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119 Euclid, a community and learning space for Black Syracuse University students, will be renamed “The Barner-McDuffie House” after a $1 million donation from alumna Sharon Barner, Chancellor Kent Syverud announced during Wednesday’s University Senate meeting.

The building will be named after Barner, a university trustee and 1979 alumna of SU, and her husband, Haywood McDuffie. Barner, the vice president and chief administrative officer at Cummins Inc., was formerly the deputy director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in President Barack Obama’s administration. Her donation is part of the Forever Orange Campaign.

“This large naming gift will support robust student-centered programming, foster a sense of belonging, promote student leadership, (and) recognize the legacy of the Black community contributions on this campus,” Syverud said.

At the meeting, Syverud also announced he appointed Provost Gretchen Ritter and Senior Vice President and Chief Student Experience Officer Allen Groves to “come up with” a statement on free expression and academic freedom. Syverud first mentioned the statement at the end of the fall semester. Ritter and Groves will collaborate with a committee of students, faculty and staff to craft the statement.

“(Ritter and Groves) are charged with developing a proposed statement that reflects our values, reaffirms our commitment to these values, (and) is informed by recent experiences and what we’ve learned from them,” Syverud said.

Ritter said that she and her colleagues received a petition from faculty members “regarding the teaching climate on campus” and concerns about SU’s commitment to a “free exchange of ideas.”

“I’m committed to further dialogue on these matters and have invited some of these faculty to meet with us so we can work together to create constructive and respectful spaces for all perspectives, and the opportunity to learn about difficult and controversial topics,” Ritter said.

She said that the university will continue to “create more opportunities” to discuss challenging topics, ensuring classrooms are welcoming environments and that people are able to communicate through differences.

Ritter also provided an update on the ongoing contract negotiations with Syracuse Graduate Employees United. After SU graduate student workers unionized in April 2023, SGEU’s bargaining committee has been negotiating with the university since September.

The university and SGEU came to “tentative agreements” on sick and parental leave, academic freedom, intellectual property rights as well as protections from discrimination and harassment. At a Jan. 16 press conference, the union expressed frustrations about the process, specifically citing concerns with pay proposals and healthcare.

“I’m grateful to our graduate students and to the university’s negotiating team for working together in good faith on reaching a fair agreement,” Ritter said. “More work remains to be done, but I’m optimistic that we can reach a mutually agreed-upon contract in the not-too-distant future.”

Later in the meeting, the Senate discussed a motion to “reimagine” the body’s committees. Under the motion, various senate committees would be merged into new combined or renamed groups. The new format would feature revised roles for each committee, Agenda Committee Chair Kira Reed said.

One of the proposed changes would codify the Honorary Degree Committee’s ability to consider revocations, which was not previously included in USen’s bylaws, Reed said. Currently, she said the committee is only able to look at revocation requests if they are authorized by a senate resolution.

During this portion of the meeting, senators asked about Rudy Giuliani’s honorary degree and whether the power to rescind an honorary degree was vested in the Senate or the Honorary Degree Committee. In April 2023, the Honorary Degree Committee decided to not move forward with rescinding Giuliani’s degree, according Michel Benaroch, this year’s chair of the committee, in a statement to The Daily Orange.

“Honorary Degrees has not made a decision, they have just not reported to the Senate since that vote,” Reed said. “So it’s still the senate making decisions, and we will definitely clarify that this evaluation is a recommendation to the senate.”

The vote to enact the newly-named committees will be held during the Feb. 21 meeting. The Honorary Degree Committee was also moved into the agenda for next month’s meeting despite previously being scheduled for March 20, Reed said.

Other business:

• Syverud said that applications for the incoming 2024 undergraduate class will reach a historic high for the third consecutive year. At this point, SU has received over 44,000 applications, which is up 6% from this time last year, Syverud said.
• Syverud also provided updates to two pilot programs through the College of Professional Studies. The first “streamlines” the application and credit transfer process for military and veterans. The second allows students who did not complete their degree to finish their degrees in an “easy and affordable” manner, and will be assessed at the end of the year.
• Ritter confirmed that searches for the dean of the College of Law and executive director of the SU Art Museum are ongoing. Syverud said the university is in the interview process for a “forward-thinking” permanent technology leader for the Information Technology and Chief Information Officer role.

CLARIFICATION: Groves and Ritter will collaborate with a committee of students, faculty and staff to craft the university’s statement on free expression and academic freedom.

Published on January 25, 2024 at 1:37 am

Contact Griffin: gbrown19@syr.edu