Racial slurs were graffitied on Day Hall’s bulletin boards and broken lighting fixtures placed in toilets last week.

Syracuse University’s vice president for the student experience, Robert Hradsky, sent out an email on Monday evening reporting the incident to the entire student body and apologizing for “not communicating more broadly.” Chancellor Kent Syverud then apologized for Syracuse University’s response in a campus-wide email sent Tuesday morning. “It’s clear that the members of the leadership team should have communicated more swiftly and broadly,” he wrote.

While it is important that the university acknowledges this hate crime on campus, the letter to students did not do enough to explain what concrete actions the university would take to ensure future responses are timely and appropriate.

As students, we need to demand more effective security measurements in buildings and better programs to teach students about inclusivity and respect.

If events, such as this hate crime in Day Hall, were to have happened while under surveillance, the process of finding the students responsible and providing evidence would be a much more reliable and efficient way of conducting the investigation. The lack of security cameras in dorm hallways — there are cameras in lobbies and stairways — makes it easier for crimes such as this to continue to take place.

The university has taken measures to increase the exposure to diversity and inclusion programs to students by creating SEM 100, a first-year seminar dedicated to both, but the class does not meet the mark when it comes to combating blatant racism such as this event.

All resident advisers must complete a six week long course titled “Conversations About Race and Ethnicity.” A program like CARE is what this university needs in a time like this, when students need to learn more about respect and how to appropriately discuss race.

At the forum hosted by the Residence Hall Association on Tuesday night, one student brought up ways to include more open conversation in the classroom about race and appropriate ways to create dialogue beginning with the training of the professors. The student spoke about how the diversity of the professors leading the discussions affects the way the discussion is absorbed by the students.

It is distressing that racist incidents continue to occur at Syracuse, but unfortunately, it is not surprising. It is time the students make the call for action and tell SU’s administration that we need serious change on campus.

Sophia Becker is a freshman. Her column appears bi-weekly. She can be reached at sfbecker@syr.edu. She can be followed on Twitter at @sophiafbecker.

Published on November 12, 2019 at 11:01 pm