A Syracuse University official gave updates Monday on new student resources and said the university stands by its response to the controversial Theta Tau videos last spring.

Dolan Evanovich, SU’s senior vice president for enrollment and the student experience, said in a campus-wide email Monday that 10 Theta Tau students suing the university want an “immediate return” to campus. Nine people are anonymously suing the university in federal court as part of a Theta Tau-related lawsuit, while 10 people are suing the university in Jefferson County Supreme Court as part of a similar suit, according to documents filed in the federal suit Monday. Jefferson County is north of Syracuse.

The university suspended more than a dozen students in connection to videos showing actions Chancellor Kent Syverud has called “extremely racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, and hostile to people with disabilities.”

Evanovich did not detail the outcomes of the student conduct process in the email, citing federal privacy law, but said SU “stands by the action we took to defend the standards of conduct on our campus.”

Evanovich also detailed several hires, including a new assistant director of international student orientation — who is fluent in Chinese — in the Office of First Year and Transfer Programs. A search is underway in SU’s Counseling Center for a contract psychiatrist and an additional psychiatric nurse practitioner, per the email.

The university will hire career coaches/advisers in four SU schools and colleges, Evanovich said, including the College of Arts and Sciences, the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

SU has also launched Handshake, a career services management tool that will replace OrangeLink as the university-sponsored tool for students to find jobs and assistance with career development.

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Published on August 27, 2018 at 8:55 pm

Contact Casey: casey@dailyorange.com | @caseydarnell_