When Department of Public Safety officers restricted outside food from entering Crouse-Hinds Hall last week, a #NotAgainSU organizer said they felt less than human.

#NotAgainSU, a movement led by Black students, has occupied Crouse-Hinds since Feb. 17 to continue its ongoing protests of at least 30 racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic incidents that have occurred at or near Syracuse University since early November.

DPS sealed off Crouse-Hinds as of Tuesday morning, barring outside food, medicine and other supplies from entering the building until Wednesday afternoon. SU provided lunch and dinner to organizers Tuesday and breakfast Wednesday. University officials said the students were allowed to leave the building at any time and were encouraged to do so. The building reopened Thursday.

Throughout its occupation, #NotAgainSU organizers have criticized how DPS officers treated protesters in Crouse-Hinds.

“I already had a general distrust for DPS because, as a Black woman, I do not feel like they are here for my protection,” a #NotAgainSU organizer said in a text message to The Daily Orange. “My interactions with DPS officers during this protest have made me feel like they are actively invested in causing harm to people that look like me.”

#NotAgainSU has stated that it is a nameless and faceless movement. Organizers declined to be named for this story.

A video posted to social media last week shows DPS Associate Chief John Sardino physically struggling with student protesters as they try to hold open the entrance to Crouse-Hinds. At one point, Sardino is seen reaching for his gun holster.

“When you see a lot of people rushing against a police officer, it may look like the police officer is doing something wrong,” said Amanda Nicholson, assistant provost and dean of student success, on Monday outside the Barnes Center at the Arch. “What he was doing is what we asked him to do, which is to hold the door.”

Sardino’s confrontation with protesters outside Crouse-Hinds is one in a series of altercations that have occurred between students and DPS officers since the start of #NotAgainSU’s occupation.

In a video posted on Twitter, a DPS officer entering Crouse-Hinds early Feb. 18 turned toward protesters standing outside the building and said, “It’s a little cold out here, huh?”

But the most tense exchange between DPS officers and #NotAgainSU protesters took place later that night, an organizer said. When DPS officers attempted to enter the building for an unannounced shift change, protesters lobbed food over the officers’ heads in order to pass it to the protesters inside, they said.

“It was terrifying to watch because the people inside and out felt helpless to stop it,” the organizer said.

DPS officers stepped on the food that made it inside the building, an organizer said. One DPS officer yelled to the protesters outside the building, “Now your food’s on the floor.”

“It was so blatantly wrong,” an organizer said.

Students gathered outside Crouse-Hinds initially feared the unannounced shift change signaled plans to remove protesters from the building, the organizer said. Meanwhile, protesters inside feared the students outside would attempt to rush the building, they said.

“I felt very afraid sleeping here Tuesday night,” another protester said. “I genuinely thought that DPS would bring SPD in, and that’s how scared I was that night.”

#NotAgainSU held a sit-in at the Barnes Center for eight days in November. The sit-in ended shortly after Chancellor Kent Syverud signed 16 of the protesters’ initial 19 demands as written, making revisions to the remaining three.

Tensions between protesters and DPS officers have been substantially higher during the Crouse-Hinds occupation than they were at the Barnes Center sit-in, an organizer said.

“They were continuously trying to take things from us,” the organizer said of DPS officers’ interactions with students inside the closed Crouse-Hinds. “At the Barnes Center, they increased patrolling and things like that, but in here it’s done in a way that’s more obvious.”

One protester said DPS’s use of food as a negotiating tool took a toll on their mental health.

A DPS officer took the food SU provided Wednesday night and informed protesters they could only eat if they had a conversation with DPS, an organizer said. Protesters “never touched the food,” they said.

“Food was literally conditional,” another protester said.

Protesters pressed Syverud to identify the parties responsible for the decision to prevent food and other supplies from entering the building when Syverud visited the occupation Friday. Syverud said he didn’t know exactly who was responsible, but said he would find out.

In one of 10 new demands issued Monday night, #NotAgainSU calls for a formal external investigation of DPS and Sardino. #NotAgainSU also calls for the resignation of Sardino, Syverud, DPS Chief Bobby Maldonado and Dolan Evanovich, senior vice president for enrollment and the student experience.

Syverud announced Monday that former United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch will conduct an independent review of DPS. The review is a result of growing concerns about how DPS engages with the campus community, Syverud said in a university-wide email. He added that community expectations and needs have changed.

“I believe this review is necessary given that concerns have been raised through several channels about how DPS engages with our community and how it has managed various interactions with students, including protestors,” Syverud said in the email. “Our DPS officers work very hard every day and night to protect our students and our community.”

Maldonado said he welcomed the review.

The movement also demands SU acknowledge the mistreatment of student protesters in an email to parents, faculty and staff, and issue a new policy stating that peaceful student protests do not violate the Campus Disruption Policy.

As the occupation enters its 10th day, some protesters said DPS’ treatment of organizers during the occupation has left a permanent impression on them.

“I don’t think I could look at or interact with administration or with DPS ever again,” one protester said.

Published on February 26, 2020 at 12:08 am

Contact Maggie: mehicks@syr.edu | @maggie_hickss