Syracuse University escalated consequences for #NotAgainSU and increased efforts to clarify administrative action this week. The administration’s response has evolved since previous student protests.

#NotAgainSU, a movement led by Black students, began occupying Crouse-Hinds Hall on Monday to continue its protest of hate crimes and bias incidents on SU’s campus. The movement previously held a sit-in at the Barnes Center at The Arch for eight days in November.

SU placed more than 30 organizers under interim suspension early Tuesday morning for remaining in Crouse-Hinds past the hall’s 9 p.m. closing time. The suspensions differ from Chancellor Kent Syverud’s administrative precedent in responding to campus protests.

Rob Hradsky, senior associate vice president for the student experience, informed protesters in Crouse-Hinds at 9 p.m. on Monday that they would be placed under interim suspension if they did not leave the building.

“I don’t think we should touch any students, but I think we should be like, ‘It’s time to go,’” Dean of Students Marianne Thomson said to Hradsky and other university officials Monday night while protesters privately discussed plans.

The university did not impose conduct sanctions on #NotAgainSU for continuing its sit-in past the Barnes Center’s closing time. The university suspended the rules for that situation, Hradsky said to organizers Monday night.

The university also lifted the rules during an 18-day sit-in at Crouse-Hinds that student protesters staged in 2014. THE General Body, a coalition of SU student organizations, sought to further justice and diversity at SU.

SU has also used official channels — including SU News releases and the SU Campus account on Twitter — to outline facts and challenge the movement’s claims.

Hradsky, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Keith Alford and Interim Provost John Liu clarified SU’s communication with #NotAgainSU in two separate news releases on Monday and Tuesday.

#NotAgainSU demonstrated an unwillingness to engage constructively with SU administration, Hradsky and Alford said in a Monday release.

“Though we continue to support peaceful demonstration and the free and respectful exchange of ideas, at this time, we must enforce established policies,” Hradsky and Alford said.

#NotAgainSU members who remained in Crouse-Hinds past closing violated SU’s Campus Disruption Policy.

Hradsky and Alford stressed that the students were suspended because they violated building occupation policy and not because they were protesting. Liu also emphasized this point in his news release Tuesday.

“Any claim that students are being held against their will is patently false,” Liu said.

The university also has used its SU Campus account on Twitter to provide “facts from campus.” After #NotAgainSU claimed the university has restricted organizer’s access to food, SU tweeted that students are free to leave Crouse-Hinds at any time.

During #NotAgainSU’s sit-in at the Barnes Center, Chancellor Kent Syverud said in a campus-wide email that he had asked members of SU’s Student Experience Team — including Hradsky and Thomson — to work closely with students on their demands.

SU administration’s response to the Crouse-Hinds occupation will continue as “deliberate, united and good faith efforts,” Alford and Hradsky said.

Published on February 19, 2020 at 12:50 am

Contact Marnie: ammunozc@syr.edu