Not Again Not Again Protest Poems
Backside THE PROTEST
1 year afterward the germination of #NotAgainSU
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O
rganizers with #NotAgainSU, a motility led by Black students, began their eight-solar day occupation of the Barnes Center at The Arch one year ago Friday. The motility, formed in response to SU's handling of a series of on-campus detest incidents, pressured university officials to run across its demands and urged them to support students of color.
The movement twice occupied university buildings every bit more than than 30 racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic incidents were reported at or near the university beginning November. 7, 2019.
Following the sit-in at the Barnes Center, organizers occupied Crouse-Hinds Hall for 31 days in February and March, making it 1 of the longest-running student protests in SU's history.
The protests, which centered around the movement's demands to meliorate SU'due south campus climate for students of color, elicited negotiations with, and some concessions from, university administrators.
A year subsequently, here's a await back on the #NotAgainSU movement –– how it started, what it achieved, and where it is today:
Elizabeth Billman | Senior Staff Photographer
Two days before #NotAgainSU's sit down-in at the Barnes Center began, more than 100 students gathered in Watson Theater to limited their concerns with SU'south delayed response to racist vandalism found on 2 floors of Day Hall.
University officials had waited four days to warning the campus community that racist slurs confronting Black and Asian people had been written on Day'south fourth and 6th floor.
The Juvenile Urban Multicultural Plan, a registered pupil organization that aims to bridge the gap betwixt SU students and the city, organized the forum, where students criticized the university, its priorities and how information technology treats Black students.
The conversation continued in a group chat equanimous of students of color who were concerned with how the university was handling racism on campus. After boosted in-person meetings, the group of students went on to form the #NotAgainSU motion.
Sarah Lee | Asst. Photograph Editor
On Nov. 13, 2019, organizers with #NotAgainSU began occupying the Barnes Center to protest what they accounted an inadequate response to hate incidents on campus — a problem representative of larger institutional failures effectually race, diversity and inclusion.
During the sit-in, organizers drafted 19 demands for the university that spanned a diversity of issues related to diversity and treatment of students of colour at SU.
Protesters would remain in the building for 24 hours each solar day, sleeping on the tile floor, often with a crowd and so dense there was niggling room to walk. Donations of nutrient and other supplies poured in from supporters.
Corey Henry | Senior Staff Photographer
Chancellor Kent Syverud first visited the Barnes Center protest for nearly 10 minutes on its beginning day, offering brief comments and reading aloud a list of short and long-term demands written by protesters. He returned a few days later to address more than 200 students in the building, promising the academy would address #NotAgainSU's demands in the coming days.
Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh, Common Council President Helen Hudson and Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens later visited the occupation for virtually an hour to answer questions and express their support for the movement'southward efforts.
When head basketball game coach Jim Boeheim came to the Barnes Center, he told protesters that they can't blame the academy for the deportment of a few rogue students, a statement that angered many in attendance. The adjacent time Boeheim visited the building with pizza, protesters rejected it.
Subsequently the motion made national headlines, political leaders from beyond New York state and the country weighed in on SU'southward response to the racist incidents. Gov. Andrew Cuomo called Syverud's handling of the incidents "ineffective." Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer condemned the hate incidents on campus.
President-elect and SU alumnus Joe Biden, at the time a candidate for the Democratic Party'south presidential nomination, said he was "securely disturbed" past the racist actions at his alma mater. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, at the time Biden's competitorfor the nomination, besides tweeted in back up of the motility, using the hashtag #NotAgainSU.
Daily Orange File Photo
Nearing eight days of protests, hundreds of students, kinesthesia and staff descended on Hendricks Chapel on November. 20 for a forum with Syverud to talk over the movement'south demands. At the fourth dimension, #NotAgainSU had presented 19 demands to Syverud, with th e d eadline for signing them approaching.
Afterward most twoscore minutes, one educatee asked if Syverud would imm ediately sign th e organizers' demands every bit writt en . When the chancellor declined, hundreds of th e protesters flooded out of the building and onto the Quad, chanting "sign or resign."
Th e movement has called for the resignation of Syverud, Department of Public Safety Primary Bobby Maldonado, Senior Vice President for the Educatee Experience Dolan Evanovich, and Acquaintance Main for Constabulary Enforcement John Sardino.
TJ Shaw | Staff Photographer
Afterward protesters exited Hendricks Chapel, they marched to the Chancellor's House on the 300 block of Comstock Avenue. Later on near 30 minutes, they returned to the Barnes Heart while discussions between Syverud and #NotAgainSU organizers continued in Hendricks Chapel. Demonstrators occupied the building for 1 more night.
Post-obit the walkout, Syverud signed 16 of the movement'south demands as written and revised the remaining three due to limitations on his authority to implement them. Later that dark, members of #NotAgainSU told Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Keith Alford they did not accept Syverud's response and would proceed to call for his resignation.
SU subsequently issued a argument disputing a claim from #NotAgainSU that the grouping did not negotiate with Syverud at the Hendricks Chapel forum.
Elizabeth Billman | Senior Staff Photographer
In December, #NotAgainSU staged a walk-out to demand the resignation of Syverud, Maldonado, Evanovich and Sardino. Students met in the lobby of Huntington Beard Crouse Hall before relocating to the steps of Hendricks Chapel, where they had strung a banner between two pillars that read "Bye Kent" in blackness and red letters.
Similar signs naming Maldonado, Evanovich and Sardino appeared in other locations around campus.
The movement ready a January deadline for the university officials to resign, with organizers promising consequences if they did non vacate their offices during that time frame. Post-obit the walk-out, Chris Johnson, associate provost for bookish affairs, met the students outside of Crouse-Hinds Hall, where an organizer handed him resignation letters that they demanded be delivered to Syverud, Maldonado, Evanovich and Sardino.
