Chancellor Kent Syverud agreed to almost all student demands after protesters called for his resignation on Wednesday night. 

The student protest movement #NotAgainSU and international students presented 19 recommendations. Syverud agreed to 16 of them as written, and suggested rewording to the remaining three, due to the need for Board of Trustees approval, according to a campus-wide email sent early Thursday morning.

At a forum Wednesday night in Hendricks Chapel, a student stood up and asked if Syverud would immediately accept #NotAgainSU’s demands word-for-word. Protesters had waited on his answer for a week.

“If the question is ‘Can I produce agreement to every word at this instant?’ The answer is I cannot,” Syverud said.

Hundreds of protesters then rose out of the pews. After eight days of protesting in response to at least 12 hate crimes and bias-related incidents reported since Nov. 7, the students had heard enough. About 40 minutes into a forum scheduled to last more than an hour, the students funneled into Hendrick’s main aisle and marched out. Syverud walked back to his seat in the front row. 

“Sign or resign,” students chanted as they moved. They walked out of the chapel doors and down the steps, where they crowded around the building. The students continued their chants as Syracuse University officials inside continued the forum. 

#NotAgainSU, a movement led by black students, has occupied the lobby of the Barnes Center at The Arch since 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 13. The sit-in was initially motivated by SU’s delayed communication of racist graffiti against black and Asian people found on two floors of Day Hall.

The forum was held to address Syverud’s response to a list of 18 demands from #NotAgainSU and demands from international students. Protesters gave Syverud until Wednesday at 5 p.m. to sign the demands, which aim to protect students of color and change campus culture. 

At the time. protesters called for the resignation of Syverud, Department of Public Safety Chief Bobby Maldonado, Senior Vice President for the Student Experience Dolan Evanovich, and Associate Chief for Law Enforcement John Sardino. The university has failed to respond quickly enough to racist incidents, and has not allocated enough resources to minority students, they said.  

After leaving Hendricks dissatisfied with Syverud’s response, students marched to the chancellor’s house on the 300 block of Comstock Avenue. DPS officers blocked the entrance to the house, and Syracuse Police Department vehicles lined the street. 

Students marched to the Chancellor’s House on the 300 block of Comstock Avenue, then returned to campus. TJ Shaw | Staff Photographer

Protesters spread into the street, blocking Comstock. SPD cleared one lane for cars to pass. 

Students have said SU’s inaction to racist incidents represents a pattern of inaction and a lack of support for students of underrepresented communities. They referenced the Theta Tau controversy, the assault of students of color on Ackerman Avenue and people using the N-word in SU’s Madrid program. 

They chanted many things in their march from Hendricks to the chancellor’s house, but they always circled back to one: “Sign or resign. Hey hey, ho, ho, Kent has got to go.”

THE General Body, a student protest movement, produced a 45-page document of grievances in 2014 that includes many of the same demands as those from #NotAgainSU.

Student activist group Recognize Us produced a list of demands following the Theta Tau videos in 2018. Students demanded changes in campus policing and communication about crimes after the assault on Ackerman in February. SU touted new initiatives after both, including the SEM 100 forum and the creation of a DPS Student of Color Advisory Committee.

Now, students are again dissatisfied with Syverud’s response. 

Forums similar to the one on Wednesday night were held after Theta Tau and the assault on Ackerman. Protesters have said Syverud’s changes haven’t gone far enough Syverud has had several years to address the administration’s heavily-criticized response to hate and bias incidents, said an organizer of #NotAgainSU outside Watson Hall. She declined to be named for this story. 

“For him to get up in front of everyone, speak for less than a full 60 seconds, just to say that he does not agree with the demands that were written for him by a group of students that have been missing classes, getting sick and doing the administration’s job, is ridiculous,” she said.

After a half-hour outside the chancellor’s house, protesters walked back to the Barnes Center. It was 8:40 p.m. The forum was still being held in Hendricks. 

Organizers passed by the chapel and returned to the Barnes Center. About 100 protesters were waiting for them there. 

A week ago, the protesters formed a path for Syverud as he read their original demands for the first time. It was silent then. On Wednesday, those at the Barnes Center lined an entrance for the protesters, and they applauded. They blocked DPS officers and the media from entering the center.

“Let’s occupy,” an organizer shouted from a megaphone. They would stay another night.

— News Editor Casey Darnell contributed reporting to this article. 

Published on November 21, 2019 at 1:49 am

Contact Gabe: gkstern@syr.edu | @gabestern326