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During Syracuse University’s Student Association’s town hall Wednesday, students expressed their anger and frustration around the university’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility Plan released in mid-October. 

Students said they felt the plan lacked substance and contained a lot of “fluff.” William Treloar, speaker pro-tempore of SA, said while the plan has some good goals, there’s no active outline in the plan to make those goals happen. 

“I really want more fleshed out ideas instead of 17 pages of milestones,” Treloar said. “That is just not acceptable for a plan of this major.” 

Treloar expressed to the group that he and other members of SA were disappointed with the university for not publicizing the release of the plan. He said he knew very few people who knew about or read the plan, which is 54 pages in length. Adia Santos, an SU student who helped organize the #NotAgainSU protests, agreed with him and said she was not surprised with how the plan turned out. 

“(The plan) is very representative of the people that created it. The people that created it, a portion of them were asked to leave by very specific protest groups. So of course the plan represents the ideas of those that we fundamentally disagreed with in the first place,” Santos said. “This was a swing and a miss for me.” 

Joe Ritchie, director of government relations for SA, said the plan, which was born out of the #NotAgainSU protests, did not acknowledge the experience of protesters. He said the people who created the plan hardly cared to address the real problems the protests surrounded. He said the university needs to extend the public comment period, which will end on Monday, to allow for more students to express their input. 

Other students at the meeting said they were unaware of the plan and that they have not talked about it in their First-Year Seminar classes, which aimed to enhance discussions of race and identity. Many freshman students in the town hall said they felt the class was insufficient and lacked real care of diversity and inclusion. 

“It feels like (the class) was created by no one that was genuinely diverse and no one that knows how to talk about these topics,” one student said. “It is very scarce, very surface level, and it makes me so uncomfortable to be in that room to talk about topics like this.” 

Another student said they felt instructors and facilitators only called out people of color in the class, and they felt these students had to carry all of the discussions. A different student agreed and said she often felt like she was forced to expose parts of her life she wasn’t comfortable sharing.

Also during the town hall, SA discussed sexual violence and rape culture on campus, specifically surrounding the protests happening around campus. Many students expressed their concerns with Title IX, both at SU and in the federal government. 

“Absolutely, there should be more consequences for assaulters, but there also should be better resources for survivors,” Treloar said. “The ability to anonymously report is tantamount to that. That is the most important thing that there should be. There should never be a need to have to admit who you are and have to come forward for that.” 

In 2020, the U.S. reformed Title IX, which now provides less protection for survivors and allows alleged assaulters to to face their accuser. 

Some students said they wished they were made aware of the Title IX process, adding that it can be scary to be unaware of what happens when somebody is a survivor of sexual misconduct. They also said they wish the school enforced more sexual violence and misconduct prevention classes. 

“I know that a lot of kids don’t necessarily know what to do if they were, God forbid, sexually assaulted on campus. They also don’t necessarily know how they will be held accountable,” a student at the town hall said. “There isn’t enough consequences being put out there to scare people out of it.” 

Another student said they wished students accused of sexual misconduct were removed from campus. Carla Guariglia, a leader of Stand With Survivors SU, mentioned this is one of SWSSU’s demands, which was released earlier this month. 

David Bruen, president of SA, said he and other students will be attending a conference in Washington, D.C., in the spring with other students from Atlantic Coast Conference schools to meet with politicians and lobbyists. Bruen said he wants to push for Title IX reform on this topic, specifically about the lack of anonymity in the process for survivors. 

Students at the meeting also discussed their concerns about meal plans on campus, specifically about the cost. 

Many students expressed that they wished meal swipes could be used at other locations across campus, such as Schine Student Center and markets like West Campus Express. SU expanded meal swipes to these locations for the 2020-21 school year due to COVID-19 but removed the ability this year. Students said they just don’t have enough options on campus. 

“Last year, it was a lot easier for a lot of students … now, we have people taking out their calculators like ‘Okay, so I got 30 meals left for the semester,’ and they’re rationing like we’re not a billion-dollar institution,” said Malique Lewis, the vice president of diversity and inclusion for SA.

Published on November 11, 2021 at 1:22 am

Contact Karoline: kaleonar@syr.edu