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Leaning into AI usage threatens authentic creativity. Sacrificing the essential human element of art to efficiency omits AI’s risks.
Syracuse University students share how they personalize their off-campus housing through decorations
Gary Bryant III’s childhood was rocky, but now he’s shining with Syracuse University leading in tackles.
Major pauses Syracuse University’s College of Arts & Sciences pauses admission to 20 majors amid portfolio review
By Delia Sara Rangel and Kendall Luther
S
the daily orange
yracuse University paused admission to 20 majors in the College of Arts and Sciences without faculty input as part of its ongoing portfolio review. Arts and Sciences Dean Behzad Mortazavi informed department chairs representing humanities, math and natural sciences of the enrollment pause in a Monday meeting, a department chair in attendance told The Daily Orange. “The most important thing is the way they did it,” said the chair, who asked to remain anonymous due to potential retaliation. “It continues the culture of mistrust and worry, like people are really worried.”
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Majors paused as a result of College of Arts and Sciences’ academic portfolio review
Students cannot currently enroll in 20 majors at the College of Arts and Sciences, thanks to an academic portfolio review of the school’s programs. design by ilana zahavy presentation director, snapshots via common app
The 20 majors from Arts and Sciences are no longer listed on SU’s Common Application for first-year and transfer students. Now-Vice Chancellor and Provost Lois Agnew had instructed each dean to begin an academic portfolio review within their school or college, she announced in an Aug. 20 campuswide email. The deans were provided with “detailed data” – including enrollment trends, course and faculty information – to examine their respective programs, degrees and majors. “I have asked the deans to work closely with their faculty to determine which programs are stable, which could benefit from re-envisioning or re-branding and which, based on clear evidence and market demand, may need to be phased out,” Agnew wrote. The chairs will deliver the recommendations to the Provost by the end of the semester, and she plans to report the next steps during January’s University Senate meeting, according to the August email. Ahead of Monday’s meeting, Arts and Sciences faculty were instructed to prepare an update on their department evaluations. Before chairs presented, Mortazavi shared an image listing the college’s over 50 see program cuts page 6
on campus
SU says DPS controls oversight, access to campus Flock data By Griffin Uribe Brown social media editor
Flock Safety, the company behind the eight license plate readers Syracuse University installed on campus last month, maintains that its technology does not infringe on the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees protection from unreasonable search and seizure. Because license plates are government-issued and used on public roads, Flock’s website says the readers comply with the Fourth Amendment. The website also says the technology doesn’t
“track people” like a GPS; rather, it only captures images in a set location. Sidney Thaxter, a senior litigator at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Fourth Amendment Center, said Flock’s language is “deceptive.” Case law has found that a oneoff instance of using cameras may not violate the Fourth Amendment, but multiple cameras across enough locations could. “That statement, they’re basing it on a few decisions that didn’t actually explore Flock’s network in particular and the massive reach of their data set
that they can dip into,” Thaxter said. The automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, use cameras to capture car information and run it against a wider surveillance database. The readers have been used to find stolen vehicles or aid in missing persons searches. On its website, Flock says its readers allow users to “tap into the nation’s largest crime-solving LPR network.” Flock is a $7.5 billion Atlantabased surveillance company founded in 2017. The company sells hardware and software to cities, schools, businesses and homeowners associations. It also offers other products, includ-
ing video cameras, drones and mobile security trailers for parking lots. Using “Vehicle Fingerprint” technology, artificial intelligence-powered software included in all Flock LPR cameras, the devices also identify and store a car’s make, body, color, plate state, whether or not it’s a resident or non-resident plate and other identifiers like roof racks or bumper stickers. In June, Flock announced the ALRPs could be updated to capture video with an optional no-cost software update, making them more akin to regular surveillance cameras. Flock consistently emphasizes its
“customers own their own data.” But in the past, by opting to access data from other institutions using Flock readers, some of its users — including the Syracuse Police Department — appeared to have made their collected data available to others. “Law enforcement agencies do not have automatic access to our data,” an SU spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Daily Orange. “Flock has suspended ICE’s access to its system and has also disabled auto-sharing rights to ensure that all clients, including Syracuse Unisee flock page 6