It has been 11 days since THE General Body left Crouse-Hinds Hall, ending the first part of its movement just days before Thanksgiving Break. The group is now looking to continue the work it began and further negotiations on issues it feels are vital to the future of Syracuse University in its second phase.

THE General Body, a coalition of student organizations at SU, staged a sit-in in Crouse-Hinds Hall for more than two weeks, starting on Nov. 3, following the Diversity and Transparency Rally, and ending on Nov. 20.

The group had said that members would likely be staying in Crouse-Hinds over Thanksgiving Break, but ultimately decided that it was not the best move going forward.

“Having anyone stay through Thanksgiving Break was going to be a really big commitment and we’d already stayed there for 18 days,” said Ben Kuebrich, a Ph.D. candidate in composition and cultural rhetoric and member of THE General Body. “So it was going to be a big commitment and we had to decide what would be the best plan of action to address these needs and just deciding that it wasn’t going to be the way to do it.”

Colton Jones, a senior psychology major and one of the organizers of the sit-in, said the group got the most out of the sit-in and added that, “our time at Crouse-Hinds ended when it was supposed to.”

Moving forward, the group is looking to continue its work that started with the sit-in. THE General Body’s list of grievances and demands remains at 45 pages, but it hopes to continue building its presence on the SU campus and around the country.

Jones said the group wants to give the administration some time to “hopefully see the things through that they promised,” but added that the group wants to hold them accountable for those things.

Kuebrich said THE General Body hopes to continue building a stronger coalition of student organizations.

“What’s next is to work with the coalitions that are being built and we started a coalition of various student leaders and student groups and now we’re really expanding,” Kuebrich said. “I think the next step is to figure out: ‘How do we work with this much larger coalition?’” he said, saying that members of the SU community including faculty and alumni have continued to support and join THE General Body.

Before the sit-in ended, some SU faculty members showed support for the group, even holding a rally at the Wall of Remembrance on Nov. 17.

“It kind of moves from faculty expressing support for THE General Body to faculty being part of THE General Body,” Kuebrich said.

Jonathan Schmidt, a freshman political science major and member of THE General Body, said the group is going to continue to support national causes and is looking to organize a national movement and form an infrastructure to communicate across different schools.

He said THE General Body has supported protesters on the campus of the University of California-Berkley, where a series of rallies and building occupations have taken place over the past few weeks in response to tuition hikes.

“We want a unified front pushing back against the corporatization of higher education,” Schmidt said. “It’s really all the same fight.”

The group will be holding a meeting this week to debrief on the sit-in and make plans on how the group is logistically going to move forward, Schmidt said.

“The movement is growing and I think if next semester if the administration doesn’t provide what it has promised then I’ll think THE General Body will come back stronger than it was these past few weeks,” Jones said.

Schmidt said there currently aren’t any rallies planned, but said the group will continue to figure out “how to keep our presence known and continue to raise awareness of the issues.”

The group has not ruled out staging another sit-in, Schmidt added, though members don’t have plans to hold one in the near future.

Jones said the group will likely hold weekly or biweekly meetings and continue to have teach-ins to “keep educating ourselves and one another.”

“We’re only continuing to grow and people are starting to hear our message and people are starting to stand with us,” Jones said.

Said Kuebrich: “We’re not going to stop until we have some action on these student needs… We had a slogan coming out of there (Crouse-Hinds) like ‘Coming Back Stronger’ and I think that that’s what all of us are working toward.”

Published on December 1, 2014 at 12:01 am

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