DePauw University announced this morning that it was cutting ties with a sorority whose recruitment campaign last semester led to the eviction of every member who was overweight, as well as the only black, Korean, and Vietnamese members. In a letter to the president of Delta Zeta, DePauw’s president, Robert G. Bottoms, described the Indiana university’s values and the sorority’s priorities as “incompatible.”

The incident drew waves of bad publicity when The New York Times and other news-media outlets reported it. Initially the sorority’s national leadership defended its actions, saying the members had evicted themselves through a lack of commitment to Delta Zeta recruiting. Those leaders became more contrite as public criticism heightened. The sorority’s Web site now bears a prominent apology. The site also carries a statement asserting that Delta Zeta had “worked with the university” to put an end to “the media circus that is undermining the educational experience, and causing undo [sic] emotional stress and damage for all parties.”

In his letter, Mr. Bottoms wrote that DePauw “vehemently” denies that there had been any cooperation, and he saluted the evicted sorority members as having “shown a maturity beyond what one might expect of undergraduates” despite Delta Zeta’s efforts to discredit them.