Morning on the Hill for Sept 30, 2020

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a closer look at the freedom of speech group who sent a letter on behalf of a professor
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who was placed on administrative leave
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plus an inside look at how inclusive you bring students with intellectual and developmental
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disabilities a fully inclusive setting here at Syracuse
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university
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and it was the first presidential debate last night what do students on campus have to think?
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we have all of that and your weather and sports coming up on this edition of Mornings on the
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Hill
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good morning and thank you for joining us for mornings on the hill I�m Xavier brown.
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and I’m Sierra Ryder here’s a look at the top stories we’ll be talking about this morning.
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Our top story this hour Syracuse university has made the top of a list and this time it
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isn’t for a number one party school.
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SU topped the list of the worst colleges for free speech by an organization that recently
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criticized SU in a letter.
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Reporter Sarah Al-Shaikh tells us what the letter said in response from SU faculty.
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it’s not okay it’s not okay university can just choose professors unless they have no
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rights and diminish their rights based on what others believe their speech to be
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the foundation for individual rights in education better known as fire is a national campus
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free speech group fire sent a letter to SU on behalf of
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the chemistry professor put on administrative leave for referring to covet 19 as the Wuhan
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flu and the Chinese communist party virus in his course syllabus. in the letter fire
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says the professor’s comments are covered under the first amendment
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his speech would be protected free speech um and therefore Syracuse is foreclosed from
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prosecuting him or punishing him for his expression
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FIRE urges SU to reinstate the professor and stop the investigation but not everyone is
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defending the professor’s comments
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it was Insulting and it creates a hostile environment for any Asian students
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professor Michael Schwartz was one of the 300 SU faculty who signed a statement Supporting
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Chinese students and faculty he doesn’t think the chemistry professor should be fired but
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instead thinks the professor should engage with the Asian community for a teachable moment
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he needs to learn why this was wrong and why he should never do that again
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professor Shuba Ghosh is a law professor at SU. he says a strength of the letter is its
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argument that the university promises academic freedom to its professors but he also points
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out a problem in the letter
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the main weakness is uh of course the first amendment arguments because Syracuse university
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being a private university is uh not bound by the constitution
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FIRE says they haven’t heard back from SU about the letter yet but they plan to put
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more Pressure with press releases and maybe even a follow-up letter for mornings on the
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hill I�m Sarah Al-Shaikh.
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last night was the first presidential debate our maya locket is here to give us the reaction
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of some students around campus
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thanks guys yes SU republicans and democrat student organizations joined separately last
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night to watch the first presidential debate to watch the first president’s presidential
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debate and many students had a lot to say about both candidates performances.
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many students had a lot to say about both presidents performances, both candidates performances
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many were disappointed in uh president trump’s performance and some actually republicans
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are disappointed in uh president trump’s performance and
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many people actually said that they would rather vote for joe Biden due to trump’s performance
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last night if you would like to see the next two presidential debates the vice president
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for debate will be next Wednesday in salt lake city Utah and the next president’s debate
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will be October 15th at 7 pm thank you
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Syracuse university has a program called Inclusive U designed for students on campus with disabilities
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mornings on the hill reporter josh miller gives us the details on the program
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students at Syracuse university come from different backgrounds and unique places some
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even have disabilities but what is it like to have a disability
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it can be hard sometimes because you don’t, because you don’t know, you know, you don’t
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know if someone’s going to take advantage of you because you have a disability and how
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they going to take it because of your – don’t want to be friends with you because, because
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of your disability and they may take it the wrong way
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oh I like it I like him in the dark sometime and it’s like 10 years ago he was disabilities
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was not going to college but 10 years later people are going and I�m like enjoying life
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students with disabilities on campus are a part of a special organization called inclusive
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u
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inclusive u is a college program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities
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to have a full inclusive college experience
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we’re giving an opportunity for a group of people who’ve been historically denied from
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higher education a chance to be a part of higher education experience everything about
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what makes higher education successful for people
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inclusive U students aren’t just students they’re leaders
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and though every day might bring upon some challenges they are always excited to learn
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they’re trailblazers right they know that they are doing something that might not have
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been an opportunity that would have been afforded to them in the really recent past they make
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the most of this opportunity the motivation and the desire that I see to my students to
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want to be here and to want to grow and to want to experience everything that is college
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one thing’s for certain these students are just like you and I
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trying to succeed in everyday college life josh miller mornings on the hill
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well Syracuse�s wastewater testing is helping keep the community safe this semester our
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Rob Flaks joins us live outside with more information.
