Sadia Ahmed and Yanan Wang shared similar experiences their freshman year as women of color at Syracuse University. Both felt mistreated and judged by their appearance, and both considered transferring to other universities.

Now in their junior years at SU, Ahmed and Wang are running for president and vice president of Student Association to help change the university’s climate. The duo aims to make SU’s campus inclusive of all identities and restore trust in SA’s ability to serve the student body. 

“A lot of the main things we saw on campus this past year are issues of diversity and inclusion,” Ahmed said. “And currently, I feel like our campus is more divided than ever. I think that’s a fault of the students, a fault of university administration and Student Association’s fault. Everyone had a hand in this.”

Ahmed, president of SU’s Residence Hall Association, and Wang, president of the university’s chapter of Asian Students in America, found racial and religious discrimination on campus to be a culture shock. But they each found purpose in their respective campus organizations.

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Wang joined ASIA her freshman year. After graffiti targeting Asian and international students was found in several locations on campus in November, Wang issued a statement on behalf of the organization supporting and encouraging participation in the #NotAgainSU movement. 

The movement, led by Black students, held a sit-in at the Barnes Center at The Arch for eight days in November to protest SU’s response to hate incidents on campus. At least 32 racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic incidents have been reported at or near SU since early November. #NotAgainSU later occupied Crouse-Hinds Hall for 31 days beginning Feb. 17 to continue its protest.

“As the leader of the largest Asian interest group on campus, it was hard because a lot of us felt like we needed to advocate for ourselves,” Wang said. “Asians are taught from when we were little that we should keep our head down. But at that point, I felt that we needed to do something.”

Working with a diverse group of students and collaborating with other multicultural organizations has provided Wang with a lot of leadership experience, she said. 

Ahmed also supports the #NotAgainSU movement. Amid the hate crimes that took place in November, she attended the sit-in at the Barnes Center and juggled her RHA responsibilities.

After joining RHA’s executive board her freshman year, Ahmed was elected president of the association her sophomore year. She took swift action to address racist graffiti that was reported Nov. 7 in Day Hall after she learned about it alongside the rest of the student body, she said. 

The graffiti, which targeted Black and Asian individuals, was found on two floors of Day Hall. SU did not notify the campus community of the racist vandalism until Nov. 11.

SU’s communication of the Day Hall graffiti frustrated Ahmed. She wants to keep the university accountable for announcing any potential threat to its students, she said.

The university and student body have lacked acceptance of people of marginalized backgrounds, Ahmed said, which she finds frustrating. Students and university officials did not respond to Islamophobic language included in a reported white supremacist manifesto that was allegedly sent to SU students in November, Ahmed said.

Ahmed and Wang also want to support and expand multicultural programs for registered student organizations. This will make SU more inclusive and give voice to students of different ethnic and religious backgrounds, they said.

“I don’t believe the university should be creating new multicultural initiatives (on their own),” Wang said. “Rather, they should be helping RSOs make their own multicultural initiatives bigger, extending them and promoting them. And so should Student Association.”

The pair plans to promote equal representation among faculty hiring committees in each of SU’s schools and colleges and aims to ensure students have a voice in the decisions that the Board of Trustees makes.

Improving campus sustainability is another goal of Wang and Ahmed’s campaign. The duo would like to inform students of the amount of food waste the SU community generates and wants SU to send monthly campus-wide sustainability updates.

“The amount of food waste we create is enormous and disgusting,” Ahmed said. “We understand that a lot of this waste will go to compost, but how do we reduce that overall in sustainable ways? It sounds easy, but apparently it’s not done right on our campus.”

Ahmed and Wang stressed that SA should be an open resource for students to contact when they have a concern about the university or life as a student. SA should be transparent with the rest of the student body and host consistent open forums for students to voice suggestions, Ahmed said.

“I think, throughout this entire moment, it was hard for myself and my own identities,” Ahmed said. “I know there are some who feel ignored here. I realized that no matter how loud I may be, there will be no one to listen. And we need that to change.”

Voting for SA’s president, vice president and comptroller begins Monday on MySlice and continues until 11:59 p.m. Thursday.

Published on April 12, 2020 at 11:51 pm

Contact Richard: rjchang@syr.edu | @RichardJChang1