thursday, october 2, 2025
celebrating 122 years
free
O • Healthy debate
C • ‘No downside’
S • Shot stopper
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The emergence of “Prove me wrong” debates has caused us to leave behind productive discourse for close-minded conversation.
Murals honoring the city’s landmarks and trailblazers have popped up on buildings and streets downtown recently.
Shea Vanderbosch became Syracuse’s career saves leader in its game against No. 3 Stanford on Sunday.
‘Anticipatory obedience’ SU quietly removed DEIA language from its IDEA course description over the summer undergraduate course catalog
2024-25
undergraduate course catalog
2025-26
By Delia Sara Rangel
S
news editor
yracuse University removed over half of the words in its Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility course description and altered the language of two of its six shared competencies over the summer, removing blatant mentions of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility-related words. Nearly all SU undergraduate students are required to take an “IDEA course,” meant to give students an opportunity to “explore concepts in social justice,” according to SU’s 2024-25 course catalog. Now, the classes are referred to as “Idea courses,” removing the meaning from the previous acronym. The changes will have “no impact on students’ course obligations, learning experience or outcomes,” a university spokesperson said in a Tuesday statement to The Daily Orange. “The IDEA acronym encapsulates the core concepts of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility,” an excerpt of the old version reads. “These concepts are integral to models of social justice, and through their examination students can learn about important values, voices, and lives that have been marginalized and erased, along with strategies to create stronger and more just communities.” The university cut 165 words from its description, leaving no mention of DEIA or related words like “social justice,” “marginalized,” “oppression” and “equitable.” The course catalog’s new language says the Idea course gives students the opportunity to explore “historical, societal, and intercultural perspectives” in national and international contexts. The full new version reads: “The Idea course requirement provides undergraduate students the opportunity to explore historical, societal, and intercultural perspectives in the U.S. and global contexts. These courses may be taught at any school and college at the university and may satisfy requirements in the students’ program of study.” As President Donald Trump’s administration continues to target higher education institutions for their DEIA practices, SU professors said they’re worried because faculty were not involved in the changes. “We’re constantly being told that no courses are being abolished, and that people are free to teach what they want to teach,” said Margaret Susan Thompson, co-chair of the University Senate Academic Affairs committee. “And to a great extent, that’s true. But if I were an untenured faculty member right now, I would be very nervous about what I was teaching.” see idea page 4
According to the official rules, we control curriculum, but everything else is really just advisory to the administration. But where do you draw the line? Everything we do gets related to curriculum somehow. Steven Diaz
ilana zahavy presentation director
professor and former member of usen curriculum committee
chancellor search
Chancellor committee seeks transparent, value-aligned leader By Delia Sara Rangel and Kendall Anne Luther the daily orange
After a week of gathering community input through engagement sessions, Chancellor Search Committee cochairs highlighted the importance of feedback in shaping the university’s next leader. In an interview with The Daily Orange, co-chairs Shelly Fisher and Lisa Fontenelli discussed their engagement sessions, community feedback and the committee’s timeline as they seek Chancellor Kent Syverud’s successor. “ This is really a campus-wide experience, but the themes and the
information that are coming in from all these different constituencies, that’s what’s coming together in order to craft what this is going to look like going forward,” Fisher said. The two found themselves leading the committee after Board Chairman Jeff Scruggs reached out to Fisher and Fontenelli, personally asking them to take on the role. The now co-chairs had several conversations before accepting the offer, they said, recognizing the commitment and responsibility the role holds. “It is one of the most important responsibilities of the Board of Trustees to hire the chancellor, the chief executive, if you will, of the university, and so I didn’t say yes right away,” Fisher said.
As the 24-member committee — which consists of trustees, staff members, students and faculty — continues its search, it will put together a “position profile” detailing the qualities and attributes the group is looking for in candidates. The “public-facing document” will also address the top priorities and challenges SU faces. The engagement sessions, hosted between Sept. 21 to 29, were held inperson and on Zoom for the local community, alumni, students, staff and faculty to help the committee gather “ideal characteristics, attributes and qualifications,” according to its website. “It’s the input from the campus community and all the stakeholders
of the university that really helps us to inform what that position statement will say,” Fisher said. “We’ve learned a tremendous amount through those engagement sessions.” Selections will be kept confidential to uphold the privacy of each candidate, Fontenelli said. Throughout the engagement sessions, Fisher said top priorities the committee gathered from students included open and consistent communication, “especially” during times of change. Students were also largely concerned with SU’s connections to the city of Syracuse, international student support and protecting free speech, among others.
Over a third of SU’s Center for International Services staff did not return for the fall semester, leaving the office that oversees the school’s international student body with reduced personnel. At the University Senate’s September meeting, Syverud addressed a decline in the percentage of international students enrolled in the “undergraduate entering class,” which decreased to 5% this year from 12% two years ago. Requested by Syverud in December 2023, the university’s “Syracuse Statement on Free Expression and Free Inquiry” outlines several commitments related to faculty and student speech on campus, highlighting the see co-chairs page 4