More than 50 student organizations will join together on Monday to protest issues of diversity and transparency at Syracuse University.

The Diversity and Transparency Rally will take place on the steps of Hendricks Chapel from 2 to 4:30 p.m. on Monday. The rally is being organized by THE General Body, which was formed in October by leaders of organizations such as the Campaign for an Advocacy Center, SU’s chapter of NAACP, Divest SU, Students of Sustainability and Pride Union.

The purpose of the THE General Body and the DAT Rally is to inform the community about the issues different groups on campus face and also to understand how some of these varying issues are similar in certain ways, said Danielle Reed, one of the organizers for the Diversity and Transparency Rally.

Many groups involved in the DAT Rally held protests earlier in the semester about campus issues such as the closing of the Advocacy Center, cuts to the Posse scholarship program and the university’s decision to not divest from fossil fuels. Among all the rallies and protests, about six or seven different lists of demands were given to the administration, Reed said.

“We could kind of understand why the administration wasn’t really paying our demands any mind, when they’re getting a list of demands from students every week,” said Reed, a junior African American studies major.

During the rally, the group will discuss a list of grievances that will then be sent to Chancellor Kent Syverud and the administration. For the first half of the rally, students will use poetry and music to share their personal experiences and their feelings about the university, Reed said. In the second half, starting at 3:30 p.m., students and faculty will speak. The list of strategic and specific demands will be discussed as well.

Some of the issues mentioned in the list of grievances criticize the sudden announcement to close the Advocacy Center last May and the transition to the new structure for sexual assault resources. The list mentions how the university has ignored the request to take steps toward divestment from fossil fuels, despite the strong support expressed by the Student Association and the University Senate. The list also criticized the administration for deciding to make cuts to the Posse program this past summer. The list added that no Posse scholar or city office was informed about the decision until months after the changes were established.

The rally will urge the administration to take action on the listed issues, said Ben Kuebrich, a graduate student in the composition and cultural rhetoric program.

Kuebrich, one of the organizers involved in the DAT Rally, said a common trend within the administration is to make a decision without considering the implications of it and then covering it up through workgroups. He said that he thinks the administration needs to consult students affected by these decisions long before such decisions are made.

“This is not the way responsible people run a university,” he said.

He added that the rally is asking the administration to take more action and saying that SU does not need more workgroups. Kuebrich said another purpose of the rally is to help people understand that the closing of the Advocacy Center, the cuts to Posse and the decision to not divest from fossil fuels are not isolated events. These decisions are part of a trend within the administration to move away from democracy and diversity, which affects all bodies in the university, he said.

Colton Jones, co-president of Students for Sustainability, also said THE General Body doesn’t think workgroups and committees are effective. Jones, a senior psychology major, added that Syverud does not seem involved in the issues since he has not shown up to any of the three listening meetings to address the closing of the Advocacy Center.

Jones said the rally will unite students to emphasize the need to listen to the student body’s concerns.

“We have a voice and this voice is important and this voice is what keeps this institution going,” he said. “So [the administration] needs to respect this voice and we don’t want another listening group, we don’t want another working group. We want [the administration] to actually sit and acknowledge the things that we are saying.”

Reed said if the administration ignores the list of grievances, she said she thinks students and faculty will continue to protest and rally until their demands are made.

“We would like to think that our chancellor and Syracuse University administration and the Syracuse University Board of Trustees cannot and would not ignore a document submitted by the entire student body,” Reed said.

Published on November 3, 2014 at 12:01 am

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