Editor’s note: Bethanie Viele was a student facilitator of SEM 100.

Despite first-year Syracuse University students expressing dislike for being required to participate in SEM 100, a seminar for first-year students implemented this fall, the course represents a positive effort by SU to change the campus environment.

The SEM 100 class was designed to put students and facilitators of different backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities together into a shared community where they could explore various identities through discussion.

Feedback of the course showed students highly rated their impressions of facilitators and class activities were deemed valuable, said Kira Reed, co-chair of the First-Year Experience Initiative Steering Committee, in an email. Discussion with peers was “identified” as the most valuable component, she said.

After Theta Tau was permanently expelled from campus last spring for its involvement in the creation of videos Chancellor Kent Syverud called “extremely racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, and hostile to people with disabilities,” protests erupted across campus. Students demanded action to improve campus culture. The implementation of SEM 100 — a then-suggested component of the first-year experience — was accelerated, in anticipation of the fall.

While there were issues with the SEM 100 classes, the success of its rapid implementation needs to be recognized. Students were required to engage in uncomfortable topics of diversity, identity and privilege, things they likely never needed to discuss before.

Students have expressed a dislike for the timing of the course, as it began halfway through the semester. Facilitators and students alike have also noted a lack of racial diversity in SEM 100 classes.

First-year student Danny Dacus said that observation forced the class to, “… put the emotional labor on women and other minorities to educate people with privilege.”

With these criticisms it’s important to keep in mind that the SEM 100 class was a fast reaction to an unforeseen controversy.

As our community moves forward, the course should be further improved and, in the meantime, don’t just criticize the imperfections of SEM 100’s first run-through. Instead, acknowledge how SU put forward a valuable opportunity for students to learn and care about issues that may not directly affect themselves.

Bethanie Viele is a junior biology with a focus on environmental sciences major and religion minor. Her column appears biweekly. She can be reached at bmviele@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @viele_bethanie.

Published on November 14, 2018 at 8:03 pm