No, I'm not talking about what's right or what's okay. I'm talking about reality, and the reality is if you don't want to risk pissing off a highly specialized labor community you rely on and cannot replace then you're going to have to make sacrifices to keep them happy. At least sacrifices comparable to the rest of your competition. If other competitors are changing in ways that are perceived to remove racism and you refuse to change in a way that is perceived racist by this specialized labor force then you risk not having the ability to be competitive.
Are you really willing to risk being blackballed by the highest levels of talent from this specialized and unreplaceable labor force over a song? That is what the University administration is having to consider.
I don't know whether the song has racist tones in it's lyrics or not, and neither do you because neither of us were there when it was created. We are going off of stories that could have been manipulated. But even if there are no racist tones in the lyrics the fact that your specialized labor force believe so means you may have to change it anyway. I know it's tough for White America to understand but sometimes you have to make sacrifices even if you are right.