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With 2021 came the unique challenges of living with an ever-evolving social climate.

The conversation around the I-81 Viaduct continued to focus on the surrounding community. Karen refugees found a voice, and members of large institutions spoke out against inequity.

The Daily Orange selected a few of the most important stories of 2021. Here’s how writers and editors covered the events and themes of a tumultuous year.

Nabeeha Anwar | Senior Staff Illustrator

SU defends response to data breach amid criticism, anger

Syracuse University sent letters to nearly 10,000 students, alumni, applicants and their family members in February, notifying them of a data breach that exposed their names and Social Security numbers.

The breach occurred in late September 2020 after an employee fell for a phishing attack.

Both SU’s Information Technology Services and a private firm that specialized in data security were unable to confirm whether the sensitive information had been accessed in an investigation that took over three months.

Those who received the letters said the breach made them concerned about how much personal information SU employees have access to and highlighted the amount of time it takes the university to communicate about critical issues.

Stranded stateside: SU international students struggle to return home

Emily Steinberger | Editor-in-Chief

After Syracuse University canceled in-person instruction in March 2020, many Chinese international students struggled to return home.

Iris Yang, a sophomore in the School of Information Studies at the time, scheduled her round-trip flights for the summer in January 2020, but when they were canceled due to reduced international travel by the Chinese government, the prices had risen far above what she could afford.

Haglis He, a then sophomore studying economics and sociology, said he spent about $15,000 total on his trip from SU to China and back to campus, including expenses for plane tickets and hotel rooms to quarantine in Shanghai and Mexico.
But many of the students said the prices and precautions were worth it, both to keep the people around them safe and ensure the quality of their education.

Elizabeth Billman | Senior Staff Photographer

‘Reliving history’: Residents fear I-81 project could displace communities

New York state plans to break ground on a “community grid” of surface level streets in 2022 after the removal of the Interstate 81 viaduct. But some residents expressed concern that the redevelopment of the land could lead to the same gentrification and displacement that followed the construction of the viaduct 55 years ago.

David Rufus, the community organizer for the I-81 project with the New York Civil Liberties Union, said residents initially lost over 100 acres of land with the construction of the viaduct — land that should be returned.

The viaduct’s removal would leave 18 acres of developable land in a region where 40% of the residents live below the poverty line.
Some residents were concerned that SU will obtain the land and construct student housing or other university buildings that won’t benefit the residents in the area, given the history of SU’s negative footprint on lower-income areas of the city.

Emily Steinberger | Editor-in-Chief

In conduct proceedings, SU gets to make the rules — and change them at will

The D.O. has conducted a review of documents filed in lawsuits associated with seven different cases that demonstrate SU’s wide-reaching disciplinary discretion.

Unlike other conduct offices at public universities, SU’s Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities (now known as the Office of Community Standards) is not bound by due process. Instead, SU uses a concept called “fundamental fairness,” which guarantees written notice and a hearing before a student’s status changes, barring a “significant threat.”

SU controls what evidence can be used in each hearing, and students must speak for themselves in each case, said Christopher Burke, an attorney for Student Legal Services.

Notably, SU’s Student Conduct System Handbook reserves the right for SU to modify its procedures at its own discretion, Burke said.
Such a policy was evident when “emergency procedures” brought on by COVID-19 allowed the university’s academic integrity process, which is separate from OSRR, to allow one professor to act as investigator, judge and jury, rather than its usual policy which includes a five-member panel of students and employees.

Emily Steinberger | Editor-in-Chief

Karen refugees in Syracuse fight for justice, recognition

In March, over 100 Karen demonstrators and other community members gathered in Clinton Square for the Syracuse Youth March of Justice.
Approximately 100,000 members of the Karen community, a minority ethnic group in Myanmar, also known as Burma, have been displaced since 2002, both in Myanmar and as international refugees.

Since the early 2000s, Syracuse has welcomed several thousand refugees of Karen descent.

Most of the march coordinators grew up in the community early immigrants helped build — one spread throughout the city but bonded by shared heritage and experiences.
The march, its organizers said, was their way of reclaiming a culture they’ve grown to love and are no longer afraid to share.

Emily Steinberger | Editor-in-Chief

Despite inclusivity efforts, some SU facilities remain inaccessible

SU’s Board of Trustees Special Committee on University Climate, Diversity and Inclusion noted in a March report that 10,000 obstructions of campus buildings and facilities could be considered accessibility code violations.

