#NotAgainSU organizers and Syracuse University administrators ended negotiations Wednesday without a resolution.

Wednesday was the third day of negotiations between SU officials and #NotAgainSU, a movement led by Black students. The movement has occupied Crouse-Hinds Hall for 17 days to continue its protest of hate incidents that have occurred at or near SU since November.

The movement presented Chancellor Kent Syverud with 19 demands to meet in November. The chancellor signed 16 as written and revised the remaining three. This week’s discussions have focused on the 16 additional demands #NotAgainSU has issued since it began occupying Crouse-Hinds.

The two groups discussed striking graduate students, a review of DPS and the future of negotiations during the Wednesday meeting, originally intended to be the final day of talks. The next set of negotiations will take place Friday from 5 to 7 p.m.

SU administrators started the final day of negotiations by walking back on a promise they made Tuesday concerning the positions of striking graduate students.

More than 100 graduate students and workers who identify as Black, indigenous and people of color, as well as international students, have been withholding their labor since Feb. 19 in support of #NotAgainSU.

Officials promised organizers Tuesday that graduate students would have their current teaching assistantships only temporarily filled. But on Wednesday, J. Cole Smith, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, said striking graduate students may be assigned to different classrooms when they return to work.

“You’re getting the same wages, and that’s all I can say,” Smith said.

Negotiators also returned Wednesday to previous discussions about disarming Department of Public Safety officers and the absence of DPS representation at negotiations.

Gabe Nugent, deputy general counsel for SU, said DPS Chief Bobby Maldonado wanted to be at negotiations, but SU decided he wouldn’t attend given #NotAgainSU’s calls for his resignation.

#NotAgainSU has criticized the way DPS officers have interacted with organizers throughout the Crouse-Hinds occupation, and organizers continue to call for the resignations of Maldonado and DPS Associate Chief John Sardino.

SU officials said they will look into inviting Maldonado to any future negotiations.

“There was a mention here yesterday that he decided not to come, and that wasn’t accurate,” Nugent said.

The university maintained that they will not agree to #NotAgainSU’s demand for DPS officers to be disarmed.

Nugent said Tuesday he was not well-versed enough on the department’s policies to comment about potentially disarming officers in certain circumstances, such as when officers police protests or parties. An organizer said Wednesday that Nugent agreed on Tuesday to prepare responses to questions about DPS protocols he could not answer, but didn’t.

“I’m just telling you we are not going to engage in a conversation about protocols in this context,” Nugent said Wednesday. It’s unfair for protesters to say SU doesn’t care about student safety, he said.

DPS records, policies and protocols are not public, Nugent said. They will be made available for a review of the department that former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch is conducting, he said. Lynch will give students a platform to express concerns about DPS when she conducts her review, Nugent said.

Organizers called into question the purpose and objectivity of Lynch’s review. They also asked administrators how the results would be made public.

“It doesn’t feel very independent when the university is paying Loretta Lynch and didn’t have a conferencing with any of the affected parties on who the review is being done by,” an organizer said.

SU officials said Lynch and a team working with her will conduct the review. The group’s findings will be made public, taking into account privacy, employment and student records laws, they said.

Elizabeth Billman | Assistant Photo Editor

The groups also discussed the university’s counseling services during Wednesday’s negotiations.

Rob Hradsky, senior associate vice president for the student experience, said SU has opened one additional counselor position. Hradsky said Tuesday that he believed the university had adequately addressed the need for counselors and would not add more positions.

SU hired four new counselors prior to the start of the 2019-20 academic year and created four additional counselor positions after #NotAgainSU’s November sit-in at the Barnes Center at The Arch, Hradsky said.

“I want to thank you for sharing your voices and your stories yesterday,” Hradsky said. “I listened to that very closely and want to agree as you requested that we will bring on an additional counselor.”

#NotAgainSU asked for a statement from the university that acknowledges the reality of how SU officials treated protesters in Crouse-Hinds during the beginning of the movement’s occupation.

DPS had sealed off Crouse-Hinds as of Feb. 18, preventing outside food, medicine and resources from entering until the afternoon of Feb. 19. Organizers were allowed to leave at any time, university officials have said. SU provided lunch and dinner to organizers Feb. 18 and breakfast Feb. 19.

The movement said SU’s publicly released statements regarding the occupation have been dishonest.

“Dissemination of misinformation was regularly used as a tactic by this administration,” an organizer said. “Faculty who are informed are furious about this tactic used by the administration.”

Amanda Nicholson, interim deputy senior vice president for enrollment and the student experience, said Wednesday that she will look into the possibility of releasing an additional statement addressing the university’s role in withholding food and other supplies from protesters.

Nicholson and Hradsky admitted they were personally involved in making decisions about access to food. Administrators made “some really poor decisions,” but have learned from their mistakes, Hradsky said.

“I’m sorry that that learning was at your expense,” he said.

Dean of Students Marianne Thomson said she regrets the role she played in deciding to suspend students occupying Crouse-Hinds. About 30 #NotAgainSU organizers were placed under interim suspension for remaining in the building past closing on Feb. 17. The suspensions were lifted Feb. 18.

“I did not agree that that was the right route to go,” Thomson said. “I shared that, and I wish I had shared it stronger.”

SU officials will need to work to develop new policies for dealing with campus protests and disruption, she said. The university can promise that it will not respond to future protests, disruptive or peaceful, by withholding food or resources, she said.

Administrators also said they would communicate with the university’s dean and faculty to encourage professors to allow protesters time to make up assignments. SU cannot provide protesters credit for their work in Crouse-Hinds, administrators said.

“There are always exemptions,” said John Liu, interim vice chancellor and provost. “I don’t want to say every professor has that attitude, but many of them I think will have that passion for you to succeed, and we want to help you to succeed.”

#NotAgainSU organizers asked administrators if at least two members from SU’s Board of Trustees could sign the document of demands administrators have agreed to. SU officials said they would ask, but could not guarantee trustees will sign. Trustee signatures would not bind the board in any way, Nugent said.

“We have delegated authority, and if we want to elevate this to the board, that’s a different timeline we can’t control,” Nugent said. “We cannot tell the board what to do.”

#NotAgainSU’s occupation of Crouse-Hinds will continue until negotiations are finished, organizers said.

Published on March 4, 2020 at 11:59 pm

Contact Michael: msessa@syr.edu | @MichaelSessa3