HARRISBURG — A private Pennsylvania college expelled three students over a campus radio broadcast in which they made racist comments and used a slur.

Bucknell University President John Bravman met with about 1,000 students and staff about the matter on Tuesday, a day after sending a late-night e-mail revealing the expulsions.

“Their conduct is an affront to our values, damaging to our community and in clear violation of our community standards,” he wrote to students, faculty and staff on Monday.

Bravman did not identify the students but shared their comments from a March 20 WVBU-FM broadcast in “the interest of transparency and candor.”

He said one of the students used the N-word, a second said “black people should be dead” and the third said “lynch ‘em.”

Bucknell spokesman Andy Hirsch said an inmate a nearby prison heard the comments and reported them to a prisoner advocacy group, the Lewisburg Prison Project. The group then contacted a university faculty member, who alerted the radio station’s adviser.

Hirsch said the school’s senior staff investigated. The students were suspended and interviewed before the dean of students expelled them, he said.

“I would emphasize that the context really doesn’t matter once you see what was said,” Hirsch said.

Hirsch declined to say if alcohol was involved, noting the investigation is not complete.