R.I. School Official Resigns After Slur

Roger Williams University chairman Ralph Papitto looks on during graduation ceremonies at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I., Saturday, May 20, 2006. Papitto, for whom the only law school in Rhode Island is named, admitted Monday, July 16, 2007, that he used the N-word at a May 2007 meeting of the school's Board of Trustees while discussing the difficulty of finding blacks and other minorities to serve on the 16-member board. (AP Photo/Stew Milne) (Stew Milne - AP)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The longtime chairman of the Roger Williams University board admitted Monday that he had used the N-word during a board meeting, saying it "kind of slipped out."

"I apologized for that," Ralph Papitto said in an interview on WPRO-AM. "What else can I do? Kill myself?"

Papitto, 80, who stepped down this month after nearly 40 years on the board, admitted he used the racial slur at a May meeting of the school's board of trustees. He had been discussing the difficulty of finding blacks and other minority members to serve on the 16-member board, which at the time included 14 white men and two women.

Barbara Roberts, then a board member, said Papitto became irate when he discussed pressures to make the board more diverse, at one point using the slur to refer to black candidates.

She said he then told the board he knew he couldn't say that because of Don Imus, the radio host who was fired after referring to Rutgers University women's basketball team members as "nappy-headed hos."

"There was, like, this complete and utter silence, and I was shocked beyond belief and very angry," Roberts said.

Papitto has given the school at least $7 million, and his name is on the law school, the only one in Rhode Island.

He said he had never used the term before.

"The first time I heard it was on television and then rap music or something," Papitto told WPRO.

The school's president, Roy Nirschel, and the law school dean, David Logan, denounced Papitto's remarks in separate statements Monday.

"Such behavior has no place in the Roger Williams educational community," Logan said.

Nirschel echoed the sentiment, condemning Papitto for "using inappropriate language or derogatory language toward any individual or group."