Dear Editor,

We are Syracuse University graduates of considerable vintage who have been watching with concern the anti-Black and anti-Semitic behavior that has marred the SU campus over recent weeks. We were also critical — as apparently were most of the students and perhaps faculty as well — at the less than urgent pace with which the administration responded to these outrages. Having witnessed other educational institutions during periods of disorder, we can testify that an administration that has not prepared for the worst from a few miscreants will risk losing the support of the majority of students —   those of color, of minority religions and others who are horrified at these events.

However, as SU graduates who since leaving the hill have lived in every corner of the United States, we disagree with those who hold the administration responsible for the recent outrages. While we think that the chancellor could and should have taken corrective action more swiftly, neither he nor the administration, in general, is to blame.

Ours is a country that has been swept into an un-American vortex in which leaders — from the president on down — have turned a blind eye to, even encouraged, the violation of our principles like that which has taken place at SU over the past few weeks.

We do not blame those students who have justly and forcefully demanded that the recent outrages on campus be roundly condemned. The perpetrators of these vile acts and those who sympathize with them should be outed and held responsible.

What we would urge the greatest number of you to do is to turn your justified anger toward those engaged at the higher levels of our society who have abetted this kind of behavior with their incendiary language and their inexcusable inattention.

 

Sincerely,

Jerold Goldberg; Brattleboro, VT; BFA Visual Arts, 1960

Stuart R. Grossman; Syracuse, NY;  BA, 1960

Michael Hirsch; Los Angeles, CA; BA Business Administration, 1960

Joan Siegel Hirsch; Los Angeles, CA; BA Education, 1961

Jack Kligerman; Boseman, MT; BA Arts and Science, 1960, MA 1962

Barbara Kane Kligerman; Boseman, MT; BS Speech and Hearing, 1961, MS 1962

Stan Lorch; New York, NY; BA Architecture, 1961

Helen Minkoff Bates; New York, NY; BA Psychology, 1960

Paul Newman; Syracuse, NY; BS Economics, 1960, Law 1964

Stuart Stillman; Scottsdale, AZ; BA Business Administration, 1960

Sidney Tarrow; Ithaca NY; BA American Studies, 1960

 

 

Published on December 3, 2019 at 9:04 pm