UPDATED: July 3, 9:12 p.m.

Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud addressed opposition to the restructuring of campus sexual violence support services for the first time in an email on Tuesday.

Students, faculty and other SU community members have expressed concerns about Syverud’s decision to close the Advocacy Center and realign its resources and services within the Counseling Center. That decision was first announced in a memo on May 30.

“I know change is hard and this has been a tough change for some students and campus community members,” Syverud said in Tuesday’s email.

Syverud said he does not intend to revert to the previous structure, but said he wants to maintain the contributions the Advocacy Center made to the campus within the new structure. As a result, he will be appointing a Chancellor’s Workgroup on Sexual Violence Prevention, Education and Advocacy. The workgroup will include students, faculty and staff representatives, he said.

The group will provide the dean of student affairs with suggestions for how aspects of the Advocacy Center’s programs and services can be integrated into the new structure. Though Syverud said he wants these efforts to begin right away, he expects the workgroup’s activities won’t fully begin until students return to campus in August.

Paul Ang, who served as a graduate assistant in the Advocacy Center, said until it’s decided who will be a part of the workgroup and what specifically the group will do, he’s skeptical.

Erin Carhart, who graduated from SU this past spring and started an online petition seeking the reinstatement of the Advocacy Center, said she’d like to see a couple things come from the workgroup.
First, she said she believes all members of the group should have gone through some kind of advocacy training at some point.

In addition, Carhart said she thinks the group can be instrumental in potentially creating a campus-wide survey about the issue.

“If we’re willing to make change for the better of students we have to ask students what they want, what they need and how we can best serve them,” she said. “Students know what students need so let’s ask them.”

Carhart said the petition currently has a little more than 8,000 signatures, adding that the campaign will continue to urge the administration to reverse its decision regarding the Advocacy Center.

“It’s hard to ignore that and say a working group will solve this problem,” she said.

In the email, Syverud also laid out reasons for the restructuring of support services, saying the key reason for the change was “to provide the best possible service to students affected by sexual violence.” The new structure, he said, is similar to other well-respected centers in Syracuse such as Vera House and the McMahon/Ryan Child Advocacy Center.

However, Ang said comparing the structure of campus sexual violence support services to those of Vera House and the McMahon/Ryan Child Advocacy Center shows a misunderstanding of what the other establishments do and what the SU realignment does with campus services.

Though Syverud has made a point about including student voices in his decisions, Ang and Carhart both said they don’t believe he took student feedback into account in this case.

Carhart said the workgroup is a good step, but she wishes Syverud was more open to incorporating student voices.

“He said he’s heard our concerns and values our input but he continues to say he won’t make any decisions that will reverse the process,” Carhart said. “To me, it says he’s not really interested in what we’re saying.”

Ang added that if the administration sees the new structure as the best way of doing things, they should lay out the decision-making process to the community.

Said Ang: “I think if they’re truly adamantly believing this is the best way, they need to show their hand and say ‘this is why these decisions were made,’ specifically and in detail.”

Published on July 1, 2014 at 3:01 pm

Contact Brett: blsamuel@syr.edu | @Brett_Samuels27