While some disability experts said the university is “on the right track” to becoming more accessible and inclusive, many students and faculty still expressed concern about campus-wide inaccessibility.

Then SU student Eli Blodgett said the university handles disability accommodations on a case-by-case basis rather than solving wider-reaching accessibility solutions.

While Alison Gilmore, a then first-year student with cerebral palsy, said that a university’s main goal is to ensure that all of its students can succeed, the inaccessibility of SU’s campus spaces makes it so students with disabilities can’t perform at their best.

Wendy Wang | Staff Photographer

SU Steam Station’s complicated relationship with a Syracuse neighborhood

SU’s Steam Station, which provides heating to all buildings on the university’s Main Campus, has contributed to pollution that disproportionately affected Black residents and further depressed land value, according to the NYCLU.

Residents also expressed concerns about the impact the Steam Station has had on air quality and their health.
The combustion in the station released harmful pollutants as well as carcinogens, said Huiting Mao, a professor of environmental chemistry at SUNY-ESF.

SU offers the Co-Generation Scholarship, which awards full tuition, fees, room and board to students living in the neighborhood surrounding the station. The university also works with city agencies and other community organizations to offer a Cogeneration Plant Grant Assistance Program, which provides a financial aid package to residents pursuing a bachelor’s degree at SU.

While SU and the station provide opportunities for and embark on measures to help the surrounding community, some residents think they could do more.

Sarah Lee | Senior Staff Photographer

20 Years Later: Families remember SU alumni that died in the Sept. 11 attacks

Thirty SU alumni died in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The D.O. talked with family members of two SU alumni to recount their stories.
Twin brothers Bob and Billy Bernstein attended SU together after growing up on the streets of Brooklyn. After graduating, they lived in the same apartment building and both worked near Wall Street.

Billy was working in the Cantor Fitzgerald office on the 105th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, right above the impact zone of the airliner that crashed into the building. Bob had been in the building 30 minutes before the attack.

Steven Weinberg always took his three children — Sam, Jason and Lindsay — to SU games, and had Orange memorabilia scattered around his house, according to Laurie Weinberg, his wife at the time.

On Sept. 11, Weinberg was on the 82nd floor of the south tower. In a phone call to Laurie, he said he could see the smoke from the north tower but thought nothing was wrong. That was the last time Laurie heard from her husband.

Lucy Messineo-Witt | Senior Staff Photographer

Newhouse created Lorraine Branham Scholarship. None of the scholars are Black women

The Branham Scholarship, named after former Newhouse Dean Lorraine Branham, was designed to recruit students from socioeconomically disadvantaged and underrepresented populations, according to a Newhouse press release.

The first cohort of Branham Scholars entered Newhouse this fall. The absence of Black women in the cohort received criticism on social media because Branham herself was a Black woman.

Branham’s passion for influencing students, especially students of color, was well known among students, as well as faculty and staff at Newhouse.

Lucy Messineo-Witt | Senior Staff Photographer

Concerns and departures: The problems with the workplace culture at Light Work, according to former members

Several former members of Light Work revealed flaws in the nonprofit photography organization’s workplace culture under Jeffrey Hoone’s leadership and reflected on why they left.

Hoone, who left his role as executive director of the Light Work this summer, said he sees himself as a “tough, but fair, boss” who held staff members to a high standard and quality of work. Several former employees, artists-in-residence and board members, however, spoke out against his leadership. They said that Hoone swore at staff members and that Light Work did not do enough to address issues of structural racism within the organization.

Meghan Hendricks | Photo Editor

At SU, officials keep an alleged abuser’s ties to the university quiet

A review by The D.O. of archival materials, university records and court documents, as well as interviews with former coaches and athletes, showed that Conrad Mainwaring — a former graduate student at SU — maintained a relationship with SU’s cross country and track and field teams, despite the university’s efforts to downplay or omit its association with him.

At least five men have sued SU for its role in their sexual abuse by Mainwaring. The allegations became public in August 2019, when ESPN published an investigation detailing decades of abuse by the former Olympian.

Absent from SU’s public communication about the Mainwaring allegations was any mention of his ties to the athletics program, which survivors say were fundamental in Mainwaring luring them to classrooms and dorms where he molested and assaulted them.

Throughout its legal defense, SU used arguments to dodge responsibility for Mainwaring’s abuse, including arguing that they didn’t owe protection to survivors of abuse who were unaffiliated with the university.

Published on December 30, 2021 at 9:44 pm

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