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After four consecutive nights occupying the Barnes Center at The Arch with #NotAgainSU, KeKe Blanton was exhausted.

She returned to her dorm in DellPlain Hall expecting to go right to bed. Instead, Blanton’s friends in her LGBTQ+ Living Learning Community welcomed her back, checked in to see how she was doing and told her how excited they were to see her. 

“It just felt safe,” Blanton said.

According to a recent survey, 43% of SU students, 43% of staff and 37% of faculty said they are unsatisfied with the university’s climate. But the survey also found that affinity groups, support services, organizations and dedicated spaces at SU helped numerous students feel like they belong at the university, despite negative views surrounding its commitment to diversity.

Many students, including Blanton, agreed with the survey results and said that SU can feel unwelcoming, especially for students from underrepresented backgrounds. But they said that participating in on-campus organizations, affinity groups or living learning communities has given them a sense of belonging and a support system they can rely on.

Denise Magny, a junior majoring in biology with a minor in public health, remembers the first Haitian American Student Association meeting she attended. At the event, one of the members of the group served bannann, a Haitian dish with plantains and chicken.

“I immediately sent a picture to my parents saying, ‘Can you believe that I’m at a HASA event and they have bannann,’” Magny said. “I was so excited that there were people who knew what bannann was, and I was able to just be with these people.”

The event also reassured Darnelle Stinfort of her place at SU. Stinfort, a junior biotechnology major, was apprehensive to come to SU at first, especially after a racist, sexist, homophobic and ableist video from the Theta Tau fraternity surfaced before she enrolled. 

“That being the first event, it brought me reassurance that there’s good people here, not everyone’s bad, and just because a couple people do something terrible, doesn’t jeopardize the whole thing,” said Stinfort, who is also the social media coordinator for HASA.

Magny, now the president of HASA, said the association has helped her find belonging on SU’s predominately white campus. At SU’s International Fair, HASA presented Haitian culture, art and food. Magny performed a traditional Haitian dance, and Stinfort sang the Haitian national anthem.

“It’s a safe space for us,” Magny said. “We are used to code switching a lot at a predominately white institution, but when we are in an organization that is familiar, we’re able to just be ourselves.”

Tessa Pulgar, a sophomore music business major, has been able to find a safe space through the Filipino Student Association. SU can feel like a very large school, and it’s easy to be lost in the crowd, Pulgar said. FSA became a “second family” for her.

“Coming to campus is kind of overwhelming, and it’s a culture shock,” Pulgar said. “Even though it’s somewhat small and everyone knows each other, it’s a very big campus, and you can feel very small and kind of like a number if you don’t have that family to ground you.”

Pulgar recalled going out to eat with some other members of FSA, but she had forgotten her card to pay for her food. One of the older members of the group insisted on paying for her meal and made sure she had enough to eat.

“If you’re at the table with us, there’s no way you’re not going to eat. You’re going to eat,” Pulgar said. “It’s about the community and how that brings people together.”

Finding community at SU can be especially daunting for international students, said Vasundhra Aggarwal, a fifth-year architecture major from India.

Despite coming from different countries and speaking different languages, international students have a shared experience they can connect over, she said. Joining organizations and learning communities for international students — like The International, an SU publication centering international students’ perspectives — helped her build a network at the university.

Aggarwal has also appreciated the School of Architecture’s support for international students. The school recognizes holidays important to international students, such as Chinese New Year and Holi, she said.

“It felt like I was at home in certain ways,” Aggarwal said.

Christian Andino Borrero came to SU from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, which took a heavy toll on the island. It was difficult for him to be so far from home, especially as his family continued to recover from the effects of the hurricane.

Soon after he arrived on campus, Andino Borrero helped form the Puerto Rican Student Association. Members of the organization are able to celebrate their culture and educate others about Puerto Rico.

“Organizations on campus definitely helped create a support system, some form of a micro-home,” Andino Borrero said.

PRSA has also provided a sense of belonging to Ana Sofía Aponte González, a freshman communications and rhetorical studies major. For her, even just being able to talk with other people in Spanish can feel like a breath of fresh air when she spends most of her time at SU speaking English.

“It’s just that unconditional companionship that’s just there if you want it,” Aponte González said.

Andino Borrero has connected with the Latino community in the greater Syracuse area through Literacy Corps and La Casita, a Latino cultural center for SU and the surrounding area.

Through Literacy Corps, he worked in the dual language program at Delaware Primary School, on the westside of Syracuse, and has taught a group of Latino students from the local community in both Spanish and English.

“It’s possible to go through all four years at Syracuse University and never connect with Syracuse as a city,” Andino Borrero said. “Leaving that bubble and connecting with the greater Syracuse (area) and Syracuse at large can create more of that homey feeling.”

Many students also said they’ve found a sense of belonging through mentorship programs such as Wellslink, a leadership program in SU’s Office of Multicultural Affairs offered to first-and second-year students of marginalized identities.

Pulgar, who participated in Wellslink last year, said the program gives students an opportunity for close connections with people who have had similar experiences. Students in Wellslink are assigned a “peer leader” who provides mentorship as they adjust to college.  

“Having upperclassmen who are mentors and looking out for the wellbeing of students is super important because it helps them know, ‘you have a place here,’” Pulgar said. 

Mentorship programs also help SU students of color build connections and offer an “extended family” on campus, said Vincenzo Hid Arida Suarez, a junior in the Newhouse School of Public Communications and Martin J. Whitman School of Management. 

Ares Taylor, a junior studying communications design in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, participated in fullCIRCLE, a mentorship program for Black, Asian, Latino and Indigenous students offered through the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

Taylor recalls walking into the OMA office freshman year and immediately feeling a sense of relief.

“I just smiled because I was like ‘Oh, there’s all these people who kind of look like me,’” they said.

It’s important for students to find connections with one another aside from their specific identities, Taylor said. Taylor works at People’s Place, which is where they’ve found some of their best friends at SU.

“It’s one thing to be accepted for your background, but it’s another thing to be accepted for just being yourself,” Taylor said.

SU can expand its diversity and inclusion efforts by allocating more resources to affinity groups and encouraging students to participate in them, Magny said. If SU showcased the events of cultural organizations on its social media or sent information about affinity groups to students, more people might participate, she said.

Syracuse Diversity Equity and Inclusion Executive Summary by The Daily Orange on Scribd

“The only support that I feel from the school is funding,” Magny said. “We’re trying really hard, but some support at the upper level would really help us out and help a lot of cultural organizations as well.”

Most of all, students want action. Surveys are an important way for the university to understand what students are experiencing, but they need to be backed up with concrete improvements, students said.

In early March, the Board of Trustees special committee on diversity announced a $50 million investment toward faculty diversification. SU has also increased the number of learning communities geared toward underrepresented communities and hired additional counseling professionals of marginalized identities.

SU tracks its progress toward diversity and inclusion commitments and student demands on its campus commitments webpage.

Students said they hope SU will continue to expand programming for students from underrepresented communities. Though financial commitments to diversity are important, they alone cannot change the culture at SU, students said. 

“You have to be able to feel like you can exist in a certain place to excel,” Magny said. “It goes back to that feeling that you should be here and that you shouldn’t dim your light.”

Asst. Digital Editor Chris Hippensteel contributed reporting to this story.

Published on April 14, 2021 at 10:52 pm

Contact Maggie: mehicks@syr.edu | @maggie_hickss