UPDATE | Univ. of Oklahoma president: Frat members are disgraceful

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — The president of the University of Oklahoma severed the school's ties with a national fraternity today and ordered that its on-campus house be shuttered after several members took part in a racist chant caught in an online video.

President David Boren said he was sickened and couldn't eat or sleep after learning about the video Sunday afternoon. It shows several people on a bus participating in a chant that included a racial slur, referenced lynching and indicated black students would never be admitted to OU's chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

Boren attended a pre-dawn rally organized by students and lambasted those fraternity members as "disgraceful" and called their behavior "reprehensible." He said the university was looking into a range of punishment, including expulsion.

"This is not who we are," Boren said at a midday news conference. "I'd be glad if they left. I might even pay the bus fare for them."

National leaders of Sigma Alpha Epsilon said late Sunday that its investigation confirmed members took part in the chant and announced it would close the local chapter. The national group said it was embarrassed by the "unacceptable and racist" behavior.