Just weeks ago the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house was shut down at the University of Oklahoma for singing a racist chant.

The SAE national office said in a statement Friday that the racist chant was most likely learned at a national leadership retreat nearly four years ago, CNN reports.

At the start of the incident, the national office first said that the University of Oklahoma fraternity brothers probably learned the song from fellow chapter members.

"The national fraternity does not teach such a racist, hateful chant, and this chant is not part of any education or training," SAE said.

According to the SAE statement, there is no current evidence that the racist chant is widespread across the organization's 237 groups.

"We remain committed to identifying and rooting out racist behavior from SAE, and we are actively investigating all of our local organizations to determine whether there are issues in any other location," Executive Director Blaine Ayers said.

SAE closed its Oklahoma Kappa chapter immediately after seeing members singing the racist chant on video via social media. Then SAE announced an initiative to eradicate discrimination from the fraternity.

"The song is horrific and does not at all reflect our values as an organization," Ayers said. "If we find any other examples of this kind of behavior currently occurring, we will hold our members accountable, just as we've done in Oklahoma."

Ayers said the Oklahoma chapter may have learned the racist chant at one of the social gatherings held at SAE's annual leadership retreats.

The student caught on camera singing the racist chant apologized Wednesday for his role in the incident, The New York Times reports.

Levi Pettit said he is ashamed that he had participated and that the words in the chant "were mean, hateful and racist."

The former University of Oklahoma student said, "I did not want to apologize to the press or to the whole country until I first came to apologize to those most directly impacted.

"After meeting with these people, I've learned these words should never be repeated."

SAE continues its own investigation into the matter.