Over 150 graduate students will continue to strike after Chancellor Kent Syverud lifted the interim suspensions filed against #NotAgainSU protesters occupying Crouse-Hinds Hall.

#NotAgainSU, a movement led by Black students, began occupying Crouse-Hinds on Monday to continue its protest of hate crimes and bias incidents at Syracuse University. University officials initially placed more than 30 #NotAgainSU organizers under interim suspension for remaining in the building past closing.

Some graduate students this morning called on graduate teaching and research assistants, as well as part-time faculty and non-tenure track faculty, to “withhold their labor” until protesters inside Crouse-Hinds are given unrestricted access to food and supplies. Students also pledged to strike until SU lifts the suspensions of all organizers inside.

Syverud lifted the suspensions Wednesday. Crouse-Hinds will reopen Thursday.

“We will refuse to work for this university, to allow ourselves to be exploited for this university while it is actively oppressing and sieging these undergraduate students that are currently occupying,” said Danae Faulk, a Ph.D. student and instructor in the religion department who has joined the strike.

Graduate students need to know before they decide to end their strike that all suspensions will be lifted and that activists will be protected from retaliation, said Andy Ridgeway, a graduate teaching assistant in the composition and cultural rhetoric program who is participating in the strike.

Students are free to leave the building at any time, and university officials have provided food to protesters inside, SU officials have said.

The graduate students claim that SU has repeatedly misrepresented or suppressed information about the occupation. SU’s response to the occupation is just the latest example of the university’s unwillingness to participate in good faith negotiations with #NotAgainSU, strike organizers said in a statement Wednesday morning.

“These siege tactics would be abhorrent under any circumstances,” the statement reads. “The university’s willingness to deploy them against unarmed students exercising their right to peacefully protest belies the university’s commitment to the health and safety of its students.”

#NotAgainSU has presented 24 demands for Syverud to meet. The movement continues to call for the resignation of Syverud and three other university officials.

Some graduate students have completely stopped their work, but the statement acknowledged that not everyone may be able to participate in the strike. They encouraged people to “quietly resist under the radar” by speaking about the university’s response to the occupation in class or refusing to take attendance.

Aarti Patel, a Ph.D. student in the department of religion and instructor of record, said the strike highlights the often undervalued work graduate students do for SU and emphasizes the expansive nature of racism on campus.

“All of this is meant to highlight that we are also an undervalued component of this community and an integral part of this entire system,” Patel said. “All of this is in an effort to show our solidarity with the protesters both in and outside the Crouse-Hinds building.”

SU’s Graduate Student Organization held a special meeting Wednesday night to discuss actions it could take to support protesters and pressure administrators. About 40 graduate students attended.

The GSO has not endorsed or expressed support for the strike, which was organized independently of the organization.

GSO officials will consider introducing motions for its senate meeting next Wednesday that would formally support the strike, the organization’s leaders said. The group will also look into meeting with the chancellor and SU’s Board of Trustees to express concerns on behalf of #NotAgainSU and from their own experiences studying and working at SU.

It’s uncertain when the strike will end, Ridgeway said. Graduate students will update the goals of the strike to account for recent developments and ensure protesters receive justice and institutional support for how they’ve been treated, he said.

“The folks in that building aren’t our enemies. They’re our friends,” Ridgeway said. “I can only speak for myself, but I feel like we owe it to them to do whatever we can to bring this university to a grinding halt until systemic racism and white supremacy are no longer part of the institutional culture here at Syracuse University.”

Published on February 19, 2020 at 11:34 pm

Contact Michael: msessa@syr.edu | @MichaelSessa3