thursday, mar. 28, 2024
celebrating 120 years
free
N • Common ground
C • Sap season
S • Celebrating 25 years
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Hendricks Chapel held weekly interfaith discussions as part of an inaugural Jewish-Muslim Dialogue Fellowship in February.
Maple syrup production is the “centerpiece” of life for many central New York families. Yet, the business of maple sugaring is changing.
Syracuse softball is amid its 25th season in D-I. When it began in 2000, SU delivered an above .500 season despite limited funding.
“Syracuse University needs to stop parading diversity, equity and inclusion — needs to stop parading people of color — if they are not going to actually commit to the change that they say they want to see.” jordan beasley, president of bsu “It don’t feel the same way as it did with #NotAgainSU... but it’s even worse now.” jordan Pierre, grad student
Eroding education The state of African American Studies at Syracuse University
“How can I tell another Black kid to come to this school and they’re not teaching us about our Black history? It just is backwards.” john bol ajak, former su basketball player “Speaking of killing a department, that is a recipe.” s. n. sangmpam, aas professor By Ahna Fleming and Kendall Luther the daily orange
T
he songs and chants of the Civil Rights Movement echoed through the quiet, empty corridors of the second floor of Syracuse University’s Sims Hall as Herbert G. Ruffin II, associate professor of African American Studies, taught a handful of students about Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Nearly 60 years ago, King spoke at Sims Hall about “inequities in American education.” In 1969, four years after his speech, more than 100 Black students demonstrated on the front steps of the university’s administration building, demanding SU address the needs of Black students. The protest led to the 1971 creation of the AAS program and its Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, and in 1979, AAS was officially established as a department in the College of Arts & Sciences. But on Jan. 12, 2024 — the last business day before spring semester classes started — AAS faculty and staff
received an email notifying them that their department would have no chair for this semester. The decision was made after no agreement was reached for an interim chair appointment of Ruffin, the email states. “In the meantime, activity will proceed as normal this semester in the department. Your committees will do the work they normally do,” wrote Gerald R. Greenberg, the senior associate dean for academic affairs. Just as books by Black authors are banned across the country, Horace Campbell, professor of African American studies and political science, said SU is gradually “destroying” its A AS department — “the only SU unit dedicated to comprehensive academic study of Black lives, histories, political dynamics and cultural practices.”
Department chairs
S. N. Sangmpam, a professor of African American studies and political science, said the AAS department typi-
cally follows its set bylaws when selecting a chair. When requesting a new chair in the past, faculty went to a meeting, said they needed a new chair, read the department’s bylaws and began the process, he said. In his about 35 years with A AS, Sangmpam said he has seen the department follow these procedures when electing chairs internally and functionally working with the university when they needed to find an outside candidate. “All these chairs were chosen, selected, following procedures. They were elected. There was no fight, no coup d’état, there was no dysfunction,” Sangmpam said. “They did what the department asked them to do.” A university spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Daily Orange that there have been seven department chairs, including multiple interim chairs, in the last 10 years. Of those seven, the spokesperson wrote, five have served one year or less. see aas page 4
on campus
SGEU contract result of over 2 years of organizing, activism By Dominic Chiappone senior staff writer
After arriving at Syracuse University in August 2022, second-year sociology graduate student Hayden Courtney met a graduate student and fellow classmate at Recess Coffee in Westcott. The first SU graduate student Courtney met was a part of Syracuse Graduate Employees United, back when it was in its “nascent stages.” “Some people approached me and they’re like, ‘Hey, are you a grad worker? Oh, did you know that we’re organizing here on campus?’”
Courtney, who is also a teaching assistant in social theory, said. “I’m like, ‘I haven’t even been on campus.’” Over the course of more than two years, Courtney worked behind the scenes along with the rest of SGEU leadership to form an official union for SU’s graduate student workers in April 2023. After SGEU agreed to an inaugural contract with the university on March 19, Courtney said he couldn’t have been more pleased. “We won the election last year… I had never been so excited. This was a different thing where you see the fruits of your love and labor going into
one thing,” said Courtney, a member of SGEU’s bargaining committee. “I think everybody kind of felt that where it’s just like finally, what you’ve been trying to strive for has happened. The thing that is going to make sure that people have better lives here has finally hit.” Graduate student workers voted 92% in favor of affirming a new collective bargaining agreement with SU after approximately seven months of negotiations. The new agreement includes a median 24% stipend increase for next year, extended health care coverage through SU
and improved financial support for international students. Negotiations between SU and SGEU began in September 2023 after graduate student workers overwhelmingly voted to recognize SGEU as their union in April 2023. SGEU announced both parties reached a tentative agreement on a new contract on March 19. Sadie Novak, a member of the SGEU bargaining committee, said the collective work of all graduate workers created the opportunities to form a union and finalize the new contract.
Both SU and SGEU strived for “good faith” bargaining throughout the negotiation process, Novak said. “There were a lot of things happening that I think was motivating both sides,” Novak, who is also a research assistant and teaching assistant in the chemistry department, said. “SGEU wants a fair contract for workers that can go into effect as early as next year, which is what we got, and SU obviously probably wanted to avoid a scenario where we could potentially have gone on strike.” see sgeu page 4