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rob?
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thanks sierra I�m standing right out here of Sadler this was one of those dorm rooms
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that had one of those early breakouts in the semester and that’s why they are definitely
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part of that mandatory wastewater treatment program here at SU now this program is geared
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for early detection and prevention of bad outcomes they can’t tell if an individual
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has a virus but they can’t tell where it is which building it’s in and how strong it is
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and that strength is determined by how active the sample is covered sampling can happen
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within two weeks of someone resolving the case and that’s why those shutdowns for those
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dorms have a variance with them now that wastewater detection is a tricky job that requires the
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opening and handling of wastewater directly to collect
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the samples those COVID managers must wear PPE a face shield and glove to make sure they
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can’t get sick they won’t get sick with covet though that’s not something you can catch
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from the waste water but something like cholera is and that’s why that equipment is being
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used now we got a chance to speak with coven manager peruti collaro about
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why the sampling is done and why it’s being done so often
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it’s a sample over a 24-hour period it actually collects 96 samples and it kind of puts them
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together to make one giant sample and the reason we do
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that is it’s because it’s the most representative of how people are using the system if we only
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capture at one point of time say like only 10 people use the system at 4 pm we’re only
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capturing 4 people but if we do it over a 24 hour period
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we catch as many people as possible
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so guys listen the reason that this is happening is because we know that in October there is
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going to be a spike of cases and SU wants to be prepared in fact they’re changing their
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testing strategy to make sure testing will be distributed to way more students in the
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month of October the administration going as far
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so also require flu shots and vaccinations that’s because a study coming out of john
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Hopkins says the mortality rate for someone battling both the flu and coronavirus could
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be extremely deadly and the Syracuse administration does not want that outcome and so they’re
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taking all those precautions those precautions is that wastewater treatment that’s going
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to be scalable to buildings dormitories and even perhaps whole academic buildings off
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campus as well but for now we do know that that flu shot is something that the administration
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is encouraging students to get rob flax mornings on the hill back to
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you guys
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thanks rob well coming up after the break here on Mornings on the hill the carrier dome
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reopened this past weekend with SU football’s home opener against Georgia tech our josh
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miller tells us what it was like covering the fan less game from the inside
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and we go back outside to maya for a look at your weather
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well time to check your weather for today maya is live outside to tell us what to expect
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how’s it looking maya any chance the rain is going to stop soon?
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hi sierra I�m sorry to tell you guys and even though it stopped raining right now the
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rain will continue.
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it is currently 52 degrees in Syracuse let’s take a look at the weather calendar look at
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all of that green just hovering over the city the good news is it’s
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starting to slowly clear out of central new York
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but your Thursday will start out in the 50s with a chance for some for some showers moving
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into the rest of the day the rain is going to subside so that is good but the skies will
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likely be cloudy the temperature will rise to a high of 65 around lunchtime this is your
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five-day forecast and how about the rest of the week some sunshine will peek through during
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the same tomorrow during the same day tomorrow and the weekend we’re taking a look at Friday
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range in the forecast once again so if you’re heading outside today and tomorrow make sure
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you grab those coats and umbrellas to be prepared thank you
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how does a trial class sound a class for prospective students who can sit in with current students
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to see if it’s something they may like jeff Rubin along with the help of other faculty
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started an online course for students who aren’t here yet
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the event was inspired by the need to get the flow of new students back on campus when
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everyone abruptly was kind of sent home and we all shifted from in-person to
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to virtual experiences what happened was not only did that affect students but it affected
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prospective students this is a community calendar where we can find more information about the
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ITS 195 sit-in sports class.
