Interim SUNY-ESF President David Amberg and his executive team hosted a forum Thursday to discuss students’ concerns about safety in response to a spate of hate crimes at Syracuse University.

Around 100 students, faculty and administrators gathered in the Gateway Center to continue the discussion about potential reforms from a forum held on Tuesday. At least 16 hate crimes and bias-related incidents have been reported to SU’s Department of Public Safety since Nov. 7

The president and the executive cabinet of the college have been working on reforms based around their takeaways from Tuesday’s forum. One concern from the students was that they don’t feel safe. In response, ESF has increased its University Police Department presence, combined safety escort efforts with SU and stationed officers at the Barnes Center at The Arch intersection for mornings and afternoons.

Amberg said another concern was there will be “no longevity for understanding bias and discrimination.” He said students felt these bias incidents should be prioritized consistently in the long term. ESF plans to implement mandatory anti-bias training and the modules have been developed for it. Faculty will get the training first, he said. 

Mandatory bias training was one of the student demands created by More Support ESF, a student-led group to address bias incidents on campus. Other initiatives to address this concern include a Title XI app, the addition of a student diversity initiatives staff leader and a Title XI/Affirmative action coordinator — all of which were on the list of demands.

Another demand from More Support ESF was the creation of a web page that lists student resources. In response, the university added a Campus Updates button to the ESF homepage with links to resources, campus events and updates from the president and UPD.     

Amberg introduced the creation of a joint presidential task force filled with faculty and students that will work with the Inclusion, Diversity and Equity committee to implement initiatives that increase diversity and address the diversity and safety concerns of students. The discussion was then opened up to students to suggest how the university can better support them. 

Donnie Monk, junior and member of More Support ESF, said the university should engage with the students more and put in more time into communication about the incidents with them. She also said people should stop addressing the series of incidents as an SU issue. 

“ This is an identity issue. This is something that is going to affect me whether I go to ESF or SU. When I walk out of this room, I am still a black woman and I will be targeted because of that,” she said.

Arik Palileo, a SUNY-ESF student, said the mandatory bias training should be switched to a mandated student-made class to everyone across campus. The class should not only explain how to interact with someone of a different culture but should also analyze why certain words are hurtful, he said. This will help students understand how this topic relates to their course of study, he said. 

“How the U.S. makes deals across the world about racism and classism. How they really don’t think that that influences the work they do,” he said. “It is critically important that people understand the history and the relationships between all of these because they cannot be separated.”

Students and faculty discussed the communication of hate crimes to the students. One student said that the DPS and ESF emails were confusing and did not give specific enough details about the nature of the crime. A couple of students said they find out these specifics through social media when it should have been through the university.

Chief Law Enforcement Officer Thomas Leroy said there are restrictions on what the police are allowed to tell the students. They said they need to be cautious that the investigators are not jumping to conclusions, he said. 

Melanie Berger, a graduate student, said she understands the importance of confidentiality. However, the university should give at least a little information so that students do not hear it second hand because that causes rumors. She suggested more rapid communication with the students. 

“We are such a close community that you hear things from people before the official statement,” she said.

Amberg said in a final statement that he encourages students to come to the executive team with more concerns and suggestions in order to maintain the collaboration between them and students. “I really need your help with this,” he said.

Emily Li, a member of the SUNY ESF Undergraduate Student Association said after the meeting that a lot more was said at the student-only forum earlier that day. She said she preferred a longer forum because many students had more suggestions.

Published on November 22, 2019 at 12:44 am

Contact Abby: akweiss@syr.edu | @abbyweiss_21