Due to increased attention regarding diversity issues at Syracuse University, several campus groups will sponsor “Scar: The Perception of the Minority Community at Syracuse University” to foster discussion on these topics.

The event, which will feature a panel discussion followed by a town hall-style meeting, will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 26 in Hendricks Chapel, according to a memo from Ronald Taylor, a student organizer. The goal is to foster a conversation on the state of diversity at SU.

Taylor, a sophomore political science and policy studies major, said the concept has been in the works since September. Organization of the actual event began in late January, when Taylor spoke with representatives from the Student African American Society, the African Student Union and the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

Event organizers are still trying to secure panelists for the event, he said, and should be finalized by the end of the week.

Taylor said the concept arose from personal observations of structures at SU through which diversity is not respected.

He gave the example of Department of Public Safety releases that often describe suspects as black males, 5 feet, 8 inches tall, saying this becomes a racial categorization that stigmatizes black males.

“According to that categorization, I’d be a threat,” he said, saying that friends of different racial backgrounds do not have this concern.

Taylor also referenced arguments surrounding articles about SU’s recent fall in rankings, and the attribution of this drop to the increasing number of minority students accepted to SU under Chancellor Nancy Cantor.

While the incident at the Schine Student Center expedited the event by increasing conversations about race, Taylor said, it was not an integral factor in the organization of the event.

“In one sense, it was a coincidence,” he said. “It aided in the conversation I was having and made it a little bit more important.”

Published on February 11, 2013 at 1:35 am