Feb 22, 2014 05:46 AM EST By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

The Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity has indefinitely suspended its chapter at the University of Mississippi and expelled its three members in connection to the vandalisation of the statue of the school's first black student.

The 19-year-old  members, belonging to the Alpha Chapter, are suspected of hanging a noose and placing an old Georgia flag with a Confederate battle emblem on the statue of James Meredith.

"It is embarrassing that these men had previously identified with our fraternity," said Brian C. Warren Jr., CEO of Sigma Phi Epsilon. "SigEp as a national fraternity has championed racial equality and issues on diversity since 1959 when it became the first national fraternity to invite members of all races, creeds and religions to join its membership," CBS news reports.

Warren said that the national organization will review all its members to make sure that their values are in accordance with the fraternity.

"We won't allow the actions of a few men to undermine the more than five decades of leadership this fraternity has demonstrated in the fight for racial equality and diversity on our college campuses," Warren said.

The FBI said that their vandalism investigation will also include possible violations of federal law. District Attorney Ben Creekmore said that the suspects are less likely to face criminal charges because neither the statue was not physically damaged nor they were trespassing.

Besides the federal investigation, university spokesman Danny Blanton said that an internal probe at the school will also be launched. If found guilty, the students will either be dismissed or even barred from the campus. The names of the freshmen, all of them white, have not been disclosed following an educational privacy law.

"What we want to do is to show this type action can't take place on this campus. We want to demonstrate that we will not tolerate this type behavior," Blanton said. "We certainly wish they would be forthright and discuss this matter so that we can get to the bottom of it. We want to hear their side. We want to know not just what happened, but why they did it. We want to open a dialogue."

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