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The Syracuse University Senate discussed the potential ramifications of the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on affirmative action and addressed an upcoming event at SU hosting authors with opposing viewpoints on racial issues during its Wednesday meeting.

In his remarks to the Senate, Chancellor Kent Syverud announced a working group — headed by vice chancellor, provost and chief academic officer Gretchen Ritter and senior vice president and chief student experience officer Allen Groves — to address implications of the Supreme Court’s potential affirmative action strike down.

“We are being very proactive in our approach so that we can be nimble and respond based on the detail of the Court’s decisions,” Syverud said.

The committee does not currently involve any students, which Ritter said is due to the fact that its work is protected under legal privilege. But she said the committee will involve student feedback in the future.

“The committee itself is diverse and inclusive, even without student representation on this one steering committee,” Ritter said. “I am committed and we will be committed to having an inclusion of student voices in the work that we do.”

A decision from the Court is expected sometime this summer, and the committee is discussing Syracuse’s response to the possible outcomes.

“Inclusion has been one of the core tenants of Syracuse University since its founding in 1870. We are committed to maintaining a diverse student body in the future,” Syverud said. “The Supreme Court’s decisions may make this more difficult and may require us to redouble our efforts in different ways, but Syracuse University will remain a diverse and inclusive university.”

Senator Biko Gray, a professor of religion, said he hopes SU will not waver in its commitment to including students of color regardless of the case’s outcome.

“It seems to me that whatever the Supreme Court does, I think it is this institution’s moral responsibility to uphold — in whatever way, shape or form — a commitment to students of color and specifically to Black students, even if that means going against whatever the Supreme Court does,” Gray said.

The Senate also addressed an upcoming event — set up as a conversation between “Entertaining Race: Performing Blackness in America” author Michael Eric Dyson and John McWhorter, author of “Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America” — titled “Fostering a Diverse and Healthy Democracy in a Period of Polarization.”

Several senators expressed their concern about SU bringing McWhorter in to speak. McWhorter, who is a professor of linguistics at Columbia University, has been critical of the anti-racism movement.

“I’m deeply troubled that John McWhorter is going to come here. I understand that we need to have two sides and all of that, but I think there’s a certain difference between equivocation for equivocation’s sake and someone whose work quite frankly produces a kind of rhetorical violence against Black people,” Gray said.

Ritter said the event intends to model democratic discussions in which strong ideological differences are present.

“I hope that we will have students, faculty and staff who come who see this as an interesting and worthwhile conversation, for whom it provokes further dialogue in consideration on some of the issues that are raised,” she said.

Gray maintained that inviting McWhorter to speak puts the Black community in a precarious position.

“Giving people platforms to articulate ideas that could be dangerous for folks who are from marginalized communities … there is an ethical concern about that. John McWhorter is one of those people,” Gray said.

Other business

Syverud said he has reviewed Student Association’s sustainability report and expects to make a joint announcement with SA’s leadership before the next USen meeting regarding steps the university can take to increase sustainability efforts.

Suzette Melendez, chair of USen’s committee on race, ethnicity, equity and inclusion reported the committee held discussions on the increased need for student access to the food pantry due to changing socioeconomic conditions. Additionally, the committee discussed available prayer spaces for Muslim students and the processes for reporting bias-related incidents.

Ritter encouraged all faculty to complete training offered by the Office of Student Experience about how to support and identify students experiencing mental health issues.

Published on March 23, 2023 at 1:34 am

Contact Claire: charri39@syr.edu