#bringbacktheac

[kentgrams]

What Welcome? Bring Back the AC!

http://chancellor.syr.edu/messages/m/welcoming.html

Dear Kent,

  What about bringing back the Advocacy Center? How about actually addressing that in one of your emails?

  Sincerely,

Regina

[kentgrams]

Back to those "boundaries"

Dear Chancellor Syverud, Congratulations! And thanks for the missive, "Boundaries," regarding Syracuse's new honor as the nation's #1 Party school. Speaking of "boundaries," though, you recently crossed some when you decided to close the school's rape Advocacy Center. I can see the headlines now: "#1 Party School Closes Rape Center." But no press is bad press, amirite? Party on!

- Tessa, graduate student

[kentgrams]

Boundaries

Dear Kent,

  As with other faculty and students, I am not surprised to learn that the Princeton Review ranked SU as the top party school in the US. The students I TA say they party most nights - Two for Tuesdays, Wednesday Flip Night, Thirsty Thursdays, and Friday night happy hour and then it's the weekend! And the ones in my summer class thought our ranking was awesome and your email hilarious. They say their best friends are Chuck, Maggie, Harry, Lucy, and DJ - yep, all Marshall Street bars. The frat/bro-culture encouraged here certainly participates in the party scene--not to mention the sexual assaults that often occur at frat parties, at bars, and in the dorms. It is this hyper-masculinized culture that necessitates the services and resources of a place like the Advocacy Center. But, yes, as a top entrepreneurial school, we recognize your desire to "centralize" resources even if that means cutting the programs that effectively reach students. (Also, nice touch on "centralizing" the AC to the health center....placing "help" on frat row is not problematic at all.) Also, if you care so much about SU's impression on the "world" (seriously, because people in Gaza and Iraq give a shit about that right now, or ever), maybe you can listen when over 10,000 people sign a petition rejecting your closure of the AC and we are covered on national news.

  In fact, as you've "toured" Syracuse, visited with SU Ambulance, and explored our raucous Mayfest activities, you haven't mentioned concern over the masculinized party culture here. Because if you were able to send out an email to the entire campus about riding in the ambulance *on a weekend* and not mention the intoxicated students it regularly picks up, then you knew about the problem and were just ignoring it. It seems that only when an outside organization points out Syracuse's obvious reputation do you believe it's worth investigating. What you propose--more programming by RAs, more PR work by students and alums, and more "boundaries," simply does not get at the underlying sense of entitlement and privilege that foster Syracuse's party-culture. 

  Ultimately, Kent, those entitled and privileged students are laughing at your e-mail. And for those of us aware of Syracuse's party culture--which is INEXTRICABLE with its obsession with sports (and yes, the Dome sells beer)--we recognize that the "balancing act" you detail in your quest for creating "boundaries" is a patronizing effort that fails to address the real underlying issues with the university. The REAL issues are the university's capitalist, masculinist, racist, and sexist structures that enable this bro-party culture. And you writing with some outdated in loco parentis 1950s bullshit isn't going to change a thing. If you want to truly see the campus as a place for "educational excellence" and show your "commitment to enhancing it," you might want to start with spending less on sports, not allowing fraternities, and focusing money on TEACHING rather than administration. Since that is, you know, the whole point of college. 

    Cerina, Phd Student

WGS TA

[kentgrams]

#BringBackTheAC Haikus

http://chancellor.syr.edu/messages/m/reflecting.html

  "have heard from students

faculty, staff of AC"

don't really give a shit

  "respect and value 

your passionately held views" 

still ignore them, ha

  "I do not intend 

 revert to the previous

structure:" suck it bitch.

