SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Syracuse University students founded a club, Connect 315, that turns to fellow students to help address concerns in the Syracuse surrounding area. Connect 315 hopes to educate students on concerns in the community by choosing an issue once a semester to focus on, and working with Syracuse City Planners to come up with solutions to these issues. This month, the concern is the I-81 viaduct demolition.
SU student and club executive board member Anjana Dasam says it is our responsibility as students living in certain dorms to be aware of the impact of I-81. “People that live in Sadler, BBB, They’re literally a few steps away from the I-81 Viaduct,” Dasam says.
According to Dasam, the impact of I-81 has effected the community greatly with gentrification and the separation of close communities. Tearing it down, will cause even greater issues of construction pollution.
President of Connect 315, Conor Murphy says that the main goal of the club is to educate students on what is happening around them to . “We feel like students too are really talented and really capable, and really can be forces for good, and so we wanna encourage them to be informed about what’s happening,” Murphy says. “They’re not just here on campus, they’re in a community.”
Murphy says we aren’t just students up on the hill, and that we must be aware of how we can help improve the lives off campus as well by going out into the community.