ACC Leadership Symposium, Syracuse lead crisis at the forefront of latest SA meeting

Five members of Syracuse University’s Student Association traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania over the weekend to attend the Atlantic Coast Conference Leadership Symposium, an annual three-day event focused on addressing common issues across college and university campuses.

SA members Reed Granger, Oji Anderson, Malique Lewis, Anna Ginelli and Ryan Nkongnyu represented SU at the event, where they collaborated with other schools and their student associations. Granger said the event helps students develop new ways to address student concerns and grievances.

Students who attended the event participated in activities set up to challenge their problem solving in mock campus instances, which Anderson and Granger said surrounded issues like mental health, social inclusion and representation.

SA Chief of Staff Malique Lewis emphasized the importance of representation of culture within a community, as well as the harmonious effort of making change. He addressed SA members regarding their roles as student leaders on campus.

“You guys are all thermostats, not thermometers — you don’t just reflect the problem,” Lewis said. “You guys saw a problem on this campus, and you said, ‘I want to join an organization where I can make that change.’”

Lewis added that the event made him realize the impact SU’s SA has on other student governments across the country.

“Another big thing is that we’re not alone,” Lewis said. “And especially, different universities are going through the same things that we’re going through, which means that we’re really highlighting a bigger problem.”

President David Bruen and Vice President Adia Santos also spoke about issues impacting colleges and universities nationally, and addressed the Feb. 13 shooting at Michigan State University which killed three students and severely injured five. Bruen said when it comes to tragedies like last week’s at MSU, he doesn’t have the answers.

“Obviously, this is a deeply important issue,” Bruen said. “And at this point, we’re kind of at a loss of what we can do substantively to address this issue.”

Bruen and Santos also addressed the lead paint crisis in the city of Syracuse — an average of 26.5% of children from Syracuse’s Southside tested with elevated blood lead levels. Bruen identified Syracuse’s growing proximity to the severity of the crisis in Flint, Michigan, where a switch by the city to a lead-infested water source caused outbreaks of Legionnaire disease and continuing health detriments.

Bruen said that at a community meeting he and other SA members recently attended in Syracuse, a group began discussions about using $150,000 in public funds to address the crisis and help the community. He pointed to the ranging effects of the lead paint crisis, identifying how it plays into larger socioeconomic dynamics in the city.

“Of course, this is an issue of economic and racial implications because lower income families don’t have the ability to (safely) replace lead paint or pipes that are infecting their own families,” Bruen said.

SA is also planning to meet with a member of the social impact team at Micron, which plans to invest up to $1 billion in a semiconductor manufacturing plant near Syracuse. He said SA and the Micron representative will discuss collaboration about the company’s investment in the community and its developing relationship with SU.

Santos conferred Micron’s goal to focus on eliminating food banks by creating a community where families are able to afford to sustain themselves. She said she’s optimistic about the company’s willingness and ability to bring resources to the central New York community.

“The head of social impact did seem really passionate about the fact that they’re not necessarily just here to give people a resource, like a food thing,” Santos said. “They really want to make sure that their community is sustainable for itself.”

Other business:

SA is working with Orange After Dark to put together a Syracuse Formal in Goldstein Auditorium. Neither organization has announced a timeline for the event.

SA passed a bill at the meeting to Sustainability Peer to Peer meetings, a program which works to establish a channel for students to learn more about sustainability and its role on campus.

The newest University Senators — Adam Baltaxe, an International Relations and Spanish sophomore, and pre-law sophomore Linda Baguma — were voted in.

The Black Excellence Gala, hosted by the Black History Month Committee, will include hip-hop and R&B musicians including Kiana Ledé, the Brownskin Band and violinist Joy Black at its annual event on Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Goldstein Auditorium.