Student Association has offered its support to the #NotAgainSU movement and criticized Syracuse University’s handling of several hate crimes and bias-related incidents on campus.

SA President Mackenzie Mertikas and Vice President Sameeha Saied said SA will stand in solidarity with the protesters, but they both stressed the importance of allowing the members of #NotAgainSU to assume a leading role. SA’s main objective is to listen to the concerns of the protesters and connect them with the resources necessary to facilitate change, Saied said.

Mertikas, Saied and SA’s co-chairs of Diversity Affairs expressed solidarity with the movement in an email sent to the student body Thursday night. SA’s statement criticized the university’s delayed response to the hate crimes that occurred on the fourth and sixth floor of Day Hall.

“We have access to a lot of administrators, and a lot of resources that will help them get done what they want to get done,” Saied said. “It’s better for us to sit in these protests, sit at these forums, hear what people have to say and then use our resources to give them the platform to do what they would like to do.”

Mertikas and SA cabinet members were in contact with administrators via email at the beginning of the week. They also attended a meeting with administrators on Tuesday regarding the hate crimes and students’ grievances.

“Since the protests started, any communication I’ve had with administration has been collaborated on by the student protestors,” Mertikas said. “For example, the statement we sent out on behalf of #NotAgainSU was something that they asked me to send to administrators as well.”

After the protests started, SA decided to postpone plans to create a student-faculty forum to discuss issues of racial profiling on campus. Saied said they wanted to seek the guidance of the #NotAgainSU movement before proceeding with any plans for a forum.

“We understand that when you have forum after forum after forum it starts to become exhausting, and at a point people don’t necessarily want that,” Saied said. “They want something more productive. So, we’re still fleshing that out.”

The protesters’ demands include restructuring the SEM 100 curriculum to more effectively address issues of racial bias in the 21st century — something that SA has been working toward since last year.

Saied serves on various committees focused on updating and improving the SEM 100 curriculum. She said the university needs to place more emphasis on the course.

“It isn’t something students take seriously, and it isn’t something that’s effective at starting conversations regarding racial bias,” Saied said. “That’s a big flaw. It needs to be more of a legitimate course so that people can actually take something away from it.”

SA plans to continue to stand in solidarity with the student protesters, said Mertikas, who slept over with at the Barnes Center at The Arch on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Saied also slept at the Barnes Center on Thursday night.

“We obviously have some horrible people on this campus given the events of the past few days,” Mertikas said. “But there is such a strong, amazing group of people who care so much and want to make this school a better place.”

Published on November 17, 2019 at 10:49 pm

Contact Maggie: mehicks@syr.edu | @maggie_hickss