AUSTIN, TEX. ? A group of first-year law students at the University of Texas at Austin has been chided by the dean for participating in a “Ghetto Fabulous”-themed costume party and posting pictures from it online.

The party is the latest racially insensitive incident to emerge from the university, which has struggled for years to boost minority enrollment and make students of color feel welcome.

“Among the many ways to happily party in Austin, this particular one was singularly heedless and odious,” Dean Larry Sager said in an e-mail to the law school’s student body.

The photos – in which partygoers carried 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor and wore Afro wigs, necklaces with large medallions and name tags bearing traditionally black and Hispanic names – upset some black law students, said Sophia Lecky, president of the Thurgood Marshall Legal Society.

Sager met with about 18 students who were at the party and said he was convinced they didn’t think their actions would offend classmates. No disciplinary action was planned.