#NotAgainSU is pushing to continue negotiations with Syracuse University officials after talks ended last week with several of the movement’s demands unresolved.

The movement, led by Black students, has occupied Crouse-Hinds Hall since Feb. 17 to continue its protest of the university’s response to at least 31 racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic incidents that have occurred at or near SU since November.

Protesters met with university officials four times last week to negotiate the movement’s revised demands. After Friday’s negotiation session ended without a resolution, organizers said they’d be available to meet again Monday. An SU official said talks would resume “at a later date.”

SU officials walked back that statement Saturday when Interim Vice Chancellor and Provost John Liu announced the university would end negotiations with student protesters. SU will continue to provide other means for discussion with students, Liu said in an SU News release.

#NotAgainSU will continue its occupation of Crouse-Hinds into a fourth week despite the administration ending negotiations, organizers said. SU officials need to resume negotiations with protesters for progress to occur, they said.

“The first and easiest step is to see out negotiations until they are complete,” a protester said. “Students here have worked really hard to prepare for the negotiations, but the administration has not.”

#NotAgainSU has said it is a nameless, faceless movement. Organizers have asked not to be identified by name.

During last week’s negotiations, university officials and #NotAgainSU reached agreements on a handful of issues. SU officials committed to doubling available printing funds for students, reviewing the campus policy towards peaceful protesters and devoting $5 million to scholarships and programs.

SU officials also denied a number of #NotAgainSU’s key demands, including the disarming of Department of Public Safety officers, a public statement acknowledging SU’s complicity in perpetuating white supremacy and the resignation or removal of four SU officials, including Chancellor Kent Syverud.

“Negotiations have been a tedious and frustrating process for multiple reasons,” the organizer said. “The administration has shown that they have come fully unprepared to negotiations, starting with not having people in the room that need to be there to conduct negotiations.”

Negotiations between SU and #NotAgainSU cannot move forward until SU issues a statement about its treatment of student protesters, an organizer said.

DPS officers sealed off Crouse-Hinds on Feb. 18 and 19, preventing food, medicine and other supplies from entering the building. The building reopened Feb. 20.

SU provided lunch and dinner to organizers on Feb. 18 and breakfast on Feb. 19. University officials said the students were allowed to leave the building at any time and were encouraged to do so.

“We can’t go anywhere if they can’t acknowledge what happened,” another organizer said. “To brush aside everything that has happened here will only perpetuate more incidents, and not attack the root of what has happened at this institution and its relationship to oppressive systems, especially white supremacy.”

During Friday’s negotiations, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Keith Alford said the university would need until at least the end of the semester to craft such a statement.

After a tense exchange between organizers and SU officials on Friday, administrators said the university would no longer be open to issuing a statement. Liu confirmed this in his statement Saturday.

Organizers have continued to push for this demand, saying it is non-negotiable. The university should publish the statement by next Wednesday, they said in Friday’s negotiations.

#NotAgainSU organizers have also expressed frustration that Syverud has not appeared at the negotiations in person.

Syverud, who has been coordinating SU’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, called into the negotiations March 2 and sent a written statement on Friday, which an SU official read aloud. In his statement, Syverud took full accountability for the university’s response to the protest but declined to provide the names of administrators who advised his decision-making.

#NotAgainSU has called for Syverud to issue a public apology. Syverud said in response that he has already apologized for the protesters’ treatment both in person and at a University Senate meeting.

“All of these apologies are sincere,” Syverud said in the statement. “Now is the time to move forward and continue the extensive work required to meet the commitments you have so admirably attained.”

Syverud’s prior apologies were inadequate, organizers said.

During Monday’s negotiations, Syverud also restated his belief that SU officials should not resign.

Organizers have also questioned why DPS Chief Bobby Maldonado and other campus police officials have not attended any of the negotiations. DPS officials would be more qualified to negotiate #NotAgainSU’s demands concerning the department’s policies and protocols, an organizer said.

“We asked for things about DPS understanding the protocol and disarmament,” the organizer said. “We wanted to have a nuanced conversation about it, and the answer was always just no.”

Maldonado wanted to be at negotiations, but SU decided he wouldn’t attend given #NotAgainSU’s calls for his resignation, Gabe Nugent, deputy general counsel for SU, said during Friday’s negotiations. University officials said they will look into inviting Maldonado to any future negotiations.

Nugent also said he was not well-versed enough on the department’s policies to comment on potentially disarming officers. Future negotiations should incorporate university officials with decision-making power, an organizer said.

“We shouldn’t as students be more prepared than they are,” the organizer said. “They have actual six-figure salaries and we are paying them to do this job while we are here as students.”

While #NotAgainSU has pushed for continued discussions with the university officials, no plans are currently in place for further negotiations.

While SU officials may have agreed to some of the organizers’ demands, the university needs to commit to institutional change, an organizer said. That begins with resuming talks with protesters, another organizer said.

“We are here for institutional changes, and until those institutional changes take place, we are going to have to continue to be activists and continue to protest things until they are made right,” they said.

Published on March 9, 2020 at 12:18 am

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