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farmers in central new York were forced to deal with record heat and dry conditions this
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summer our own James Corrigan explores the climate
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challenge they face both now and in the future
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agriculture is one of Onondaga county’s lifeblood putting 350 million dollars into its economy
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family-owned farms like the stone’s throw farm in Nedrow are its backbone producing
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a wide variety of vegetables and flowers among other things this year however was a struggle
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for local farms after the third hottest summer on record and a dry spell that brought few
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days like today
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we could have done real well back you know sporadically here a couple of months ago
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Ryan Lawton the owner of stone’s throw farm has never seen a weather year like this we
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had snow on the ground the middle of may and then flip of a switch we were into the 90s
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this left some of his crops out to dry
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I think our early broccoli crop we harvested probably 10 percent
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the loss of these crops wasn’t the only consequence as Lawton was forced to invest more money
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into irrigating his seeds this is where the finished product ends up a temperature controlled
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facility designed to store these assorted vegetables
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through the winter months and as nourishing as this all looks now Lawton tells me that
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if climate trends continue the way they have he and other central new York farmers may
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get squashed I think it’s only going to get weirder stranger and more challenging and
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you know we’ve got young kids imagining how things will be 20 years 40 or 60 years from
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now I think we all have responsibility to do something today but for now farmers like
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Luton will try their best to make sure locally grown food continues to fill our tables in
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Nedrow.
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James Corrigan mornings on the hill.
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and now we go live to josh miller outside the reopen stadium josh how’s it going out
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there?
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hey sierra the orange won their first game of the season this past Saturday against Georgia
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tech 37-20 a great way to bring in the renovated stadium
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chancellor Ken Syverud took athletic officials and mayor ben Walsh on a private tour of the
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renovated stadium this past Friday.
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the new stadium features a new roof new lights and a new scoreboard and not just any scoreboard
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one of the largest in the country chancellor Syverud was excited to say the
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least
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long time coming in so many senses so yes it’s a happy day and will be a happy day tomorrow
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so josh we know you are in the stadium this past weekend reporting on the game, what was
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it like being one of the first people inside after it reopened?
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it was surreal just overall an awesome experience the scoreboard the roof the lights it’s definitely
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big time
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and what should fans be most excited for once it’s safe to pack the stadium again?
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I think students need to be excited for many years to come it’s so loud in there that you
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can barely even hear yourself even without fans so there’s a lot of excitement in the
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new stadium
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coming up on mornings on the hill reporter Sam Croston takes us inside varsity restaurant
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where orange fans used to love to crowd in and watch the
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game stay with us
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welcome back to mornings on the hill I�m steven shoemaker with your orange sports update
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orange football reopened the stadium in impressive fashion Saturday the game started off with
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a with a first quarter touchdown when quarterback tommy DeVito handed the ball off to Sean tucker
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who would not be denied taking it 38 yards to the house for the first score of the game
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tucker would not stop there later in the first it’s tucker again he would punch it in for
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his second score of the game to put the orange up
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17 to nothing as tremendous as the offense was this game it was the defense that really
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stood out picking off Georgia tech’s quarterback jeff
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sims not once not twice not three but four times in this ball game in the fourth quarter
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sims would be picked off by jihad carter who would then lateral the ball to true
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Williams and he would go all the way to the house touchdown orange that would put an exclamation
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point on the game to give Syracuse their first win of the season here’s the Dino Baber�s
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touchdown in the game and it was good to see the defense and the special teams do the things
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that they did now we have to get better
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the stadium wasn’t the only venue missing fans this weekend our Samantha Croston reports
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from a fan favorite restaurant where people used to pack in tight to watch the orange
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varsity pizza on Marshall street has been the place to go after a Syracuse football
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game since 1926.
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employee eric ockert says at this time last year the place was so packed on game day that
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it was standing room only
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there could be a line all the way down to Faegan�s outside just for people waiting
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to get in
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but this year game days at varsity are going to look a lot different
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if they’re not allowing fans of the games I don’t anticipate that you know it’ll be
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like an awake it’ll be like away games which are typically not that big a crowd
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varsity is limited by government regulations put in place for the pandemic they are only
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allowed 50 occupancy which limits their capacity to 125 people they are also not allowed to
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have parties of larger than 10.
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I wanted to come to the game with your whole crew of friends well guess what you’re going
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to have to split up into groups of smaller than tend
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to come in you know to try to sit down
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Ockert says that varsity is looking into another option to bring in revenue that they never
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considered before
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we’ve traditionally never delivered to dorms and residences we recognize that with the
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pandemic that people you know are looking for delivery you know contactless delivery
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and we’re working on a service to do that for the students
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the trade-off though is that with additional costs for delivery
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employees hand sanitizer and other covert related supplies varsity was forced to increase
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some of their prices everybody’s winding up paying
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for this a little bit
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you might not know it but we have a skating rink on south campus but things are looking
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different at Tennity ice rink let’s head over to Ford Hatchet who is live in front of Tenity,
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Ford?
