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The Syracuse University Student Association held its second town hall on Tuesday night to gather thoughts and concerns from students for a report representatives plan to bring to the Board of Trustees at its November meeting.

SA President David Bruen and Assembly Representative Dylan France, both of whom will compile SA’s report, moderated the town hall. During the event, the attendees discussed student housing’s community impact, sexual and relationship violence, sustainability and climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and accessibility.

“There are no bad ideas,” Bruen said. “We’ll tell you if we’re already working on something or that something might just not be right for the board, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to do anything about it.”

A group of roughly 15 students discussed over-enrollment for the 2022-23 academic year, which has resulted in a lack of available housing options for students. Some students are living in overflow housing locations, such as the Sheraton Hotel and a building previously occupied by the Delta Phi Epsilon sorority.

“You think about the (strain on resources due to the) extra students, that’s literally going to be a problem for the next four years,” Bruen said. “It’s not just a one year problem.”

Some students said they wanted to remove the second year of the two-year housing requirement or for the university to create incentives for donors to support building more residence halls.

Students also spoke about struggling to find student housing outside of dorms that was both well-constructed and affordable. Bruen brought up The Marshall as a university-owned housing option that will be available to students in the future. SA vice president Adia Santos said this option might not be affordable for all students given the building’s current prices.

“It’s a gorgeous building, and it’s great that there’s new space, but it doesn’t really help if it’s not (financially) accessible,” Santos said.

In addition to issues with housing accessibility, students expressed concerns about the accessibility of learning environments now that the university has for the most part returned to fully in-person learning. Some students raised concerns that immunocompromised people are still at risk when they enter classrooms, especially given the decrease in testing accessibility now that students have to pay for COVID-19 tests.

Students present at the town hall stressed the reimplementation of recorded lectures, which can provide closed captioning. Bruen and France acknowledged the concern, and explained that one of the reasons the university veered from the practice is that it opened the door to breaches of academic integrity.

“We’re still in a university where there are stakeholders, and a balance has to be struck,” Bruen said. “And much to my dismay, students aren’t getting the good end of this deal.”

Bruen and France also facilitated a discussion about solutions and preventative measures regarding sexual and relationship violence at SU. Students suggested changes to the blue light system like the inclusion of security cameras and flashing lights that can be triggered when students press the light’s button.

Bruen said the SA was discussing providing sexual safety kits to students. Items in this kit could include scrunchies that act as a lid to one’s drink to prevent spiking drinks, nail polish that can detect date rape drugs and a Birdie safety alarm to deter attacks, he said. France said she hopes measures like this can help to mitigate violence.

“It seems that, a lot of times, (the university has) more reactive measures as opposed to proactive measures,” France said.

At the meeting’s conclusion, students discussed issues related to sustainability and climate change at SU. Students spoke about what SU should and shouldn’t be responsible for with respect to the university’s carbon footprint.

“When the decision was made to start buying the trolleys, (environmental sustainability) was not considered, unfortunately,” Bruen said. “We are now stuck with these buses that are made to look like trolleys that use an extreme amount of gas.”

Bruen told The Daily Orange that students who could not attend either of the town hall events SA has hosted could share issues and concerns in their Google form, “No Problem Too Small.”

“I know a lot of times when we speak to administrators, when we speak to staff, (we ask ourselves) ‘Do they really care, or are they just doing it to get through their day?’” France said. “Because we’re also students, doing the same thing, eating the same foods, using the same spaces, like we really do care.”

Published on October 5, 2022 at 1:42 am

Contact Emily: emilyrosesteinberger@gmail.com | @madlehead