Editor’s picks: The top news stories of 2020
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For many members of the Syracuse University community, 2020 was a year of adversity. In a matter of months, SU faced intense anti-racism protests and an unprecedented campus shutdown triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, surfacing inequities and institutional failures that have long existed at SU.
The Daily Orange’s News section has chosen the best written and most influential pieces of the year. Here are our picks:
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Sarah Lee | Asst. Photo Editor
Behind the protest: One year after the formation of #NotAgainSU
Starting Nov. 7, 2019, Syracuse University and the surrounding neighborhoods were the site of more than 30 racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic incidents, ranging from graffitti to verbal and physical attacks.
#NotAgainSU, a movement led by Black students, twice occupied university buildings to protest the university’s handling of the incidents and call attention to systemic racism at SU. Following an eight-day sit-in at the Barnes Center at The Arch, organizers occupied Crouse-Hinds Hall for 31 days in February and March, making it one of the longest-running student protests in SU’s history.
The protests, which centered around the movement’s demands to improve SU’s campus climate for students of color, elicited negotiations with, and some concessions from, university administrators.
Corey Henry | Senior Staff Photographer
STEM dominates SU leadership and research, professors say
SU’s department of biology received over $6 million in research funding awards in 2019. So did the department of physics. Women’s and gender studies, African American studies and SU’s writing program didn’t receive any research awards. Neither did SU’s Humanities Center, which offers programming, faculty and graduate student fellowships and visiting professorships.
Professors said the disparities, which are prominent at many universities in the United States, represent a troubling trend in which academics from the hard sciences increasingly dominate research leadership positions. The result, they said, is a lack of funding, support and appreciation for the humanities in higher education.
Talia Trackim | Senior Staff Designer
Faculty divided over university-wide diversity curriculum
As the series of racist incidents rattled SU, some professors published a statement on behalf of faculty that proposed a university-wide liberal arts core curriculum to improve campus climate and educate on issues of diversity.
The statement received 148 faculty signatures — but none from faculty in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, the School of Information Studies or the College of Engineering and Computer Science. The rifts over liberal arts course requirements between faculty based in the arts, humanities and social sciences and those based in professional development schools or STEM will shape how SU implements university-wide curriculum change moving forward, professors said.
Elizabeth Billman | Senior Staff Photographer
Between 2 worlds: how Syracuse’s racist housing policies created a racial divide
Racist government policies, including redlining and urban renewal projects such as the construction of the Interstate 81 viaduct, haven’t just displaced families — they’ve also created visible discrepancies in access to quality housing that remain in Syracuse today.
For some city residents who attend SU, the walk from their communities to campus is a walk between two worlds. As the whiter neighborhoods surrounding the university attract development and opportunity, other residential neighborhoods — especially those primarily occupied by the city’s Black, Latino, immigrant and refugee communities — face neglect.
Daily Orange File Photo
Joe Biden wins: 1st Syracuse University alumnus to be elected president
Joe Biden will become the first SU alumnus to serve as president of the United States. His victory came four days after Election Day, as the country waited for several key battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, to count a massive volume of mail-in ballots.
Biden graduated from SU’s College of Law in 1968 and has maintained connections with the university throughout his political career. His running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California) will be the first woman, first Black person and first Asian American person to serve as vice president.
Emily Steinberger | Photo Editor
Students describe COVID-19 testing delays, gaps in SU’s contact tracing
After nearly a semester of success handling the COVID-19 pandemic on campus, SU announced Nov. 11 that it would transition to online learning amid a rise in cases. Five days later, the university reported a record of 700 students in quarantine.
Some students, many of whom tested positive for the virus or came in contact with others who had, said the university’s failure was inevitable. Despite the efforts of administrators, health officials and dedicated student workers, SU students described a chaotic COVID-19 response characterized by delays, miscommunication and stark procedural gaps that left the university vulnerable.
