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Graduates of Syracuse University’s School of Architecture and sociology department at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs have issued statements alleging racism within their respective schools.  

Alumni of the School of Architecture’s Class of 2020 published a statement entitled “Black Designers Matter,” that is addressed to Dean Michael Speaks and the school’s administration. The letter, signed by “The SU SOA Class of 2020,” expresses dissatisfaction with the school’s “empty” response to recent protests against racial injustice across the country.

Three alumni of SU’s sociology graduate program also released a letter on social media Thursday criticizing faculty members for not addressing students’ concerns about racism within the department. 

The statements follow nationwide protests against racism and police brutality following the alleged murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed Floyd, a Black man, after kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

About 46 students in the school’s Class of 2020 signed the statement addressed to the School of Architecture, said Hannah Michaelson, one of the organizers behind the letter. The students’ names were not published to ensure their privacy, she said.

“A lot of universities have been making statements saying that they support Black Lives Matter and condemn racism,” said Sukhmann Aneja, another organizer. “While these messages might be well-intentioned, they are blanket statements that don’t actually address or resolve the issues within their own establishment.” 

The letter urges the School of Architecture to increase student and faculty diversity and incorporate courses that celebrate Black designers. Aneja said she did not have a Black professor for any architecture classes in her 10 semesters at SU. 

Michaelson was deeply disappointed by the university’s response to recent nationwide protests, as well as the protests that occurred on campus in the 2019-20 academic year, she said. #NotAgainSU, a movement led by Black students, has protested the university’s response to a slew of racist, anti-Semitic, xenophobic and homphobic incidents that have on or near campus since November. 

“In the fall, the conversations in Slocum Hall did not seem as though they would effectively evolve the culture of our design curriculum,” Michaelson said. 

Aneja and Michaelson sent an email to their entire graduating class detailing plans to send a letter to Speaks. They were pleased with the number of responses they received, they said. 

Speaks did not respond to a request for comment. 

Michaelson hopes that the School of Architecture’s administration will not only listen to the Class of 2020’s message but also take steps to become anti-racist. 

“Addressing these issues is important because, unfortunately, racism is its own pandemic that infiltrates our education and our livelihood,” Michaelson said. “In order to properly dismantle racism, we need to address all of the areas in which it affects our lives.”

Dorothy Kou, Marwa Moaz and Jordan Dorsey are the authors of the letter to Maxwell’s sociology department. Multiple faculty members ignored student concerns about systemic racism within the department during their time at SU, they said. 

“Studying racism does not absolve you from perpetuating racism,” the letter states.

Dorsey, who graduated SU in 2017, said they and the other authors decided to write the letter after reading a public statement a group of faculty members in the sociology department released last week. Faculty members in the statement said they recognized institutional racism at SU and expressed solidarity with students of color.

Kou, Moaz and Dorsey denounced the faculty statement in their letter and said the authors failed to take responsibility for racism toward graduate students of color. 

Faculty should not have released a public statement without taking actions to address racism within the program, Dorsey said. Graduate students have proposed changes in the past, which faculty have ignored, they said 

“If you have this collection of letters over the years and you have these graduate student voices, while they may not represent the entire graduate student body, I would think it would warrant the faculty to pay attention, reflect, do an internal review, just to see what’s happening,” they said. 

Prema Kurien, SU sociology department chair, sent a statement Saturday to the department’s faculty in response to the letter. The document lists actions the department has taken to address student concerns about diversity since she took over as chair in 2017. 

Sociology Chair Response to Letter From Former Graduate Students by The Daily Orange on Scribd

Kurien said in the statement that she invited graduate students to share their concerns with her before she assumed the role of department chair in April 2017. Later that month, she received a letter addressed to all faculty with a list of suggestions to improve the program.

“Complaints about racialization, marginalization, and exclusion (from both students of color and white students) came up many times throughout the year,” Kurien said. “Based on these conversations and the earlier letter, we revamped the graduate program in fundamental ways. This work continued in the subsequent year.” 

The director of graduate studies continues to hold regular meetings with graduate students, Kurien said. 

Published on June 21, 2020 at 6:51 pm

Contact Sarah: [email protected] | @sarahalessan