14,920. The number of undergraduate students filling our beautiful campus on a hill. A campus filled with diversity in every aspect of the word. These different beliefs help foster positive discussion and debate among students about how to best fix the issues that affect not only our campus, but our outside world.

However, there is another D-word that represents our school: Disconnected. It seems that students and administration have lost touch about what it means to be an Orange.

A large part of that is due to a lack of communication. Syracuse students are not made aware about issues and decisions that affect them directly. They are often not included in the discussion process, even though the money they pay as students is often used to make these changes.

This relationship, or lack of, has led to anger among the student body. Students angry that they are not told about safety issues when they are occurring. Or students angry that they are not notified about changes until they are underway. We can all agree that change needs to happen.

Your Student Association is hoping to spark the fire to ignite that change. Since the beginning of the semester, we have been planning our first open forum, hoping to give students a chance to voice their concerns directly to administrators.

Will Pritchett, an assembly representative, says “The forum is a great opportunity for students to ask questions directly to some of the top administrators on campus. All students are welcome and no topic is off limits, it truly is an open forum hosted by students for students.”

This is just the beginning. We are planning to have more forums not only this school year, but in years to come to bridge the gap between our administrators and students who feel the effects of their policies.

Steph Hausman, another representative, says that “This is a unique event that is bringing together some of the most influential administrators into one room and communicating in person with students. Instead of interacting with them through an email in our inbox, we now have the chance to put a face to their name and receive more transparency about what is happening on our campus.”

We are all working towards the same goal, leaving Cusecella better than it was when we found it. It is amazing how much more can be done when we all work together.

Obi Afriyie,

Syracuse University Class of 2018

Published on December 2, 2017 at 10:26 pm