From racial slurs hurled at Black female students by white fraternity members to the n-word being written on a bathroom wall and a swastika on a snowbank, it’s clear. Syracuse University has a race problem.
The school, which has a student body of 22,850, is known as one of the nation’s top colleges for basketball; however, the school is now an epicenter for racism with a string of bias incidents this month. Fear is running high and administrators are looking for answers to calm tensions and protests from students who say they’re too scared to come to class.
One notable incident occurred last weekend involving a Black female student who said she was harassed by white fraternity members from Alpha Chi Rho who hurled the n-word at her. In response, the school suspended the fraternity and and all Greek life activity on campus for the remainder of the semester.
“While only one fraternity may have been involved in this particular incident, given recent history, all fraternities must come together with the University community to reflect upon how to prevent recurrence of such seriously troubling behavior,” Chancellor Kent Syverud said in a statement. “The individuals involved have been identified and will be held appropriately accountable to the Code of Student Conduct and to the full extent of the law.”
However, it’s the recent manifesto that was “air dropped” that highlighted racist and anti-immigrant language that has police and the FBI involved. The handling of the situation even prompted criticism from Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“The hateful activities at Syracuse University are most disturbing, not only to the Syracuse University community, but to the greater community of New York,” Cuomo said. “They have not been handled in a manner that reflects this state’s aggressive opposition to such odious, reckless, reprehensible behavior.”
Students have been staging a sit-in at the school’s Barnes Center since Nov. 13 demanding the school handle the racial incidents better. Black students have started the #NotAgainSU movement on campus with several demands to improve things from developing a building for multicultural offices to allocating $1 million to develop curriculum to educate students on diversity issues.
Black students make up only 8% of students at Syracuse.
“I don’t think they take us seriously,” student Ashley Hudson said in a recent interview with Syracuse’s student newspaper. “Both as students and as people on this campus.”
Graduate Jason Gruber said in one published interview that solving racial issues at Syracuse goes beyond suspending one fraternity.
“It seemed like everyone was taking these incidents as if they were isolated,” he said. “But it’s clear there’s a growing problem on campus.”
On Wednesday night, Syracuse officials held a community forum to address student concerns when it comes to the recent incidents. This week officials released an 11-page response to students concerns including making revisions to the student code of conduct that will be implemented next school year.
