Last November, Syracuse University was the backdrop of multiple racist incidents. Students of color were harassed at least 10 times over the span of two and a half weeks. A swastika was found out in the snow, racist graffiti was found in residence halls and a Black student was harassed and called the n-word by a fraternity.
And what was the administration’s response? Nothing, for a while. They eventually condemned the graffiti and punished only four members of the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity for shouting the slur with interim suspension. They also suspended all fraternity activities for the semester.
This reaction stood in sharp contrast to the administration’s apparent eagerness to suspend students of color protesting racist treatment.
Despite the administration’s promises to actively curtail racist incidents, they’ve continued this semester. As of yesterday, at least 29 incidents of homophobia, racism and antisemitism have been reported to have occurred at SU or near its campus since November.
In response to the administration’s silence, Black students came together and formed #NotAgainSU, a movement dedicated to addressing the pervasive racist and violent environment at SU.
#NotAgainSU organized a sit-in inside the university’s Barnes Center, opening negotiations with the administration. It promised to fulfill 16 out of 19 of its demands which included: changing the university’s bias incident reporting policies, making the faculty more diverse and investing in anti-racism curriculum.
On Monday of last week, over 30 students staged another sit-in at the school’s administrative building. What was the administration’s response this time?
To suspend all students participating in this sit-in for “violating campus disruption policy.”
This is egregious even from a pure numbers standpoint. At that point in time, SU had only suspended four students for the November hate crimes. To turn around and punish over 30 students who’re simply demanding that the administration listen and change the toxic environment they helped create is disgusting.
Isn’t filling the school walls with racist graffiti a disruption of campus activity too?
I understand, of course, that the perpetrators may have not been identified yet. But the swiftness with which the administration unjustly punished students simply defending their right to exist is telling of the administration’s commitment to progress.
When they suspended the protestors, the administration put out a statement stating “For more than nine hours, several university leaders … worked to engage these students in a productive and respectful manner. However, a continued unwillingness by some to engage constructively, along with changing demands, challenge our collective forward progress.”
The student-led organization #NotAgainSU stated that these supposed “constructive” efforts were entirely concerned with asking the students to move their protest elsewhere, and did not attempt to open dialogue between the administration and the protestors.
The administration lifted the suspension of the protesters. “These students are afraid they will be arrested and forced out of the building. They have suspension dangling over them. They are concerned about being fed. Enough,” University Chancellor and President Kent Syverud said.
Why would the administration suspend students only to retract it a few days later under the guise of ending the harassment the students suffered at its hands? This feels entirely like a problem the administration created so that they could solve it.
Moreover, according to the #NotAgainSU instagram, campus police have prevented the student protesters from getting food into the administrative building, and — on more than one occasion — got physical with students. The administration itself admits to withholding food, hygiene products, and medical supplies from student protesters and has yet to answer as to why.
#NotAgainSU invited senior administrators and board members to meet for negotiations. The administration also announced yesterday that it found and held the three students responsible for some of the hate crimes. In Syverud’s winter address, he claimed the administration set aside over $5.6 million towards supporting diversity.
If the administration is sincere about fixing their community, then they need to come to the table and actually listen to their students. This may mean some of them having to resign, but that is how progress is made.
Sacrifices must be made by those in power so that change can actually happen. The administration just wants to appear to be making progress while keeping the same old hacks in power.
Therefore, I rule that the SU administration is cancelled until it makes real efforts to negotiate with students and meet their demands, instead of creating problems out of nowhere and punishing students defending their right to exist in a hostile environment.
