UPDATED: Feb. 14, 2019 at 12:31 p.m.

For many Syracuse University community members, the campus represents a second home. Students and staff walk by the same buildings, with the same people on the same routes to class, and many have their favorite spots to study and eat. Occasionally, a stranger’s action interrupts the everyday routine — and the benefits can be striking.

Positive effects of kindness impact the people involved as well as bystanders who witnessed the act. Kindness acts improve mood, lower blood pressure, make someone more likely to “pay it forward,” reduce stress and increase energy, according to the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation.

“Kindness is more than this fluffy idea of buying coffee or helping someone out,” said Brooke Jones, vice president of the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation. “It’s actually a life-changer. When you receive, commit or witness an act of kindness, and when you care about someone, that’s more valuable than any dollar amount you can place on kindness.”

Jones said an act of kindness doesn’t necessarily entail giving money. A “hello” to a stranger or a smile at the store qualify, too. Calling a friend or family member with whom you haven’t spoken with in a while also counts. The idea is for people to “feel seen, heard and cared,” Jones said, regardless if the act is self-care — blocking out more time for sleep or exercise— or a word of encouragement toward someone else.

On Wednesday morning, a couple of SU residence halls encouraged residents to perform an act of kindness before heading out to class. In Booth Hall, Resident Director Kirby Gibson sat in the lobby, with markers and paper hearts laid out on a table so people could write inspirational messages to be posted around the hall later this week.

“People need to be able to hear kind things. The smallest act can go a long way for someone,” Gibson said. “We really thought about ways in which our community itself can help continue to pour kindness out to the rest of the world.”

Kirby Gibson, the residence director of Booth, Kimmel and Marion Halls, helped organize for residents to write random acts of kindness to post throughout the dorms. Haley Robertson | Feature Editor

With Valentine’s Day on Thursday and Random Acts of Kindness Day on Sunday, The Daily Orange asked students, professors and faculty for some of the most memorable acts of kindness they’ve initiated, received or witnessed.

Aileen Gallagher, associate professor of magazine journalism

Gallagher’s father died on Oct. 5, 2014, when she was on sabbatical. She spent the last month of his life with him away from Syracuse. While gone, she shared the bad news with friends and coworkers. When she returned home, the community she’d built in Syracuse since moving here in 2010 acknowledged her pain. A stack of mail was waiting for her at home.

“Each note was a hand reaching into the darkness,” Gallagher said in an email. “People are always so afraid that they’re going to say the wrong thing, but the only wrong thing is silence. Four years later, I have written more condolence letters than I would like. And in every note I hope that the recipient is buoyed, as I was, if only for a moment.”

Donald Dutkowsky, professor of economics

A few years ago, Dutkowsky was teaching ECON 203 in a large lecture hall. A woman student who sat in the front row told him that she had to go home to Chicago for a “family issue.” Dutkowsky offered to help, but her visits became more frequent. She was missing longer stretches of class. Then, with the student’s permission, her mother called to say “the family issue” was the student herself, who was dealing with homesickness.

During one class, Dutkowsky said he pulled the student aside and encouraged her to “do whatever she needed to do to go forward with her life, with support and without judgment.”

Years later, she wrote him an email explaining she enrolled at a college near home and had made Dean’s list several times — as an economics major.

“I live for those moments — to help someone through a rough patch and see them make it afterward,” Dutkowsky said.

Anna Henderson | Digital Design Editor

Kerri Howell, director of communications and media relations for the Whitman School of Management; adjunct faculty member of public relations

Howell said Burak Kazaz, the Steven Becker Professor of Supply Chain Management, surprises her with quick trips to Café Kubal or little gifts. The random acts mean a lot to her.

For nearly 15 years, Howell has been an adjunct professor in Newhouse. In fall 2012, a student posted about her on a Facebook page set up for people to post compliments about one another. Of Howell, the student wrote: “One of the best professors I’ve had at Syracuse in my three years. You made PRL 215 a class I genuinely enjoyed attended.”

Kent Syverud, chancellor of SU

Earlier this semester, one of Syverud’s teaching assistants for his negotiation course in Whitman[1] couldn’t attend class because of a last-minute child care emergency. Syverud said colleagues covered for him cheerfully, and without hesitation, while expressing full support and understanding.

“This kindness helped all of us enormously,” Syverud said in an email.

Charisse L’Pree, assistant professor of communications

When L’Pree saw a student putting coins in a restroom tampon machine, she noticed that they were struggling. To help, L’Pree offered some supplies from her own stash.

“Given our discussions regarding women’s health and the pink tax, it was an important moment for me,” L’Pree said. “On that note, I might put a sign on my door, ‘Ask me for pads and tampons.’”

George Saunders, New York Times bestselling author, professor of English

In 1981, Saunders graduated with a degree in geophysics from Colorado School of Mines. He arrived at Syracuse in 1986 with $300, having taken no English classes. He had been admitted to the graduate Creative Writing Program, though, an act on which he often reflects.

“I only had an engineering degree and had more or less let that degree expire and had been bumming around the country,” Saunders recalled, “working in a slaughterhouse at one point, as a roofer, and as a doorman in Beverly Hills — so it was a risk, and a kindness, to let me come to SU.”

— Feature Editor Haley Robertson contributed reporting to this article.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, Aileen Gallagher’s title was misstated. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on February 13, 2019 at 9:32 pm

Contact Matthew: [email protected] | @MatthewGut21