Editor’s note: This article contains details about the usage of racial slurs.

Students have been raising their voices since Monday. They met in Watson Theater, hours after reports surfaced of racist graffiti in Day Hall. They spoke up Tuesday night, when Residence Hall Association held an open forum. Four officials were there to hear their concerns. But they wanted someone else.  

“We want Kent,” dozens of students chanted Tuesday.

“We want Kent,” they said again.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Kent Syverud was in Washington, D.C. at a conference at the National Press Club. He flew back to Syracuse on Wednesday morning and drove directly to the Barnes Center at The Arch, where many of those same students sat.

It was there that students held a sit-in, the first public protest since the racist graffiti was uncovered. What started at 10:30 a.m. with a few dozen students ballooned as The Arch entrance crowded. The organizers of the event, using #NotAgainSU as a rally cry, stemmed from a group chat of about 580 students of color on campus. They wanted a face-to-face dialogue with administrators and donors of the university.

The lobby was loud Wednesday. But when Syverud walked toward the crowd around noon, students hushed each other. The crowd dispersed, giving him a path to the center of the room.

He said he hadn’t read the demands they had listed that morning, so an attendee handed him a sheet full of them: Expel the students who wrote the graffiti. Hire more counselors from marginalized groups. Allocate a new building for multicultural offices. Agree to offer a “Same Race” option for roommate selection. 

Syverud scanned the paper. The lobby was quiet. Then he spoke.

“I’m going to need time to work with the team on these,” he said. “It seems like some of these things can be done effectively. Some of them are not entirely within the purview of me alone as chancellor.”

 “So, I’m going to have to work to respond.”

 He didn’t mention a small statement on the back of the sheet. It called for his resignation, along with that of Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Keith Alford, if plans to fulfill the demands are not unveiled by Nov. 20 — a week from that day.

“Thank you, I’m going to go now,” he said, while walking out. He had to speak with more students in other meetings, he said. 

A student called after him. “Where’s our conversation?” He shuffled into the back seat of a van, which drove away.

Syverud did not return to the sit-in but sent a campus-wide email around 3:30 p.m. He promised to implement a new protocol for how SU responds to bias incidents. He also directed Dean of Students Marianne Thomson to work with student leaders on potential changes to the Code of Student Conduct. 

Some students at Wednesday’s sit-in held signs. Corey Henry | Photo Editor

Still, the sit-in continued for more than eight hours until 1 a.m. Students filtered in and out as others continued to sit in the lobby. A banner with written messages lined the back entrance. Individual signs written on sheets of paper covered the front doors.

“Where’s the zero-tolerance policy?” read a sign.

“What now?” read another.

Around 2 p.m., several administrators shuffled into The Arch again. They stood by the information desk as students formed a semi-circle around them and filled the spaces in between. 

They stood with their backs toward the information desk as 100, 200 then 300 students surrounded them. The turnstiles leading to the gym were taken out. A worker directed people to create a flow of traffic, then gave up. They started to go through the demands one by one.

Some of the short-term demands include:

• Students involved in the racist graffiti need to be expelled. 
• SU’s current anti-harassment policy should be revised for a zero-tolerance policy of hate speech. New faculty and staff need to go through mandatory diversity training. 
• A forum with the Board of Trustees needs to be held twice a year for students to share their experience and expectations. SEM 100 should be reformed by underrepresented students.

Some of the long-term demands include:

• Offer a “Same Race” option for roommate selection on housing applications
• Agree to hire more counselors that represent marginalized identities
• Develop a building for multicultural offices, organizations and programs
• Allocate $1 million to develop a more unified curriculum that educates students on diversity issues, specifically anti-racism

Students presented a list of demands at the sit-in. Corey Henry | Photo Editor

Administrators agreed to expel whoever was involved in writing the racist graffiti. They would look into the Code of Student Conduct.

As the night went on, students said the problems students of color experience on campus run deeper than one policy or administrator. They relived many of their personal experiences that made it hard for students of color to be here: Most of the mental health counselors are white. White students say the N-word with no repercussions. Parties hosted by black students often get shut down. 

“When you look at us, would you let your kids come here and suffer how we suffer?” a student yelled at LaVonda Reed, associate provost for faculty affairs.

“We’ve had the same conversations we’re having right now,” said a student who was at the Ackerman Avenue assault and led a forum about the incident. 

“I’m scared for next year,” a freshman living in Lawrinson Hall said. “People that I know are going to say the N-word while they’re pregaming to go to their party that won’t get shut down.”

As the night went on, eight hours since they first arrived, students continued to share what made them feel uncomfortable here — what made them shout “I hate it here” in unison in front of administrators.

Students previously said SU’s inaction to racist incidents is a pattern — after the videos of offensive skits by Theta Tau, an assault of students of color on Ackerman Avenue, people saying the N-word in Madrid classes and what students described as a lack of funding for counselors and faculty of color.

Organizers used #NotAgainSU as a rally cry. Corey Henry | Photo Editor

One student, a senior, said she’s grappled with the possibility of dropping out. She said the graffiti, and SU’s delayed response, was the last straw.

“You sit here in your office, and you lie to us,” she said. “Y’all tell us you’re going to do this. Y’all tell us you’re going to do that. And you don’t f*cking do it. I am fed up.”

A major point of discussion was the decline in SU’s black student enrollment over the past several years. Black or African American students represent 6% of the full-time student population in fall 2019, nearly the same as fall 2018. But the percent of students of color has also declined from 28% in fall 2015 to 24% in fall 2019.

“They don’t want me here,” a student said.

“I want you here,” Alford said back. “I need you here with me.”

Shortly after the interaction, Alford walked away from the information desk and shuffled toward the back of the crowd. For a few minutes he listened, like everyone else.

Dolan Evanovich, senior vice president for the student experience, stood near the turnstiles to the gym, no longer in plain sight of the crowd. Only feet away, students questioned SU’s admissions process and why there are fewer full-time enrolled black students on campus than before. Thomson, dean of students, stood toward the front, then walked back toward Evanovich.

Organizers of the event wanted a face-to-face dialogue with administrators and donors of the university. Corey Henry | Photo Editor

“There’s some questions about admissions…” Thomson said to Evanovich.

“I think we need to have Ryan here,” Evanovich told Thomson. He looked down at his phone.

Ryan Williams, associate vice president for enrollment management, arrived soon after. The administrators tried to get in contact with SU’s athletics director, John Wildhack, as questions arose about how athletes of color can comment on campus issues.

As students covered more topics, more administrators came to speak: Cory Wallack, interim executive director for health and wellness at The Arch. James Duah-Agyeman, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs. LaVonda Reed, associate provost for faculty affairs.

But more than four hours after the administrators came, students wondered why another one hadn’t returned. 

“Where is Kent?” they shouted at 6:40 p.m.

“Where is Kent?” they said again.

Published on November 14, 2019 at 12:31 am

Contact Gabe: gkstern@syr.edu | @gabestern326