Kansas State University said it will honor its First Amendment obligation and not to expel a student whose Twitter post about George Floyd is deemed by many as offensive.
The announcement came after a group of student athletes, including the university's football and women's basketball teams, demanded the administrators to expel Jaden McNeil, a third-year student and the founder of nationalist student organization "America First Students."
On June 25, exactly one month after George Floyd died in the custody of four Minneapolis police officers, McNeil sent a now-deleted Twitter post, saying, "Congratulations to George Floyd on being drug free for an entire month!"
In a statement posted online, black student athletes from several sports said they will not play in their respective seasons, unless the Kansas State establishes a policy of expelling students who "openly display racism" on social media.
Myers, in response to demands, outlined a series of actions towards creating a "more inclusive" environment, including increasing enrollment and graduation rate of students of color, establishing a working group to identify "institutional bias" in existing policies, and developing mandatory "cultural competency" workshops for faculty and staff.
"These initial steps have been based on the many voices heard so far, we will continue to listen and develop actions based on the many voices in our community," he said.