OXFORD, Miss. -- The chancellor of the University of Mississippi apolgoized to officials at predominantly black Rust College because of a fraternity stunt in which two pledges were stripped naked, painted with racial slurs and dumped at Rust.
The pledges, left by members of Beta Theta Pi fraternity Monday night, ran into the Rust College security office to escape pursuing black students at the small school at Holly Springs, about 25 miles from Oxford, officials said.
A Holly Springs official, who asked not to be identified, told The Clarion-Ledger newspaper the two fraternity members had 'KKK' and 'we hate niggers' scrawled across their chests.
Chancellor Gerald Turner said he learned of the incident when he returned to the Ole Miss campus from an out-of-town engagement Tuesday.
'When I was informed of it I was shocked and angered,' he said. 'I think it was terribly poor judgment.'
Turner immediately called Rust and extended an apology and instructed two representatives of the fraternity to go to the school and apologize on behalf of Beta Theta Pi.
Fraternity treasurer Brad Gunner said national leaders of the fraternity have already suspended the Ole Miss chapter's charter and are on their way to Oxford to investigate the incident.
'Personally, I believe there's going to be a lot of cleaning house in that there will be a totally different chapter in about two weeks, if a chapter at all,' Gunner said.
Gunner, who also serves as president of the Interfraternity Council, the male Greek system governing board, said he talked to Turner and Gordon Beasley, vice chancellor for student affairs, and 'expressed my extreme disappointment.'
'It has been expressed we should expect the worst,' he said.
Beasley said the incident is being investigated and a hearing probably would be held within a few days. He said any punishment of students would be carried out by the administration and no criminal charges would be filed.
In August 1988, an arsonist burned a house that was to have been the home of the first black fraternity on Fraternity Row at Ole Miss. A month later, the university banned 'swap' parties after a female student was raped during a fraternity-sorority get-together at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house.
In 1987, the university disciplined the SAE chapter because several older members hazed pledges, and Kappa Alpha fraternity drew a six-month suspension after a drunken freshman pledge was killed when he fell down a flight of stairs.
