On Campus

Syverud denounces shootings in Pittsburgh, Kentucky

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Chancellor Kent Syverud sent an email Monday night condemning anti-Semitism and racism in the wake of the shootings of Jewish congregants and African-Americans in Kentucky.

Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud condemned violence against Jews and African-Americans Monday night in the wake of hate crimes in Pittsburgh and Kentucky.

In a campus-wide email sent Monday, Syverud said he was concerned and dismayed by Saturday’s mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue, where 11 people were killed during a religious service. The chancellor said he felt similar despair when he learned about a shooting in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, where two African-Americans were killed in a grocery store in what is being investigated as a hate crime.

“As a university, we have and will continue to reject acts of racist and anti-Semitic hatred and violence,” Syverud said in the email.

Syverud said in 1988 and now, SU stands against hatred and terror and rejects those who use violence to push extremism. This week is Remembrance Week, during which SU commemorates the 35 students who died in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988 while studying abroad through the university.

The chancellor, in his email, said the university has previously condemned racist and anti-Semitic acts before.



In April 2018, SU permanently expelled its chapter of the Theta Tau engineering fraternity after videos surfaced showing people in the Greek organization’s house using language Syverud at the time called, “extremely racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist and hostile to people with disabilities.”

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