On Saturday, an assault was reported on Ackerman Avenue. Syracuse University’s Department of Public Safety sent two campus-wide emails shortly after that report, regarding the assault, but ultimately failed to release all necessary details about the incident and how it was racially-charged.

This is information that the student body has a right to know, and not sharing is a huge disservice to the SU community, as a whole.

In one of its first emails, DPS gave a bare-bones description of the event, only including the time and date of the assault, a description of a single woman attacker and the department’s contact information. A recent social media post, though, written by unnamed students, describes the assault differently.

The post described an eyewitness account of three students of color being approached by a group of four white people Saturday at a house along Ackerman Avenue. One of those people allegedly said, “What’s up n**ger,” according to the students’ statement. The attackers first punched the victims and then struck them with a handgun, before fleeing in a car, per the students’ statement. This statement has been shared by many SU student organizations.

DPS’ first priority should be to protect all SU students, and an integral part of that charge is to keep the student body as informed as possible.

DPS’ choice to not include how this was a racially-charged event is extremely concerning. DPS needs to remedy the situation by sharing all available details related to the assault. It’s essential to student safety, here.

Lauren Spiezia is a freshman Newspaper & Online Journalism major. Her column appears biweekly. She can be reached at [email protected].