Racist comments made on Twitter by two college students, including one from William Paterson University, caused an uproar among their peers and university officials.

The videos, seen by more than 40,000 people, were swiftly condemned by William Paterson and Penn State University in statements posted on Twitter Sunday.

The videos depict a student, who is white, decked out in Penn State attire shouting the n-word several times on an elevator. That same student is seen in the background of a second video repeating the n-word as another student, who is also white, asks Twitter users to vote in a poll on whether it's appropriate to say the n-word if it's a lyric in a song.

One of the students is a member of a sorority at William Paterson University.

The school released a statement on Sunday.

Statement from VP Cammarata re: social media incident pic.twitter.com/kLA6IWSgwW — William Paterson (@wpunj_edu) April 22, 2018

Penn State also released a statement addressing the comments:

Penn State’s embrace of diversity & inclusion, and opposition to prejudice & hate, are clear. We condemn racist messages, as they are hateful and violate our institutional values. We cannot, however, impose sanctions for Constitutionally protected speech, no matter how offensive. — Penn State (@penn_state) April 22, 2018

On Sunday afternoon, Delta Phi Epsilon sorority issued a statement on Facebook indicating that one of the women is a member of the sorority.

* UPDATE * Delta Phi Epsilon will not tolerate racism. The woman in the video is no longer a member of DPhiE. Our... Posted by Delta Phi Epsilon Sorority on Sunday, April 22, 2018

The videos were posted by Twitter user Seun, who identifies himself as an activist and Penn State student. He said on Twitter that one of the girls posted the videos online.

His original tweet, which was retweeted more than 670 times as of Sunday evening, prompted other Twitter users to chime in on the comments made by the students.

Dude leave it be. She’s drunk and stupid and she’s not actually hurting anyone. No need to ruin her life over it man, not worth it. — Aidan Mattis (@aidan_mattis) April 22, 2018

I bet her parents are real proud!!! #loser — _.caitigirl._ (@caitreichenbach) April 22, 2018

Please don't retweet this, you will only be helping them spread this sad tribute to poor upbringing. — Rick (@rickohlrick) April 22, 2018

Me waiting for her to get kicked out of university and dragged on Twitter pic.twitter.com/yzwqf2HzCw — Maxwell Suave 💫 (@PrinceStaples) April 22, 2018

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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