South African university to close dorm involved in racist video

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A college dormitory at the center of a video in which black workers were forced to eat food they believed was tainted with white students' urine will be shut down next month, university officials said Tuesday. The Reitz men's dorm in Bloemfontein will reopen later as an institute dedicated to diversity, said Teuns Verschoor, acting rector of the University of the Free State. The dorm was the setting for a video showing four women and a man on their knees eating food they were told was tainted with urine. The video, which surfaced in February, exposed the lingering deep racial tensions in South Africa. Four white students accused of involvement denied urinating on the food but face criminal proceedings. Two had already left the university when the video surfaced; two others have apologized and since have left the University of the Free State. Verschoor said closing the dorm was an "important gesture of reconciliation."