Columbia’s athletics department has decided to suspend the members of the wrestling team responsible for the sexually and racially offensive text messages from competition for the rest of the season and 2016-17 academic year, according to a statement released Friday.
“It has now been determined that the deeply offensive group messaging and texts were written, sent and viewed by a distinct group within the wrestling team,” the school said in a statement, a week after the texts became public. “While all team members feel a sense of collective responsibility and regret for what was said and done by some, the investigation found that the individual student-athletes who participated in the group chat acted on their own.”
Doling out punishment based on the student-athletes’ level of involvement, the school has suspended other members of the team until the beginning of the 2017 semester, while clearing those not involved in the incident to compete this weekend at the New York State Championships in Ithaca, N.Y.
“We recognize that free speech is a core value both of the University community and of our nation,” the statement reads. “Our students and faculty have the right to express themselves and their views, whether through their public or private communications. However, the group text messages that have been brought to light do not meet the standard of behavior we expect from our student-athletes at Columbia.”
The announcement comes one week after Bwog, a student-run news site, exposed the vulgar GroupMe chat, in which members of the Class of 2017 call Columbia female students “ugly socially awkward c–ts” and insult African-Americans, whom they call the N-word throughout, for the protests that broke out in Ferguson, MO in 2014 over the death of Michael Brown. The messages, which span from 2014 until a few weeks ago, include numerous photos of female students attached to vulgar commentary. One post refers to a girl “looking like a dude in a wig,” another to a girl with a “fish p—y” and yet another to a “bald black girl.”
On Monday, the university announced it was suspending the wrestling season while the investigation was still pending.
Members of Columbia University’s wrestling team released an apology letter on Thursday, in which they say the general community’s disgust at the messages was a “wake-up call” for their team to realize that the words were not “playful jokes” but ones that do not represent the “core values” of the university.
In a long letter comprised of excerpts from apologies written by individual team members and addressed to the “Columbia community,” the “remorseful” wrestlers asked for forgiveness from their coaches, alumni, supporters, Columbia’s athletic department and “all people who were insulted or felt threatened” by the “inappropriate, vulgar and hurtful text messages.”
“We realize that what was done is extremely wrong,” the letter reads. “There is no excuse for this behavior. All of us have gained an entirely new perspective on how hurtful the comments made by members of our team truly are. These messages are not just words or playful jokes between teammates. This has been a wake-up call for our team. A culture change was obviously needed – and, rest assured, it will take place. We are prepared for any deserved repercussions from our actions.”
Columbia is the latest Ivy League school to take action on its student-athletes’ offensive behavior. Harvard recently cancelled the entire men’s soccer season over a “scouting report” that ranked female recruits in sexually lewd terms and was an annual tradition, the school learned.