#NotAgainSU reflects on 1-year anniversary of Crouse-Hinds occupation

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Today, Feb. 17, marks a year since the start of our occupation of Crouse-Hinds Hall, which lasted 32 days. Following our Barnes Center occupation, we chose to occupy Crouse-Hinds as a way to continue to apply pressure on the administration, as they were not taking our group and/or our demands seriously. As many students on campus witnessed, we endured a tremendous amount of violence due to the administration’s extreme intimidation tactics. The Syracuse University administration starved, suspended and withheld basic necessities from everyone occupying Crouse-Hinds Hall. 

Our occupation came to an end in March due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Since then, we decided to take a step back in order to process everything that occurred in the Crouse-Hinds space, as well as deal with our personal experience with COVID-19. Nonetheless, we would like to thank everyone for their continuous support. We hope that everyone has remained safe and healthy. 

At the beginning of our last negotiation session on March 6, representatives for the administration stated they would not continue negotiating beyond 7 p.m. and any concessions — even those already agreed to — were contingent on ending negotiations that day. This tactic was to pressure student negotiators to give up on demands. It was not an environment of “good faith,” as they had promised to commit to. 

Following the last negotiation session, there were many failed attempts at getting administrators back to the negotiating table. They agreed to a one-hour phone call reviewing everything that they already promised in the negotiation sessions. They ignored the many other demands that we did not get to discuss at all. The call ended abruptly when they hung up on us. 

Last semester, we were dealing with the switch to an online learning experience during a pandemic, while simultaneously dealing with the reality that many of us have not recovered from the trauma that the SU administration inflicted upon us. We decided to take a break in order for us to heal and figure out our own situations. However, this semester, we will be continuing to push for the administration to meet all of our demands (i.e. disarming the Department of Public Safety, freezing tuition, acknowledging white supremacy is upheld by SU) that we have been asking for for months. We will also continue to work to find ways to support Black, Indigenous, and other students of color in ways that this predominantly white institution will not. 

Emily Steinberger | Photo Editor

Over the past couple of months, we have all witnessed massive Black-and Indigenous-led movements for abolition, defunding the police, land back, tearing down statues, along with movements outside the United States that are actively fighting against global white supremacy, colonialism, imperialism and the U.S. empire. We recognize that our fights are interconnected and all the work that we, alongside countless other collectives, are doing is important for the continued struggle for liberation of all oppressed people both here in the illegitimate settler colony of the U.S. and abroad. #NotAgainSU stands in solidarity with anyone who has been a part of or involved with action focused on dismantling oppressive systems and institutions in this country and around the world. 

Due to the administration’s violent treatment of #NotAgainSU, and their complete unwillingness to care for and listen to Black students, we unanimously decided to not work with the administration in any capacity moving forward. 

It is crucial to note that simply because we have decided to not work with administration does not mean that we will not be working to ensure that the demands are met amongst other important and necessary work that needs to be done on campus. The administration has never intended to “work with” students in a meaningful way. They only claim to “work with” students for the purposes of PR and co-optation. 

This year, much like years in the past, student organizers have been funneled into joining the committees and working groups that the university has offered as solutions. As active participants of these groups, we can confirm that progress is not being made on the demands and real work is not being done. 

The administrators won’t ever work with us for the betterment of our experiences because this institution is meant to uphold white supremacy, which imposes violence on Black and Indigenous students. With this in mind, we will no longer be wasting our efforts collaborating with the administration for futile results, and instead will be organizing around creating pressure on those whose job it is to carry out the will of the students. 

More coverage on #NotAgainSU’s Crouse-Hinds occupation:

• #NotAgainSU disputes SU’s depiction of Crouse-Hinds closure
• #NotAgainSU ends occupation after 31 days
• Behind the Protest: One year after the formation of #NotAgainSU
• SU suspends more than 30 #NotAgainSU organizers

The SU campus commitments team sent us a signed document that included their responses to each one of our demands. Their response to each demand included whether or not they were willing to meet the demand and to what extent. We must make it abundantly clear that this is not a win for us, at all. The administrators did not sign off on many of the demands we made in their entirety. They are labeling our demands off as “completed” and “in progress” on their website, even when they are far from being done. The only people who are able to confirm whether or not a demand has been completed to its full extent are the ones who created them. Even demands as simple as an increase in laundry funds that were promised were not followed through on. 

As student activists, many of us have previously participated in committees, working groups and forums that the university sets up only to find that our ideas were never listened to, our time was wasted and we were distracted from more impactful forms of organizing and direct action. While working in these committees, there are constant microaggressions thrown at us. Students often do the exhaustive and repetitive labor of providing recommendations that the administration chooses to ignore time and time again. This dynamic highlights a power imbalance: students on committees created by the administration do not have any real power or influence. The purpose of committees, working groups and forums is to wait out student organizers until they graduate. This results in no productive action and commitment to the necessary work that needs to be done surrounding student protests and their demands. Initiatives created by the admin are formed to create an illusion and a good public image that the school is taking these issues “seriously;” real tangible change comes from the direct action of students and social movement organizing. 

All #NotAgainSU organizers currently identify as abolitionists. 

Abolitionists differ from reformist/liberal groups because reformists/liberals believe that reform work is merely making changes that are at a surface level (i.e. body cameras, diversity training, creating more committees, etc). These “reforms” are ineffective because they are designed to not address the root causes of racism and systemic oppression. 

These “reforms” are ineffective because they will never solve any problems that deal with systemic issues. It does not begin to identify the root problems of racism and oppression. 

We, as abolitionists, are pushing for the necessary demands that will eventually lead to radical change at SU. An example of radical reform would be our demand to disarm DPS, with the intention and hope of one day disbanding DPS on the SU campus and abolishing the Syracuse Police Department in the city of Syracuse. While we continue to work toward this and our many other unfulfilled demands, we will also be focusing on building and maintaining community through engaging with the Syracuse community and prioritizing collective work. This is an intentional decision on behalf of our group. 

Elizabeth Billman | Senior Staff Photographer

#NotAgainSU continues to stand in solidarity with all Black and Brown city residents, Indigenous nations and all colonized people in the U.S. and around the world. We stand with all of our siblings fighting their institutions and challenging the countless administrations that profit off the violence they perpetuate onto us. 

Take care of yourself and each other. In these trying times, we must do our best to practice radical self-love and community love. 

In love and struggle, 

#NotAgainSU