SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — When Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud came to Hendricks Chapel, he was expecting to have a dialogue with the not again SU students. When he refused to sign their list of demands as they are, the students walked out. The students are unwilling to budge on a single word of their list of demands. One student organizer says the walkout comes from the cumulation of past frustrations.
“We have been told this before. People have had demands in the past that we have negotiated on, and even the compromise as not met,” she said. “That’s really the issue is that they don’t even budge. They bring it right back to themselves, and that’s the biggest problem. We need more specifics in order to be satisfied.”
Syverud and Chief Diversity Officer Keith Alford discussed those specifics with a small group of student protests. They went behind closed doors during the forum. Afterwards, the Chancellor addressed the remaining members of the public. He said it’ll take more than words to make a difference.
“I don’t think racism on this campus will ever be solved completely,” Syverud said. “I think it’s going to require a culture that constantly works on it every day, every year, and that demands that everybody who works here and comes here. That’s the spirit of what we were asked to do in these demands.”
The Chancellor signed 16 of the 19 student demands after the forum. Nobody knows which ones he did not agree to, but he has suggested changes to them. Syverud says these revisions need to be made to comply with the law or because of the need for the Board of Trustees approval.
