UPDATED: June 27, 2011, 2:30 p.m.

The incident where Asian-American racial slurs were shouted at a 2011 Syracuse University graduate living on Walnut Avenue was resolved Friday afternoon.

Benjamin Lin, who filmed and posted on YouTube a video of two men shouting swear words and derogatory terms for Asian-Americans on the 600 block of Walnut Avenue, said in an email the situation has been settled. Lin filed a statement Friday afternoon with the Department of Public Safety and said the two men involved were being referred to SU’s Office of Judicial Affairs.

The two men involved in the incident are current SU students, Thomas Wolfe, senior vice president for student affairs and dean of students, said in a statement released on SU’s website. Federal privacy law and university policy prohibit the names of the two students to be released. Wolfe said the two face disciplinary actions under SU’s Student Code of Conduct.

Lin said he decided not to press harassment charges because the men sincerely apologized and he felt they were taking responsibility for their actions. Lin removed the video Friday afternoon after those in the video apologized and asked for the video to be taken down.

‘Everyone deserves a second chance,’ Lin said.

The edited video was just over two minutes long, but the incident lasted about 10 minutes and took place on between 1:30 and 2:30 a.m. Thursday, Lin said. At first, the two men on the adjacent property shouted over to where Lin and suggested they all hang out together, Lin said. But then the shouts escalated to racial slurs when no one replied. When the insults did not stop, Lin said it was ‘unbearable’ and he chose to document the event with his cellphone.

The YouTube video received hundreds of views before being taken down and led many users to post on Twitter about the incident. Members of the SU community called for the university to respond and DPS and the university began to investigate the incident.

medelane@syr.edu

dkmcbrid@syr.edu

Published on June 24, 2011 at 12:00 pm