Corey Henry | Senior Staff Photographer
#NotAgainSU organized a second sit-in at Crouse-Hinds Hall that began Feb. 17. The organizers reissued their calls for the resignation of Syverud, Maldonado, Evanovich and Sardino and would eventually revise their demands to include several additions.
When Crouse-Hinds, which houses the offices of Syverud and other academy administrators, closed that dark, some organizers opted to remain within. At the building's nine p.chiliad. closing time, SU officials threatened the students with interruption for violating SU'southward Student Code of Behave. A little afterward midnight, the university suspended the more than 30 students who remained in the building.
Syverud afterwards lifted the students' suspensions. Organizers would remain inside Crouse-Hinds for xxx more days.
Emily Steinberger | Photo Editor
The morning subsequently #NotAgainSU's occupation of Crouse-Hinds began, th e D epartment of Public Saf ety sealed off the building, preventing outside nutrient, medicine and supplies from entering.
As news of the university's crackdown on the protesters spread, students began to amass outside Crouse-Hinds with food, blankets and other supplies they planned on passing to protesters inside. DPS officers staged at the building's entrances refused them and, on several occasions, engaged in physical altercations with students hoping to pass supplies inside.
Elizabeth Billman | Senior Staff Lensman
Th due east campus community criticized DPS offic ers for their interactions with protesters during the occupation. One video posted to social media showed DPS Deputy Chief John Sardino reaching for his holster during a concrete atmospherics with protesters outside the building.
In response, SU launched an external review of the department led past former United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who served under former President Barack Obama. Syverud announced the review in February and has said he anticipates Lynch volition cease her review past the cease of this semester.
Emily Steinberger | Photo Editor
Subsequently the university reopened the building, more students and kinesthesia joined the organizers already inside and delivered food and other supplies. Some professors held classes inside the space. #NotAgainSU too hosted speeches, teach-ins and poetry recitals. Students from other universities visited the occupation every bit well.
As the occupation continued, the movement called for administrators to enter formal negotiations to address its demands.
Corey Henry | Senior Staff Photographer
When the university did not immediately agree to engage in negotiations with the protesters, more than 100 students, faculty and supporters of #NotAgainSU spilled onto the street on Feb. 26, blocking the intersection of Due south Crouse and Waverly avenues for 2 hours.
Protesters had given administrators until 4:fifteen p.chiliad. that day to arrive at Crouse-Hinds and negotiate with them. These negotiations were never agreed upon previously, SU officials said at the time.
Organizers formed two circles within the intersection for most 40 minutes. Protesters of color formed the inner circle while white protesters stood outside and held hands.
The organizers returned to Crouse-Hinds later that night. Soon later, SU agreed to brainstorm negotiations.
Emily Steinberger | Photo Editor
Negotiations betwixt #NotAgainSU organizers and university officials drew out into 4 split up sessions — iii planned and one agreed to as an extension when the others stalled. In each coming together, tensions ran high and progress came slowly.
Organizers and faculty supporters of #NotAgainSU urg ed a team of university officials to compromise on the movement's demands. They asked SU to, at the very least, issue a argument acknowledging what had taken place in the contentious commencement few days of the occupation. In return, academy officials offered apologies only few concessions.
Officials agreed to implement mandatory diverseness training for non-tenured kinesthesia, hire five counselors and revise SU's Campus Disruption Policy relating to peaceful protests. Simply the move'southward primal demands for disarming DPS and for the university to outcome a statement acknowledging its role in white supremacy went unfulfilled later on hours of debate.
Syverud missed most of the negotiations, only participating once via telephone call. University officials said the chancellor was decorated coordinating the university's response to the rising coronavirus pandemic.
Elizabeth Billman | Senior Staff Photographer
As negotiations wore on, kinesthesia and graduate students at SU rallied to express support for #NotAgainSU'due south demands. Nearly 100 graduate students and workers who identify as Black, Indigenous and people of color, besides as international students, went on strike in solidarity with the movement, vowing to continue until the university fulfilled #NotAgainSU's demands.
A group of faculty supporters, under the name Faculty Action Commonage, also organized a solidarity march that wound across the SU campus. A group of over 100 students, professors and striking graduate workers stopped in front of Sims Hall, Bird Library and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs to echo the movement'southward revised demands into a megaphone.
Volition Fudge | Staff Lensman
Afterward the university formally ended negotiations, #NotAgainSU organizers connected to occupy Crouse-Hinds, demanding SU resume discussions. Protesters remained in the edifice even after students left campus for bound break, which SU had extended to two weeks in response to the worsening COVID-19 pandemic.
#NotAgainSU ended its occupation later 31 days, when organizers secured a virtual meeting with university officials to solidify commitments made on their revised demands. The conclusion came shortly after the academy announced it would move all classes online for the balance of the semester due to the pandemic.
The remaining protesters left Crouse-Hinds on March 18, leaving behind a campus deserted mid-semester.
Emily Steinberger | Photograph Editor
The implementation of the motility's demands besides became a central point in the Educatee Association presidential election. A member of the move — Justine Hastings — would keep to win the SA presidency.
The university, meanwhile, fabricated incremental progress on coming together the motility's demands, adding punishments for bystanders of hate crimes to the Code of Student Carry and allocating $600,000 to a urban center volunteer program.
Lynch's review of DPS has produced the framework for a new review board, through which SU students and employees can recommend subject for DPS officers defendant of misconduct and review the department'southward policies.
Published on November 14, 2022 at 12:12 am
Source: https://dailyorange.com/2020/11/story-movement-one-year-formation-notagainsu/
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