A SURGE IN RACIST AND ANTI-SEMITIC INCIDENTS AT SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY

Students at Syracuse University protest out of a frustration fueled by a rise in incidents and the
administration’s response

Crouse College at Syracuse University

By Alice O’Neal-Freeman

Jan. 9, 2020

SILVER SPRING, Md. -- Twelve discoveries of racist graffiti, a swastika drawn in the snow,
two instances of racist verbal attacks, multiple hateful emails, and a white supremacist manifesto
have shaken Syracuse University since last November.

These events have pushed students to protest and demand change.

Many students feel that an unsafe climate has been created at the university, in part because of
the administration’s failure to be transparent in their efforts to put an end to the incidents.

Specifically, students are looking to Chancellor Kent Syverud, who they threatened with a
petition for his resignation if he did not accept their demands.
The first hateful incident, reported on Nov. 7, was racist graffiti in a student dormitory.

Syverud responded to this incident by issuing a statement five days after it was first reported,
where he expressed his concern about the graffiti.

He went on to say that “the members of the leadership team should have communicated more
swiftly and broadly,” addressing the students’ frustrations with the lack of transparency within
the administration surrounding the incident.

The next day, students staged a sit-in at the Arch in The Barnes Center.

The sit-in, originally meant to last about two days, was extended to a week as incident after
incident continued to rock Syracuse University.

Prior to and during the protest, students of color felt threatened and endangered on campus.

Montinique McEachern, a doctoral student at Syracuse University took part in the sit-in. She
explained that during the outbreak of incidents and protests, the “campus was empty. Most
students were afraid to go to class after the white supremacist manifesto went out… FBI SUVs
were riding through our campus and armed FBI agents walked the halls of academic buildings…
The only sense of safety on campus was the protest, in the Barnes center. We protected each
other in the space. Community members brought us food, clothes, and water. The White students
in the protest took shifts protecting the doors and patrolling the building to keep us students of
color safe.”

According to Emma Folts, News Editor of the Daily Orange, a student-run newspaper at
Syracuse University, the recent events are “part of a pattern of university administration failing
to address such incidents.”

Syracuse University has a history of hateful occurrences, and a hostile atmosphere towards
people of color, Jews, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

McEachern talks about how in 2014, she and other students “occupied the administration
building for 18 days… demanding changes,” in a protest similar to the recent one.

The administration made no changes in response to that protest.

In the recent protest the students wrote a list of 18 demands, including faculty and staff diversity
training, an anti-racism curriculum, and strengthening the school’s anti-harassment policy.

Folts states that “Chancellor Kent Syverud agreed to the majority of demands as written, and the
university has created a website to track the progress of the demands’ implementation.”

McEachern, however, is unsatisfied with Syverud’s response to the protests, and asserts that
“Kent Syverud is an incompetent and ineffective President and Chancellor,” and he has “failed
students with marginalized identities for the past 6 years and in doing so has allowed white
supremacists and hatred to have a home on campus.”

Syverud was unavailable for comment.

According to the Syracuse University Board of Trustees, an Independent Advisory Panel has
been formed which will “assess and provide recommendations regarding programs, policies and
initiatives designed to foster and strengthen diversity and inclusion at Syracuse.”

The recommendations will be public and complete by the end of June 2020.
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Vera, Amir, and Mirna Alsharif. “Syracuse University Students Protest after Series of Racist

Incidents Reported on Campus.” ​CNN​, Cable News Network, 16 Nov. 2019,

www.cnn.com/2019/11/14/us/racist-graffiti-syracuse-university/index.html.

Weaver, Teri. “A Timeline of Racist Incidents at Syracuse University.” ​Syracuse University

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