As members of THE General Body, a coalition of students and student organizations at Syracuse University, we’ve found that The Daily Orange’s editorial regarding Monday’s Diversity and Transparency Rally is inaccurate and inflammatory.

The piece cites this group as “unruly,” referencing a five-minute video of interaction with administrators blocking the entrance to Crouse-Hinds Hall. It fails to acknowledge the larger context of a peaceful demonstration, which persisted for hours.

The word “unruly” connotes the breaking of university rules. Crouse-Hinds is open to students, faculty and staff until 10 p.m. The administration broke its policies by attempting to bar access to a building that is established to be open to all SU students and faculty. This provoked a response from the group — captured in a short video, but certainly not one that encapsulated the movement.

While characterizing us as loud, the Editorial Board failed to mention that roughly 100 people who filed into Crouse-Hinds dropped to a collective quiet in order not to disturb classes and meetings; the body also accommodated requests to move in accordance with fire safety guidelines. The Editorial Board has minimized these pertinent facts to boost its characterization of the group as a mob.

The group did not behave as a “mob,” nor one “incapable of compromise.” THE General Body declined the administration’s offer to move to Schine. We did, however, accept an offer to sit with administration to discuss grievances; we sent 17 representatives to continue working out compromises and solutions.

We’ve attended listening meetings, participated in workgroups and spoken at forums with the administration. We’ve been committed to compromise while the administration has continued to override student and faculty government decisions with closed-door meetings. As Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote from Birmingham Jail in 1963, it is now necessary to “dramatize the issue so that it can no longer be ignored.”

We invite students to learn about the issues we are working on via our website, thegeneralbody.org, and to speak with us as we sit in Crouse-Hinds Hall until Chancellor Kent Syverud commits to a plan of action.

On behalf of THE General Body at SU,

Laura Cohen ‘15, Gabriela Riccardi ‘15, Emma Edwards ‘15, Donasia Sykes ‘15, Yuqing Shi ‘16, Haley Schluter ‘15, Sarah Schuster ‘15, Warren Gray ‘16, Soleil Young ‘17, Devin Nonnenman ‘18, Kadisha Phillips ‘15, Gerald Brown ‘18, Teresa Sabga ‘15, Jeshurun Joseph ‘15, Ambra Tieszen ‘15, Colton Jones ‘15, Kim E. Powell ‘15, Molly Mendenhall ‘15, Farrell Greenwald Brenner ‘17, Henry Nelson ‘18, Becca Shaw Glaser ‘15, Amanda Winograd ‘15, McKenzie Paterson ‘15, Rahimon Nasa ‘15, Giovani Carranza ‘17, Vida Ebron ‘17,  Ben Kuebrich, Composition and Cultural Rhetoric PhD, Chen Chen ‘15, Madelín Garcia ‘16, Leo Marino ‘18, Elen Marie Pease ‘17, Harriet Brown, Madalyn Forte ‘16, Ryan Bolton ‘18, Michael Goldman ‘16, Miles Marcotte ‘17 Claudia Chen ‘16, Michael Kelly ‘14 Jonathan Schmidt ’18, Ibet Inyang ’15, Amya Tulipe Hosenn ’17, Jason Ashley ‘16, Alex Lotozynski ’18, Ray Garzia, Math Grad Student, Danielle Reed ‘16, Olivia Johnson ‘16, Angelina Vargas ‘17

Published on November 5, 2014 at 12:01 am