Apr 12, 2015 01:28 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

When Jabar Shumate accepted the job as the University of Oklahoma's (OU) chief of diversity programs, he knew he was taking on an issue he was personally familiar with.

Speaking with the Associated Press, Shumate said he experienced public displays of discrimination as an OU student in the 90s. OU President David Boren created the position in response to a voyeur video released last month that showed fraternity members shouting a racist chant on a bus.

An African-American Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity brother when he attended the school, Shumate ran for vice president of the student body and won. However, someone ran a counter-campaign by posting fliers around campus with his picture and the message: "Do you want this person living in your house? Vote the other ticket."

"I probably have a better perspective with this," Shumate told the AP.

Now 39, he is a Democratic former State Senator in Tulsa, Okla. who resigned in Jan. and an ex-member of the House of Representatives.

"There were white students in the Greek community and black students and international students that put me in that office," Shumate said. "I built that coalition. (It showed) we're a lot larger and stronger than a few bad characters who were really just uninformed."

Boren dismissed the OU Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter off the school's campus the day after the video surfaced in a move widely praised for being swift and decisive. But now he is going further in trying to ensure such instances of racial insensitivity never happens again.

"The one great thing about being the first at doing something is that you can build something and not necessarily be confined by boundaries," Shumate said. "I think this really could be a model for what other universities should be doing.

"The other part of it is we don't have a script. This is my dream job to come back and work for people I respect. We're going to be as innovative as we can be."

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