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Members of Syracuse University’s Student Activism Engagement Team spoke to Student Association on Monday about the team’s goals for the rest of the semester.

SAET, which the university created this summer in response to the #NotAgainSU movement, includes three deans, three faculty members, three staff members and one student representative. SA President Justine Hastings currently serves as the student ex-officio in the group.

“This is not set up to be a clearing house for people that want to demonstrate or protest,” said Cole Smith, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science and co-chair of SAET. “There are some universities where they say ‘if you want to stage a demonstration, you gotta go through this particular office’— that’s not us.”

#NotAgainSU, a movement led by Black students, organized two sit-ins last academic year to protest the university’s response to slew of racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic incidents that occurred at or near Main Campus.

During #NotAgainSU’s occupation of Crouse-Hinds Hall in the spring, SU’s Department of Public Safety sealed off the building and prevented outside food, medicine and resources from entering. The university provided food to the protesters.

SAET acts as a middle ground between students and the upper administration, making it crucial that SA be highly involved, Smith said. The team helps students know their rights and responsibilities, answers questions and aims to prevent miscommunication between students and upper administration, he said.

“It is important the SA president serves on the team because the SA president serves as the representative voice for the student body,” Hastings said. “The SA President serves as a community member who can assist students by connecting them with the key decision makers of this university.”

Other business:

• Hastings introduced a bill that would contribute $15,000 to SA SOURCE Research Grants, a program that provides funding for students’ research throughout the summer. SA, the Provost’s Office and SU’s Office of Research have funded the grants since 2019 through.
• SA’s Assembly passed a resolution in support of Callisto, a third-party sexual assault reporting system for SU students. The legislation passed by a unanimous vote.

Published on November 10, 2020 at 12:29 am

Contact Kailey: kmnorusi@syr.edu