syracuse University students involved in the controversial Theta Tau videos apologized to Department of Public Safety officers for the skits that eventually resulted in the fraternity’s expulsion, according to videos of DPS interviews that were obtained and published by Syracuse.com on Friday.

DPS investigated 18 students who were present at the event in April, according to an April email from DPS Chief Bobby Maldonado. Syracuse.com has obtained 17 interviews performed by DPS officers. Students involved said in the interviews that the skit was written in less than an hour, and they were surprised by how offensive it got, according to Syracuse.com.

The videos, obtained by The Daily Orange in April, showed students in the Theta Tau house engaging in behavior that Chancellor Kent Syverud has called “extremely racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, and hostile to people with disabilities.”

Students interviewed by DPS said Syverud endangered the safety of fraternity members because he did not ask for their side of the story and portrayed the members as bigots, according to Syracuse.com.

Members of the fraternity said in the interviews that after the videos were released they were treated differently by resident advisers and professors, according to Syracuse.com.   

Alexander Fox, regent of SU’s Theta Tau chapter until its expulsion and a student at Le Moyne College, told DPS officers that he wasn’t aware of the skits, according to Syracuse.com.

Some of the pledges who participated in the skits apologized for their behavior in the DPS interviews, according to Syracuse.com.

“Looking back on it, I am upset that we thought it was OK because it was supposed to just be for the brothers,” one pledge said, according to Syracuse.com.

The fraternity chapter posted a statement to its website in April apologizing for the “satirical sketch.”

“This event was never intended to be centered around racism or hate. This year, one of these brothers is a conservative Republican, and the new members roasted him by playing the part of a racist conservative character,” the statement said.

The older fraternity brother who was parodied in the skits told DPS that how he was portrayed was unfair, and others members of the chapter were shocked by how offensive the skits became, according to Syracuse.com.

Some students involved in the skits said during their DPS interviews that they parodied their own religions and races, according to Syracuse.com.

There are two ongoing lawsuits in federal and state courts filed by SU students who were suspended for their involvement in the skits. The nine students in the first lawsuit requested $1 million in damages and that their disciplinary records be cleared. The second suit, in the Jefferson County Supreme Court,  only requests a reversal of the suspensions.

A Jefferson County judge has allowed at least two previously suspended students to return to classes. The Theta Tau chapter also filed a lawsuit against the university in Jefferson County in mid-October, seeking a reversal to its permanent expulsion from campus.

Published on November 16, 2018 at 5:42 pm

Contact Casey: casey@dailyorange.com | @caseydarnell_