Several Syracuse University faculty members have expressed solidarity with the sit-in at the Barnes Center at The Arch and criticized SU administration’s response to racist incidents racism. 

#NotAgainSU, a group led by black students, started the sit-in at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday in response to racial slurs against black and Asian people found written on two floors of Day Hall. 

In the days since the demonstration began, additional racist and bias-related graffiti directed toward Asian people was found in the bathroom in the Physics Building and on the third floor of Day Hall. A swastika drawn in the snow was discovered across from the 505 on Walnut, a luxury apartment complex, on Thursday afternoon. 

J. Cole Smith, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, stopped by the Barnes Center during the sit-in on Friday. Smith said that he is “more optimistic” after speaking with protesters.

“I know we haven’t solved anything. I know we still have these problems … I don’t want to walk out of here, saying ‘mission accomplished, look it’s all okay.’ It’s not,” Smith said.

A group of 15 university senators issued a proposed resolution on Thursday supporting protesters and calling on SU administration to refrain from retaliating against the protesters. The proposal urges administrators to negotiate in good faith with protesters and set clear short- and long-term goals to promote the safety of racial minority students at SU. 

The proposal was initially co-sponsored by 15 senators, but the number has grown to 18, said Senator Mark Rupert. The senators want to help the protesters bring attention to issues that impact the entire SU community, he said. 

“We recognize that the student protesters have legitimate grievances, and that recent events have been really kind of shocking and appalling to a lot of us,” Rupert said. “We all agree that they’re calling attention to some really important issues.”

Rupert, professor of political science, said many of his students are “really pained” and feel unwelcome on campus in light of the recent racist incidents. He and the other senators want to call attention to the issue of racial discrimination on campus and start a conversation with SU administration about improving the experience of minority students on campus. 

“I admire the strength of the students in the face of this,” Rupert said. “I’m not sure I would be as strong as they are. And I hope we can find a way to make SU a better place together.” 

Gail Hamner, senator and professor of religion, said the racist graffiti is part of a pattern of racism that is “hard-baked” into SU’s campus culture. In her 20 years teaching at SU, she has witnessed several racist incidents on campus and is no longer surprised when they occur. 

She views the sit-in at the Barnes Center as a continuation of protests by THE General Body, a coalition of over 50 student organizations, that began five years ago. The group staged an 18-day sit-in in Crouse-Hinds Hall in November 2014 to demand changes from Chancellor Kent Syverud. Their demands included more diversity and inclusion training, better mental health services and programs to support international students. 

The Barnes Center protesters also demand improved mental health services and mandatory diversity training for faculty and staff.

In both situations, students called on SU administration to enact change. Despite THE General Body’s protests, the university continues to lack transparency in its handling of racial discrimination, said Coran Klaver, university senator and professor of English.

“Leadership, in important ways, does come from the top,” Hamner said. “Yes, it takes all of us to lead and help make decisions. It takes all of us to make a shared community. But leadership sets a tone, and I’m concerned that has not happened as strongly as it could be.” 

Democratizing Knowledge Collective, a faculty group that works to support inclusivity and institutional change at SU, said in an emailed satement to The Daily Orange that they feel little has changed in terms of the university’s handling of discrimination since THE General Body’s protests. SU administration promised to implement changes to combat institutional racism in response to those protests, but little has actually been accomplished in the past five years, the statement said. 

“We stand with all protesting students and with those at the Barnes Center as they demand accountability from the University’s administration to acknowledge, to recognize, and dismantle hate-crimes and their dehumanizing impact on the student body and on the campus community as a whole,” the faculty members wrote. 

Biko Gray, an assistant professor of religion, said SU administration needs to recognize the escalation of severity that could occur with the recent incidents of racism on campus. If administrators do not recognize how the incidents could potentially incite physical violence against students, then the situation will continue to get worse, he said.

“This is not simply someone trolling someone,” Gray said. “(The N-word) has everything to do with black bodies swinging from poplar trees. To show that on a mirror, even the anti-Asian sentiment — what you have done is taken a deeply vulnerable and deeply personal space and turned it into a space of sheer terror.”

The Board of Trustees should also be involved in the administration’s response to these incidents of racism, Gray said. The board holds a significant amount of control over the university’s finances, and trustees have power to direct funding to programs that benefit students, he said. 

Gray said that it is in the university’s and students’ interest to bring the Board of Trustees to campus as soon as possible to speak with students to address their demands.

“We never see them. But somehow they are the ones controlling the movement of resources on this campus,” he said. “The ones with the power of the purse are not aware and not wanting to be aware of the problematic issues happening on this campus.”

Ultimately, faculty have little power to bring about change in university policy, Klaver said. The ability to address the institutional problems at SU that allow hate crimes to happen on campus lies with the Board of Trustees and SU administration, she said. 

Janice Dowell, a university senator and professor of philosophy, said she is disappointed in SU and ashamed that students are the ones that need to push for institutional change. Administrators need to come up with specific solutions for how they are going to address the recent incidents of discrimination for meaningful change to occur, she said.

“We’ve been here before in the past when racist and hate incidents have arisen,” Dowell said. “Here we are again, with administrators on an apology tour, but we don’t yet have any firm commitment to a timeline for how incidents are going to be addressed in the future.”

Members of  USen’s Agenda Committee will decide during its Tuesday meeting whether to present the resolution at the Senate’s meeting on Wednesday for discussion with the entire senate, Rupert said. Syverud and Provost Michele Wheatly will be in attendance. 

“There are people on the Agenda Committee who think this is an important conversation to have,” Rupert said. “I really expect us to be having this conversation on Wednesday.”

— Asst. News Editor India Miraglia contributed reporting to this article.

Published on November 15, 2019 at 6:36 pm

Contact Richard: rjchang@syr.edu | @RichardJChang1