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South African blacks express pain over video
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The university, known for strong science departments, is one of a handful of institutions set up for the Afrikaans elite across the country. They all have high academic standards but are seen as conservative and have struggled with racial integration since opening their doors to black students in the early 1990s.
Black students make up 60 percent of the Free State university's 25,000-strong student body. Most of the support staff is black but over 80 percent of teaching staff is white.
Only eight of 138 students who live the Reitz residence, where the video was made, are black.
Odendaal, the residence head, acknowledged the video had given the dormitory a bad reputation.
Black students said it was well-deserved.
Commerce student Mpho Mothibi, 24, said Reitz residents set dogs on her during an inter-dormitory event three years ago.
"This is not the first time there has been an incident with the residence," she said of the video.
Her friend Avika Sooknanan, a former student, said racial tensions are high on the campus. "Every black person has a story of racism, directly or indirectly," she said.
Mothibi said one of the women in the video once told her to try to ignore offensive behavior of white students.
"One of the ladies in the video told me I must just ignore them, that it was just their way; that they are being silly," she said. "It saddened me to hear her talk like that, like she never expected anything better."
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