Syracuse University students cannot be trusted.

This is what I was told Tuesday afternoon when I brought the students in my physical design class to the new law school building, Dineen Hall, and we were not allowed in.

I have been a faculty member of The Maxwell School for three-plus decades. I have an SUID card with a swiper on it. My class of nine is full of all students with SU swipe cards. But I am not on the law faculty and they are not law school students.

The explanation of an assistant dean is that the students of the law school need security. When they were in the building on the quad, there was vandalism. But, I said, these students (and I) are part of SU. Well, even SU students vandalize.

Besides the fact that I was humiliated in front of my students, there’s something wrong with this picture. Should we lock down Maxwell-Eggers to everyone from outside of our faculty and student body?  Ever since The Eggers Cafe opened years ago, faculty and (gasp!) students come daily to eat there. Should we lock down the beautiful Newhouse III and its cafe? Or the Hall of Languages? Slocum?

Chancellor Kent Syverud has made it clear that we are all members of one university — Syracuse University. That is to be our overarching identity. But there are buildings that are off-limits if we don’t have the right sub-identity.

Deborah Pellow
Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of Anthropology
The Maxwell School
Syracuse University
dpellow@maxwell.syr.edu