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A third-party organization has provided seven recommendations to Syracuse University’s Student Association about how SU should improve the Department of Public Safety.

SA held a series of nine student-led focus groups about DPS throughout October for students to share their concerns about the department, said SA Chief of Staff Kailee Vick, who led the focus groups, at Monday night’s assembly meeting. 

InterFaith Works’ El-Hindi Center for Dialogue, an organization that works with schools and other organizations to promote discussions about racial and social equity, created recommendations for DPS based on the common themes students shared, Vick said.

“DPS needs to listen to what its students have to say,” said SA Vice President Ryan Golden. “This isn’t a time for anyone to get defensive, if students are expressing problems, they need to be resolved.”

Vick said the four major student concerns about DPS that SA identified during the sessions were inappropriate behavior toward students, especially students of color, ignoring student complaints about sexual assault or harassment, communication issues and concerns surrounding DPS’ possession of firearms. 

Based on the themes, InterFaith Works suggested that DPS participate in more effective bias training and become more responsive to student complaints, Vick said. 

While there are currently bias training policies in place for DPS, the themes SA identified in the focus groups suggested that these current policies are inadequate, Vick said.

InterfaithWorks’ recommendations also included improving communication with students who report an incident to DPS and rethinking the department’s firearm policy. The group also suggested that DPS hire more officers of color and publicly share how much of the DPS budget comes out of students’ tuition.

#NotAgainSU, a movement led by Black students, included disarming of DPS in its list of demands for the university. The movement twice occupied university buildings to protest SU’s response to more than 30 racist incidents reported at or near the university in the 2019-20 academic year. 

During negotiations with #NotAgainSU, the university refused to disarm DPS officers. 

InterFaithWorks’ final recommendation was for DPS to follow a standard system of protocols for handling incidents and interacting with students.

In response to #NotAgainSU’s demands, the university launched an external review of the department led by former United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who served under former President Barack Obama. Syverud announced the review in February and has said he anticipates Lynch will finish her review by the end of this semester.

SA will develop a policy plan over winter break on how to present the recommendations to DPS and ensure that the university implements them, Vick said.

 “The Student Association is determined to make sure DPS is addressing all of the recommendations,” said SA President Justine Hastings.

Published on November 17, 2020 at 12:40 am

Contact Kailey: kmnorusi@syr.edu