The Student Association hosted its First Annual Student Leaders Summit in Goldstein Auditorium Wednesday evening, which brought together student leaders from approximately 150 campus organizations to discuss three topics that an SA survey had identified as the most pressing for Syracuse University.

Student leaders were strategically placed at tables, with an SA ‘scribe’ recording the topics discussed and faculty members neutrally facilitating debate, where they discussed issues of diversity, campus safety and first-year students living on South Campus, said Juanita Perez Williams, associate dean of students.

Chancellor Nancy Cantor was the keynote speaker and expressed her desire for students to become involved in advising administrators on students’ needs. Cantor offered proposals in each of the highlighted areas and asked the students to offer policy suggestions so she could pass them on to her cabinet.

‘I see this (the summit) as a real turning point from my perspective in the rising of the student leadership to both come together but also to collaborate with us,’ Cantor said.

‘And I pledge to you that we will take absolutely seriously our responsibility to come forth on the kinds of suggestions you make.’

SA President Ryan Kelly stressed the importance of communication between student groups during his address.

‘We need to build a sense of urgency,’ Kelly said. ‘Communication is the key to solving these pressing issues.’

Kelly and the chancellor each made it clear that they wanted the dialogue to result in actual policies.

‘By tangible results, I literally mean proposals,’ Kelly said.

Diversity

Concerning the topic of diversity, the chancellor said she wants to expand mentoring programs for first-year students of color.

During the summit, the student leaders rallied behind a different route for combating issues of diversity: to require the inter-group dialogue class for all incoming students.

It was the diversity issue that led to the summit’s speedy organization.

‘What you had to kind of fuel this, is the issues on South Campus were coming to a pivotal point,’ Williams said. ‘And it was primarily with the students of color on campus that were meeting on South Campus, having town forums about ‘why does South Campus appear to be primarily people of color?”

First-years on South

The issue of first-year students living on South Campus was the final issue to be addressed, yet Cantor used the topic as an opportunity to make broad proposals for changing South Campus.

‘On South Campus, the most important thing is for people to have a mind shift about South Campus,’ said Cantor in an interview, ‘and help us create it by putting in resources, helping us create it as a really attractive option.’

Cantor’s proposals included an express bus from Skytop to North Campus, continuing the trial-run of Goldstein’s expanded hours, altering the dining options for South Campus residents, increased Public Safety presence, basing more OSL staff members there and adding new flood lights near the Slocum Heights apartments and Chinook Drive area.

‘We’ve all taken an interest in what is going on there,’ Kelly said of South Campus. ‘The bussing services, I think, is probably the first thing that people might see’ as a result of the summit.

The chancellor also discussed the broader housing situation at SU. She said there needed to be a ‘massive collaboration’ between the east neighborhood and the university to discuss recent calls, by Syracuse locals, for more apartment-style housing, which Cantor said the university will be adding to both North and South Campuses.

Safety

On the topic of safety, from South Campus, to the east neighborhood, to North Campus, Cantor said the ‘data only goes so far,’ and that there has not been a perceptible change in the volume of crime at SU in recent years.

‘It is still completely unacceptable to us,’ the chancellor said. ‘We need to make safety a priority.’

‘The key issue will be student participation in helping us implement the kinds of policy changing in DPS, in transportation, in the kinds various lighting and all things, so we don’t put a lot of resources into implementing things students don’t see helping with safety,’ she said.

Cantor also discussed the controversial topic of adding electronic surveillance to campus and said she doesn’t ‘want to have a chilling atmosphere.’ A task force has been established to examine the issue.

The Summit

The idea for a summit stemmed from SA’s constitutional obligation to hold open forums. Former SA President Wayne Horton and Williams developed the concept in a meeting last fall and, after SA received survey responses from 500 student organizations, the Office of Student Life planned the logistics during the winter break, Horton said.

‘They wanted to do something annually that brought students together to talk about what is impacting campus,’ Williams said. ‘It came about because they felt issues such as Hill TV and some of these crisis things that happen seem to pull people together and then they never come together. They wanted to have an opportunity to do a forum of some sort, without the crisis.’

‘Communication is not enough, we need tangible results,’ Kelly said. ‘Having the chancellor here and saying that she is working on the express bus and everything else, these are tangible things that are going to happen from this event.

‘What I am hoping is that we can make this an annual thing, where the top three issues can be discussed, the chancellor can address them, and the chancellor can come up with proposals, as well as us,’ he said.

SA plans to compile all the data and publish an online booklet that will list suggestions, describe the proposals and be updated once the policies become realities, he said.

‘What I think is so critical is the size of the gathering,’ Cantor said. ‘You know it’s student leadership organizations. We can really see the issues from lots of different angles.’

‘They sold out,’ Kelly said. ‘People were asking to get in, the demand was huge.’

The event was co-sponsored by the Office of Student Life and the Team Against Bias. Twenty tables were spread across the Goldstein floor, and a full catering staff served the participants family-style salad, pasta, cookies and candy. The student activity fee provided the primary funding for the event.

‘It’s been absolutely amazing,’ Horton said. ‘A lot of great things are going to come of this and if we continue it, it will really, really give students an opportunity to have their ideas brought straight to the people who can make absolute change.’

Published on January 31, 2007 at 12:00 pm