Campus diversity crusaders have successfully targeted the members of a Mississippi sorority that did a musical homage of “Sister Act”, a comedy film featuring Whoopi Goldberg.

A sorority at Delta State University has been ordered to apologize to campus leaders and students for an incident during Homecoming where a white member dressed up in “black face” to portray Whoopi Goldberg in a musical number from the movie “Sister Act.”

The Bolivar Commercial reports that the theme of the week was “Delta Blues Homecoming” and in keeping with tradition, the students participated in different activities, including a lip sync contest on the quadrangle.

Delta State President Bill LaForge said in a campus-wide email that he thought the student performing a musical number was a black member of the Kappa Delta sorority. He said he later learned it was a white student and ordered an investigation.

“Student leaders and campus advisors were not informed of the performance contents prior to the competition,” LaForge said.

LaForge said an investigation “determined that there was no malicious or hateful intent in the actions of the group. Rather, the group’s behavior reflected a failure to use proper judgment regarding sensitivity to race.”

“The action of our students at the lip sync contest was wrong. Appropriate apologies have been made and will be made. This incident evidenced poor judgment and cultural insensitivities. This type of behavior will not be tolerated on this campus,” said LaForge.

LaForge said chapter members who appeared in the musical number will apologize face-to-face to him and at a meeting of the Student Government Association. He said they will write an apology letter to be published in the campus newspaper.

He said diversity classes and community service also will be required. The sanctions must be completed by April 1.

“As one of four judges for the night’s event, I was surprised to learn that a wig and brown makeup were used in the performance. Based on the great distance between the judges’ table and the stage, my son, who was also a judge, and I thought the lead character was in fact an African-American student playing the role of Whoopi Goldberg.

“I applauded and stood for this group (just as I did for all of the performing groups) to show my support and without knowledge of the full costume effect,” LaForge said.