A small group of people gathered in front of Syracuse University’s Hall of Languages wielding posters, a megaphone and a banner screaming the words: “Is this a university or a resort?” The group of five grew to nearly 40 as people trickled in.

One person showed up munching on salad, taking time to attend the protest on their lunch break, and another zoomed up on roller skates, making it just on time to join in the chatter among the crowd.

“We’re gonna make some noise?”

“Yeah, why not.”

“We’re gonna promenade on the promenade.”

The group of protestors marched and expressed their thoughts against the University Place promenade, which will extend from College Place to South Crouse Avenue in front of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, the Schine Student Center and Bird Library. SU professors, students and alumni began the protest in front of the Hall of Languages and made a slow procession toward Crouse-Hinds to present a petition to Chancellor Kent Syverud.

Syverud was not on campus to receive the petition but protestors were met by Kevin Quinn, SU’s senior vice president for public affairs. Quinn said the administration has been open for feedback over the last 18 months.

Students and staff members in the crowd replied that they hadn’t received a survey or update regarding the promenade project and have been unable to deliver feedback.

Quinn said the concerns of the protesters would be taken into consideration, but the project will be moving forward.

“At the end of the day, we’re moving forward with the project,” Quinn said. “We’ve heard a lot of great feedback from people but it’s a college, it’s a university, we understand that people aren’t going to appreciate the benefits of every project and everything we do either before it’s done or after it’s done.”

Rachel Gilbert | Feature Editor

The $6 million University Place promenade was proposed as part of the Campus Framework plan — which is part of the Fast Forward initiative — and presented by Michael Speaks, dean of the School of Architecture, at a public forum at the end of March. Construction for the promenade started on Tuesday.

Protesters said the money could have been spent on a number of other projects. They stripped out how many steps and feet of the promenade would pay for various items.

Three large steps, or 10 feet, would pay to hire a staff member. Two hundred and fifty-four staff members have accepted voluntary severance from the university.

Thirty more steps, or 104 feet, would cover the funding cut from the Posse scholarship program.

The crowd continued to stride out how many steps it would take along the promenade to pay for projects suffering from a lack of funds. Four feet would cover the cost of one adjunct faculty member. Twenty-five feet would cover the cost of an additional psychiatric nurse.

Each speaker told stories of how they have been affected by budget cuts. Madeleine Slade, a Class of 2016 SU alumna, recalled a story of when she was suffering from mental illness.

She was having suicidal thoughts as a side effect from her medication so she went to the Counseling Center. There she was informed that only a psychiatric nurse could change her medication.

At the time, Slade said, only one nurse catered to the entire student population. She was referred to St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center where her phone and personal belongings were confiscated for four hours while she waited in a psychiatric ward.

Slade said streamlining the Counseling Center and SU Health Services would create a more efficient service, citing that currently victims of sexual assault and people with mental health problems are competing for services at the Counseling Center.

Matt Huber, an associate professor in the geography department, said the geography department lost a staff member so right now two people are doing the work of three.

Huber, who is a veteran of THE General Body sit-in that occurred in November 2014, said faculty members have been told for the last two or three years that the university is in the midst of a budget crisis. But now, he said, there are announcements of renovations to the Carrier Dome roof, among other pricey projects.

Rachel Gilbert | Feature Editor

Eileen Schell, University Senate member and speaker at the protest, said the promenade was not discussed on the senate floor and there is a lack of shared governance at the university. Schell, along with many of the other protesters in attendance, said there should be more investment in academics rather than the beautification of campus.

“Where’s the academic mission?” Schell said. “I mean yes it’s important to maintain the campus infrastructure, at the same time, there’s no campus unless there’s an adequate investment in instruction and in academic departments.”

Following the protest she added that the announcement of the promenade and start of construction was carefully timed.

“These decisions — I mean you’re aware of the drill — they get announced at the end of the academic year when everybody is going away,” Schell said. “What playbook is there that gives that? Well it’s practical right? They’re going to rip up the campus to make the promenade, no, it’s about making it happen when people aren’t paying attention.”

Quinn said upon hearing concerns from the university community, the administration held two campus forums to ensure feedback was being heard. He said a lot of the concerns were addressed during these forums.

Protesters were not only questioning the amount of money being spent, they also raised the point of how practical the promenade will be. Bus traffic will be rerouted to Waverly Avenue — something the crowd said would make the university less accessible.

Faculty members also said the promenade would be useless in the cold Syracuse winters and the only time it would be of use would be during the summer when students are scarce on campus.

Quinn said more information on the promenade and other campus projects will be detailed in the Campus Framework, which he said will be released in June.

Slade said she thought the protest was a success, citing the large turnout. She said if the project had been announced during the school year, the crowd would have been a lot larger, a sentiment echoed by both Schell and Huber.

But despite the turnout, Slade was not optimistic of the success of the protest.

“I have a feeling that the admissions people and the administration isn’t going to listen to us because of the way he kind of reacted,” Slade said. “He was like ‘Oh well we’ll take it into consideration,’ which was very vague.”

Published on May 31, 2016 at 11:41 pm

Contact Rachel: rcgilber@syr.edu