Student Association to collect student feedback for academic freedom statement

Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

William Treloar, president of Syracuse University’s Student Association, announced during its Monday meeting that SA is aiming to collect student input regarding the “Syracuse Statement” — the university’s impending free expression and academic freedom statement.

The statement, which Chancellor Kent Syverud first announced during a Dec. 13 University Senate meeting, will establish SU’s official stance on how it plans to address concerns with academic freedom and free speech in the context of student safety. At their Jan. 24 meeting, Syverud said a committee consisting of Provost Gretchen Ritter, Senior Vice President Allen Groves and a team of SU community members will develop the statement.

Treloar, who is the Undergraduate representative on the committee, said he would like to hear student feedback in order to determine what should be incorporated into the statement to best represent the undergraduate student voice on the committee.

Tim Wong, SA’s chair of diversity, equity and inclusion, said his committee held an over two-hour meeting with several cultural affinity groups on campus at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, including the SU chapters of the Asian American Journalists Association and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Wong said the groups discussed common microaggressions faced in their respective communities. He said AAJA has reported “highly derogatory language” being used throughout campus.

The groups discussed improvements to SA’s “No Problem Too Small” reporting form to make it easier and more accessible for students to submit potential bias incidents. He also said the university needs to update “certain language being used” to make its definition of bias incident more clear.

“We talked about if the language on (the bias incident report form) needs to be critiqued, (such as) the language regarding what constitutes a microaggression or actual bias cases,” Wong said.

SA appointed Ryan St. Jean as its new Supreme Court chief justice during the Monday meeting. It also filled a seat in the University Senate and its internal Board of Elections.

SA elected a new chief justice following Aldrick Cade’s resignation — who voluntarily left the position after graduating during the fall 2023 semester. Kate Richter, a freshman international relations student, will represent SA in USen for the duration of the spring 2024 semester. Caroline Ridge, a junior policy studies and political science student, will join the SA BOE as a chairperson ahead of its upcoming general elections.

Richter said she wants to focus on USen’s Women’s Concerns committee to expand on SA’s Menstrual Week initiative and increase the availability of free menstrual products on campus.

Most places on campus, including Schine Student Center have free paper products after SA’s investment in March 2022, but Richter thinks improving to healthier alternatives “would create a huge impact to not have that stress that students have to worry about.”

Caroline Ridge, who wasn’t present at the meeting, won her re-election as the Board of Elections commissioner for the spring semester. She previously served as a BOE commissioner and wants to “continue the great work they’ve started” through her time in that position, she wrote in a letter that was read on her behalf to the assembly.

Ridge, the current co-president of Best Buddies at SU, wrote that her main goal for this semester is to make voting more accessible and reach more diverse audiences when promoting elections.

“We’re continuing to make progress and make it more accessible for all students at Syracuse to vote, not only in school-wide elections but also in state and national elections,” Ridge wrote. “We’ve also begun working on a website to make it easier to vote for all students.”

Other Business:

• SA is holding information sessions for students interested in running for an SA position during its general elections on Feb. 7, 13, 22 and 28 at 7 p.m. at the Gifford Auditorium of Huntington Beard Crouse Hall.
• SA has completed the final draft of its internal Green Purchasing Guide, which it will now consult when drafting spending bills, Eden Gardner, SA’s chair of community engagement and government affairs, said. SA first voted to create this guide during its Nov. 6 meeting.
• Chet Guenther, project coordinator for the New York Public Interest Research Group, said the advocacy group plans to hold its student action meeting on Feb. 15 in Goldstein Auditorium to work for a “better political state.”
• Aidan O’Connell, an assembly rep and head of the Undergraduate University Senate Caucus, said the University Senate has eight openings for this semester and will have 16 by fall 2024.
• SA also announced several upcoming events, including an Arab Art Workshop on April 26 and the Higher Education Action Day with NYPIRG on Feb. 28.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article stated that SA was gathering student feedback in an official capacity to present it to the Chancellor. This was incorrect. Treloar’s goal is to understand the diverse student perspectives regarding this issue is again in no way collecting official student feedback to present to the committee. Because of this correction, the headline is updated. The article also previously stated the first election information session was Feb. 8. This was incorrect. It is Feb. 7. The article previously attributed Aidan O’Connell’s comments to Otto Sutton. The Daily Orange regrets these errors.