UPDATED: March 17, 2019 at 9:29 p.m.

Editor’s note: The following article was reported in Central European Standard Time.

MADRID, Spain — Syracuse University’s Madrid Center will soon implement five initiatives to help create a more inclusive community, director Dieter Kuehl said in a center-wide email on Wednesday evening following outcry over the recent, public use of the “N-word” there.

Over the course of the last two weeks, at least four people — including a professor — used the N-word during classes at the center. Administrators hosted a public “community dialogue” on Wednesday morning to address students’ concerns. Kuehl, at the dialogue, said he wanted students to give suggestions and say how they felt so SU could brainstorm ways to move forward after the incidents.

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The initiatives listed in Kuehl’s email include creating a student task force to work as liaisons between students, faculty and staff; scheduling regular dialogue sessions; and hosting experts to speak on diversity and inclusion. Kuehl also said the center is considering creating new courses on different perspectives and cultures and developing a training program for faculty, staff and students on “intersectional issues.”

Students at the forum called for the administration to provide more information about racism in Spain during pre-orientation and orientation and for better cultural competency training for professors.

“I am grateful to each of you for participating and I am especially thankful for the candid input and questions we received, as well as the thoughtful suggestions for how we can improve the Madrid experience,” Kuehl said during the Wednesday morningdialogue.

Kuehl in an email to The Daily Orange said Martha Diede, director for the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence, and Michael Morrison, associate director of Academic Service Centers, will be at the Madrid Center sometime this week to lead a three-day training program for inclusive teaching.

On Sunday, Interim Chief Diversity Officer Keith Alford and Vice Chancellor and Provost Michele Wheatly sent a campus-wide email saying the incidents are “challenging us to rethink how we approach issues of racial bias and cultural differences, particularly in an academic setting.”

They highlighted five initiatives, per the email:

• SU will engage “subject matter experts,” including faculty, with students to establish different methods to deal with offensive language in a classroom settings.
• SU will implement educational professional development programs for faculty in SU’s London, Strasbourg, Florence and Madrid centers.
• Director for the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence Martha Diede, and Associate Director for Academic Service Centers Michael Morrison will visit SU’s Madrid Center to lead sessions on inclusive teaching, bias and other issues.
• SU will hold “regular dialogue sessions” in Madrid to address issues relating to racial discrimination, social identities and intersectionality.
• SU will look at new course offerings designed to help students understand different perspectives and cultures.

– This post has been updated with additional reporting

– Asst. News Editor Gabe Stern contributed reporting to this story

Published on March 17, 2019 at 7:16 pm

Contact Catherine: ccleffer@syr.edu | @ccleffert