Rachel Spinella
Staff Writer
On Nov. 21 of 2019, according to CBS News, reports were made that a white supremacist manifesto was sent to students of Syracuse University through AirDrop. However, two days ago, the chancellor stated that it was likely a hoax while also pointing out that the school hadn’t responded to other racist incidents.
On Monday, authorities said they had received reports in which a document had been posted in an online forum and that an unknown user was attempting to send it to cellphones of students at the main campus library late that night using AirDrop. AirDrop is a file sharing service that allows iPhone users to send files to other Apple products besides iPhones, like iPads that are close enough within range of Bluetooth or WiFi.
Due to the late hour, the university wasn’t able to discuss the matter at the time followed by the alarm that came with it, spreading across social media. The matter was finally addressed on Tuesday, but by Wednesday, protests began by students wanting to address hate and diversity.
Such recent incidents include a female student stating that several fraternity members and their guests had been verbally attacking her by using the N-word. This was cited to be the sixth racially charged incident to have occurred in 10 days as was reported by CBS News. The incident happened Saturday night, that in which prompted protests at the university.
In response to the incident the chancellor Kent Syverud said, “I have a deep appreciation of the pain, anger and anxiety recent events have caused our campus,” He continued by saying, “The social activities of all fraternities have been suspended for the remainder of this semester.”
This followed another incident to occur, that took place on campus was when cars were “defaced with racist symbols and anti-Asian and anti-Semitic graffiti.”
Despite these incidents, authorities still haven’t found anyone who has received the manifesto that chancellor Syverud had told to the University Senate on Wednesday of this week.
“It was apparent that this rumor was probably a hoax,” He told CBS News. “But that reality was not communicated clearly and rapidly enough to get ahead of escalating anxiety.”
That Wednesday, a campus forum was held where student protestors called Syverud’s resignation chanting “Sign or Resign!” After Syverud’s refusal to sign onto their demands as written they left only to march to his house reciting the same chant as before.
As the forum continued, the chancellor had left at one point to meet with some of the student protestors privately and still held hope that they could come to some sort of agreement by Thursday of yesterday. He didn’t share any news about the possible terms of agreement.
CBS News was told by authorities that “fielded reports of shouted slurs targeting Blacks, Jews and Asians that nearly make up 23,000 students attending the university”. The university’s website states that there are about “8 percent being Hispanic or Latino, 7 percent Black and 6 percent Asian.” This has caused even international students to list concerns along with law and medical students marching on Wednesday in attempts to show support for the protestors at the wellness center.
Categories: Features
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