  "appoint Chancellor’s 

Workgroup." save face while sticking

it to the masses

  "now services can 

integrate with new structure"

frat row location

   "we should be careful 

 before punish “annoying” 

speech" off my back, jerks

  "believer in free

speech, model that for future"

So shut up haters

  So in conclusion:

integration, alignment 

decider-in-chief

[kentgrams]

On "Collaboration"

(http://chancellor.syr.edu/messages/m/fast-forward-syracuse.html)

Dear Kent,

  Look. You talk a good game. You say: "I believe that our direction should be inspired and empowered by the insights of all our people, from a shared dialogue about the direction we go in together." This is a mission that I admire....until I see how you make decisions for our shared community. When you decided to close the Advocacy Center, you did so without the "insight of all our people," without a "shared dialogue about the direction we go in together." Rather, you made an internal decision based on a loose (i.e., poor) interpretation of the White House's recommendations. You only solicited our feedback based on a large public outcry covered by national news outlets. But even then, there was no dialogue. There was no "listening." There was no REAL discussion about "the direction we go in together." There was just you, and your Board of Trustees, making decisions and sometimes including us pro forma. 

  Your entrepreneurial mission is yours alone. Walking the halls (as you seem to be doing now) of the sociology, anthropology, education, political science, geography, writing, philosophy, history, disability studies, women's and gender studies departments, there is no demand, no drive for an entrepreneurial spirit.

  Our demands are simple: that you create real spaces for dialogue, that you take the time to solicit feedback from the University's most marginal faculty and students, and that you take seriously the fact that institutions of higher education have long served (and continue to serve) the most privileged - white, wealthy, able-bodied, heterosexual, US men. We believe another kind of University is possible, one that recognizes and celebrates the knowledges and experiences of the oppressed. You have a responsibility to work towards this other kind of university. To do so, you must work with us, not for or against or without us.

  Sincerely,

Syracuse University Collective of Junior Faculty

[kentgrams]

Ch-ch-ch-changes II, abridged

For the original CHANGES II memo, click here

Division of Enrollment Management Leadership

I need more dude-bros on my Bro Cabinet! Welcome to the club, Bro Chris! Chest bump! Let’s make this university bro-rrific!

  Interim Chief Information Officer

Bro Chris and some other bros chose a new bro to do more bro stuff.

  Campus Master Plan Advisory Group

Want to bling out the campus, brought in all my richy rich bro friends to make a cool plan. Oh, plus a grad student. You know, quotas. What a pain in the ass.

  Office of University General Counsel

Bro Deke got my DUI charges dropped during grad school. I know he's going to make the best bro lawyer ever for SU!

  New MBA@Syracuse

Entrebroneurs!! P.S. I totally did not make up the ableist organization Poets and Quants. We really are ranked #13 by them. Because if I had made them up, I would've ranked us # Awesome.

  University Leadership Team

I need a second Bro Cabinet. I'm gonna call them the Bro Team.

  Student Affairs Sexual Violence Support Services

Dude, advocacy and counseling are totes the same. If we make cuts here, we can invest in entrebroneuring. Who cares if sexual assault is rampant on this campus!

  Workgroup on Carrier Dome Backup Plan

THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER. OUR STADIUM IS BIGGER THAN THE NBA'S AND NFL'S. SIZE MEANS EVERYTHING. I am not overcompensating. Shut up, Deke!  

  I-81 Workgroup

The first time around, not enough people were displaced and herded around, not enough Black businesses and homes destroyed. This time we'll get it right with more dude-bros in charge.  

[shakethesand]

My University made Buzzfeed today.

This is the article.

Our Chancellor announced last Friday that our Advocacy Center will be closing tomorrow. This is a safe place for victims of sexual assault to go for help. It doesn't only focus on victims, but also on awareness and other resources. We are fighting back and not letting our Chancellor take away our sexual assault resources without a fight.

This is where you can sign the petition to help our cause.

[kentgrams]

Bring Back the AC, Bro!

Yo Bro Kent!

  What's this I'm reading about the Advocacy Center. I'm behind you 110%, but this shit is MAD WHACK, bro! Dude, I was emailing with my WGS TA, Audre, and she broke it down for me. So man, I had to sign that petition, that petition against you, brah. :( But we're still cool, though, right? You just gotta #BringBackTheAC, then you'll be cool with everyone again, bro.

  Still bros for lyfe,

Tank