Shortly after the racist video went viral, OU President David Boren mandated that members of SAE evacuate their house immediately. With bags packed, the men said goodbye to the fraternity's campus home of over a century.
A majority of Interfraternity and Panhellenic organizations have traditionally been housed on OU's campus. Many of these houses are old, and they have all withstood the test of time and the trials that come with their age.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon's house, for example, has seen growth, deconstruction, reconstruction and eventually the evacuation of its occupants in 2015.
After SAE became a chartered fraternity in 1909, according to Sooner Magazine's December 1948 edition, the earliest photograph of the house was seen in the 1912 Sooner yearbook.
The house stands at 730 College Avenue and was built in 1965 after a fire in 1963 destroyed it originally, according to Chris Harrell, an SAE alumnus. The '60s era was buzzing with Frank Lloyd Wright's new organic approach to architecture, and his style influenced the design of the fraternity house, said Catherine Barrett, an assistant professor of architecture.
The general emphasis of horizontal elements, overhangs, high windows and the low-pitched hip roof are proof of Wright's influence, Barrett said.
"Another Wright house in Chicago that could be used as a basis for comparison is the Robie House, and even our own Price Tower in Bartlesville could have been a source of inspiration for the architect of the SAE house," Barrett said.
She suggested that using Wright's elements could have been a way to make the house stand out without seeming too large. "I'm guessing that the Wrightian motifs helped the architect diminish the scale of this rather large building as well as giving it status through the association with Frank Lloyd Wright," she said.
With the disbandment of the fraternity, the house was left to be stripped of the organization's symbols and the life that had once occupied it. The building has faced vandalization and has so far remained empty since the disbandment.
However, among Boren's other initiatives he proposed after the incident, one of them was to use the former fraternity house as an office for campus organizations such as the Southwest Center for Human Relations and the Disability Testing Center, said SWCHR Director Kathleen Wong.
SWCHR, now located at 3200 Marshall Avenue, plans to move into the former SAE house this summer, Wong said. She said this new occupation will be symbolic of the goal of the SWCHR and the Disability Testing Center: working towards inclusion.
“I think it sends a very strong message that the campus and administration value building an inclusive campus and diversity at large … not just race,” Wong said.
Boren announced in July 2015 that the center would be moving. Wong said there haven't been any complaints about the new move. Those at the SWCHR are very happy to move in because the location will fit perfectly to their needs since it's so centrally located on campus, she said.
The house will see occupants very different from its past owners, but it shouldn't fear any serious rebuilding other than a few renovations to make it office friendly, according to Wong.
The SWCHR provides academic and professional training on a campus, regional and even national level by using research-based training to promote inclusivity and diversity, according to Wong.
"We’re trying to really use research-based training and practices to help people learn how to be innovative, make good decisions and really work in a society where you’re going to be working with types of people that are similar and sometimes people who are really different,” Wong said.
While it is unknown whether or not the house will get to see its former occupants again some day, that is something that the university and fraternity alumni will have to sort out in the future, Boren said.
In the fall, students and faculty will be walking into the SWCHR and the Disability Testing Center's new office, a place that promotes diversity in the former home of the racist chant that changed OU.