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yeah you’re right we do have an ice skating rink and I spoke to Tennity ice pavilion employee
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Lucas purstamo and he says like so many other areas of campus there are certain programs
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the rink just can’t accommodate right now during the pandemic take a listen learn to
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skate learn to play hockey learn to play sled hockey unfortunately those we’ve had to put
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on holds but despite everything the rink is unable to do
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pristamo and the whole staff have been hard at work to provide other activities like intramural
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curling free skates and even a new program called glow skates the lights go down every
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skater gets a glow stick and requests their favorite song but no matter what brings someone
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to Tennity, masks and social distancing are required their chairs set up six feet apart
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around the rink and the staff stays busy sanitizing
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we clean those touch points the door handles the check-in area even the dory press to go
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into the bathroom wipe that all down after each session yeah Thomas says anyone planning
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to come to the rink needs to plan ahead reservations are required and can be made online through
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the wellness portal reporting live from Tennity ice pavilion I�m
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Ford Hatchet
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the gold standard of basketball is here as the 75th NBA finals kick off tonight at nine
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the superstar duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis looked to bring the los Angeles lakers
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their first ring since 2010 on the other side of the court will be jimmy butler and the
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Miami heat who will attempt to compete their first historic finals run as the first five
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seed in league history to bring home a championship although only one team can raise the Larry
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O�Brien trophy there is one unique catch a former SU player has the chance to win a
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ring no matter which team takes the title
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now Syracuse has sent over 50 players to the NBA but only one has ever won the title and
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that can change this year because regardless of who wins a former SU star can bring home
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a ring now in his eighth year in the NBA the former SU star began the season with the heat
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then after Miami parted ways with waiters the lakers picked them up so now regardless
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of who wins the NBA finals waiters can earn a ring now of course Miami still has the option
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whether or not to give him his ring because he’s no longer on the team but either way
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it’s still a cool story that waiters has that option reporting
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from mornings on the hill I�m Mat Mlodzinski we send it back to Xavier in the studio
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still to come here on mornings on the hill reporter Ryan Clark took a visit to local
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to a local organization whose mission is to save animals stay with us that story and more
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just ahead
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with businesses being shut down left and right due to the covet 19 pandemic some had to adapt
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to survive the central new York society for the prevention of cruelty to animals did just
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that while hitting numbers they didn’t think they were possible our reporter Ryan Clark
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found out how
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thanks guys well the SPCA was forced to shut down in early march due to the covet 19 pandemic
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when they were able to reopen in mid April they told me their adoption rates have never
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been higher
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outside the SPCA in Syracuse a crowd of cars have gathered despite the animal shelter only
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being open by appointment
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we’ve adopted over 300 animals since April 15.
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it has been phenomenal
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Shaffer says the reason why because people can finally give them the love that they really
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need
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people are home and they’re able to bond with that animal because they are home
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on the other hand drumlin’s country club the site of the SPCA�s annual fundraiser is
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completely empty the golf social typically brings in about 20 thousand dollars for the
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shelter but this year it had to happen virtually
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this would have been our biggest fundraiser
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despite the losses Shaffer believes this is one of the few businesses in Syracuse that
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has finally found a silver lining
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Our dogs are loving the fact that people aren’t walking up and down the kennels all day they’re
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quiet we’re playing classical music they’re relaxed and they’re panels and we have a lot
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of dogs who are great dogs but when you walk by the kennel it looks like they’re going
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to eat your face off
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officials at the SPCA say they have no intentions on going back to their original format of
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adoption and will continue to be open by appointment only for the calendar year good the SPCA told
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me that 20 to 30 dogs typically in a calendar year
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The SPCA are ready for adoption this year during the COVID 19 pandemic there’s not been
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more than five available for adoption at any point this year it’s really a heartwarming
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story out of Syracuse guys it’s really nice to see all those dogs find a home.
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reporting live from Syracuse for mornings on the hill I�m Ryan Clark
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that is going to do it for us here on Wednesday here on mornings on the hill I�m Xavier
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brown.
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follow us on social media
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and I�m sierra Ryder thanks for watching us we’ll see you next Wednesday