Black student-led movement #NotAgainSU met with members of Syracuse University’s Board of Trustees on Wednesday night to discuss the movement’s demands and solutions.

The Board of Trustees Special Committee on University Climate, Diversity and Inclusion is meeting with students, faculty and staff this week, SU announced Tuesday. The committee is reviewing SU’s diversity and inclusion policies following a series of hate crimes and bias-related incidents.

The meeting was one of about 18 meetings the trustees will hold this week with over 20 different groups of students, said Jeffrey Scruggs, co-chair of the special committee, after the meeting.

At least 26 racist, anti-Semitic and bias-related incidents have occurred at or near SU since Nov. 7. #NotAgainSU presented Chancellor Kent Syverud with 19 demands in response to the incidents. Syverud signed 16 as written and revised the remaining three, including a demand for a biannual forum between students and the board.

Several board members declined to comment on the specific issues or suggestions that were discussed in the meeting. Several members of #NotAgainSU present at the meeting also declined to comment.

“We wanted to hear their sense of how things were going and to get their advice on what the board and university could do to deal with the problem,” said Larry Kramer, another trustee who attended the meeting.

Many of the conversations were about individual student frustrations and concerns, Kramer said. The trustees decided to have a closed conversation to allow for a more genuine conversation, he said.

Members of the board listened to students and the reasoning behind many of their demands and requests, Scruggs said.

“We promised people these would be frank and honest conversations and nothing they said would be released,” Kramer said. “We did this deliberately and we asked them to treat us the same way.”

An independent panel working jointly with the special committee will come to campus next week to meet with students, faculty and members of SU administration to gauge the campus climate and how it can be improved, he said.

The trustees will return in April for a follow-up conversation. The board plans to use all the information it gathers to place itself in a better position to react more quickly when things happen on campus, Kramer said.

“We are trying to make sure that this is a welcoming place to all students and visitors,” Scruggs said. “We realize that we have some work to do.”

Published on February 12, 2020 at 11:49 pm

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