Both fraternities were suspended by national fraternal leaders, with Larry Wiese, executive director of the Kappa Alpha Order, calling the students' actions "offensive and wrong." UVa President John T. Casteen III and Vice President for Student Affairs Patricia M. Lampkin, meanwhile, issued strong statements to the student body.

"Human dignity, decency, mutual respect, and understandings informed by a genuine knowledge of history … belong to all of us, not just to the students affected," said Casteen in his Nov. 22 statement. "Efforts to make this university an authentic cross-section of what we are as a country and progress made toward this goal are too important to be cast aside by the careless acts of a few."

Though Kappa Alpha's national suspension was lifted after an investigation determined that all of the offending students were Zeta Psis, the fallout from the controversy is far from over. Zeta Psi is still on national social probation, both fraternities are still on suspension from the campus IFC, and the IFC's Judiciary Committee announced Nov. 26 that both chapters would be tried on charges of committing racially offensive acts.

Meanwhile, the campus remains in a ferment. The night of the trial announcement, the top officers of the IFC, Inter-Sorority Council, Black Fraternal Council, Multicultural Greek Council, Student Council, the Asian and Latino Student Unions, among others — convened a historic dialogue on diversity and the Greek system. Trout called the meeting, he said, because "I wanted to initiate a dialogue about race and the Greek system and get ideas as to where the IFC needs to go from here. Diversity is definitely a long-term issue. This incident has only accelerated our efforts."

— By Kendra Hamilton