LEAKED: Columbia University Wrestling Team's Disgusting Group Chat

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Columbia University is launching an investigation into its men's wrestling team after racist and misogynistic messages were leaked Thursday from the team's alleged group chat. In a statement issued late Thursday night, university officials said they had immediately canceled the team's season-opening match against Binghamton.

The messages, allegedly exchanged between senior wrestlers on the group text messaging platform GroupMe, date back to 2014 — and the more recent ones were sent as early as this week.

Screenshots of the alleged group chat were published by an independent student news site called Bwog. The messages use disturbing and degrading epithets to describe women, minorities and members of the LGBTQ community.

Some excerpts:

• "I hope someone actually gets sexually assaulted [at Columbia's annual spring festival and other parties]"

• "Columbia b--ches feel entitled to something when in reality they are all ugly socially awkward c---s"

• "Like people in Africa still can't tell time and that's why even if we gave them free aids medicine they wouldn't be able to use it properly"

• "[Ferguson protesters are] such f-----g n--s dude, so far the only places that have been looted was a rim shop and a pawn shop"

• "How would I obtain a gf? I barely pull n--s."

• "What a gay f--k"

• "She's YOUR Latina ass pornstar bc ur a WHITE...MALE"

According to Bwog, Columbia University officials issued the following statement Thursday:

"Columbia University has zero tolerance in its athletics programs for the group messaging and texts sent by several members of the men’s varsity wrestling team. They are appalling, at odds with the core values of the University, violate team guidelines, and have no place in our community.
Upon learning yesterday of these messages, Columbia’s Department of Athletics and our office of Student Conduct and Community Standards initiated an investigation. The Department of Athletics has decided that, as the investigation proceeds, Columbia wrestlers will not compete in Binghamton University’s open meet this weekend."

Patch reached out to Columbia University for comment but did not immediately hear back.

The university wrestling team's GroupMe leak arrives on the heels of President-elect Donald Trump's "locker room talk" scandal, as well as two similar incidents involving the Harvard University men's soccer and cross-country teams. Earlier this fall, student journalists with the Harvard Crimson revealed a sexually explicit "scouting report" written by members of the men's soccer team beginning in 2012. In it, players allegedly ranked incoming members of the women's soccer team; included photographs of the new freshmen recruits; ranked their looks; and recommended a sexual position for each freshman recruit.

Just last week, Harvard officials cancelled the last two games of the men's soccer season when they learned the "scouting reports" continued into this season.

The Harvard Crimson also uncovered yearly spreadsheets from the men's cross-country team, in which they assessed members of the women's cross-country team in sexually explicit terms.

Photo by Clive Dudley/Flickr