Syracuse University will be holding an event commemorating SU students, faculty and staff who died in the year 2016, the university announced on Wednesday.

The event, called “Service of Commemoration” encouraged by the SU Remembrance Scholar’s “Look Back, Act Forward” commitment, will take place on Tuesday, March 21, at 4 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel, according an SU News release. Names of deceased individuals will be read and candles will be lit during the ceremony to remember them.

This is the first time the university organizes a collective memorial service, according to the release. Additionally, this type of service will be held annually going forward, per the release.

SU Chancellor Kent Syverud, along with a Remembrance Scholar, the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs and Orange Seeds representatives, will make remarks during the service, per the release. The service will also include prayers and music by University Organist Anne Laver and the Hendricks Chapel Choir, according to the release.

A number of SU community members died last year, including several students.

Xiaopeng “Pippen” Yuan, a 23-year-old junior studying mathematics in the College of Arts and Sciences, was found dead behind the Springfield Garden Apartments in the town of DeWitt on Sept. 30. Suspects Cameron Isaac, 23, and Ninimbe Mitchell, 20, were arrested and charged with murder in the second degree, robbery in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree in relation to Yuan’s death. Isaac’s charge has since been upgraded to murder in the first degree.

Other SU students who died in 2016 included Britny Kabic, a sophomore advertising major; Justin Robinson, a senior; Jason Smith, a sophomore in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management; Hunter Watson, a junior in the School of Information Studies; Vincent Maugeri, a senior biology major; and Hongming Cao, a junior economics major.

The service will be inspired by the Remembrance Scholars’ motto of “Look Back, Act Forward” and will be held in the “spirit of Remembrance,” said Samuel Clemence, interim dean of Hendricks Chapel, in the release.

“We have planned a service that, in the spirit of Remembrance that is so much a part of our campus culture, looks back and acts forward,” Clemence said. “We will honor those we have lost in 2016 and be inspired in how we can make a positive difference in our communities.”

Published on March 8, 2017 at 10:18 pm

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