The University of Maryland at College Park is investigating an e-mail containing racial and ethnic slurs, as well as sexually offensive comments, according to University President Wallace Loh.
The e-mail was sent to six other students in January, 2014, but officials didn’t get wind of it until this week.
The contents of the e-mail haven’t been made public. In a Twitter chat on Friday, Loh said the statements “have shaken me.”
The utter disregard for decency, the racist invective, the mindless disparaging of sexual consent, has left me angry and profoundly saddened
— Wallace D. Loh (@presidentloh) March 13, 2015
Loh said he would fight to protect free speech, but didn’t necessarily think this qualifies.
And quite honestly, I am struggling with justifying this email as free speech.
— Wallace D. Loh (@presidentloh) March 13, 2015
What justification can we have that tacitly condones this kind of hate?
— Wallace D. Loh (@presidentloh) March 13, 2015
The student is a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity’s UMd chapter. The frat’s national office said the brother immediately resigned, and also condemned the statement.
“The language and views expressed in the email were inexcusable and are in stark contrast to the values of Kappa Sigma Fraternity,” the fraternity’s statement said.
