It’s been four months since Syracuse University expelled Theta Tau.

Four months ago, hundreds of community members marched on Chancellor Kent Syverud’s house, demanding that the university release the videos filmed at the engineering fraternity.

Four months ago, students gathered at public forums across campus to recount personal experiences with racism, bias and discrimination.

Four months ago, media outlets broadcast the videos on national TV, and “Syracuse University” appeared in news headlines alongside the word “racist.”

As SU classes resume this week, a summer after the Theta Tau videos controversy, students in more than a dozen interviews with The Daily Orange said that the effects of the incident continue to reverberate across campus.

Noeli Vasquez, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, acknowledged the university’s efforts in implementing change thus far, citing forums held by various colleges.

“But there’s way more that needs to be done,” she added.

Students protest in front of the Theta Tau house after SU initially suspended the fraternity last spring. Josh Shub-Seltzer | Staff Photographer

Only about two weeks remained in the 2017-18 academic year when videos surfaced that showed people in Theta Tau’s house participating in activities Chancellor Kent Syverud called “extremely racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, and hostile to people with disabilities.” Protests erupted across campus, hundreds of students attended public forums and SU permanently banned the fraternity from officially operating as a Greek organization.

Then the spring semester was over. For some students, the controversy ended with the end of finals.

“I think that a certain amount of people are going to care, like a group of people,” said Maria De Los Santos, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. “But not the majority of people.”

“I don’t think people are gonna care unless something new comes to light,” added her sister, Yissel, also a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, as they ate in Schine Student Center on Saturday afternoon.

The university expelled the fraternity, suspended 14 students involved in the videos and launched a number of diversity and inclusion initiatives. But students returning to campus this week will find few physical reminders of the controversy

Demands from Recognize Us, the student campaign launched in response to the videos, no longer plaster Schine’s windows. The “Theta Tau” sign that used to hang from the third floor of the house on Harrison Street — across the street from Syverud’s home — has been taken down. The fraternity’s Greek letters, which were arranged in brickwork on a sidewalk in front of the house, have been covered in black spray paint.

And the videos are still in the backs of people’s minds, students say. Fallout from the Theta Tau incident is mentioned in peer adviser trainings. In floor meetings. In Greek organizations, where policies and activities are now being audited by SU-hired consultants as part of a review announced soon after the release of the videos.

“The conversation directly related to Theta Tau may have ended, but the greater offshoot of that is still very strong,” said Ricky Tibbetts, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences and member of the Phi Sigma Pi fraternity.

Organizations Tibbetts is a part of have always worked to improve diversity, he said, but the Theta Tau incident “is going to drive that even further.”

Some students still have questions about Theta Tau, and some say the lack of detailed information directly from SU about the outcome of the conduct process for students involved in the Theta Tau videos has caused anxiety.

SU officials have said they cannot announce specific outcomes of the conduct process due to federal privacy law, but have sent limited information about the process in campus-wide emails.

“The student conduct process for the Theta Tau students has concluded,” said Dolan Evanovich, SU’s senior vice president for enrollment and the student experience, in a campus-wide email on July 26. “The University Appeals Board issued written decisions to the students this week.”

Some people, such as Rahel Demissie, a sophomore in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, continue to wonder whether students involved in the Theta Tau videos remain on campus.

“I think they should’ve informed us,” Demissie said. “Maybe it’s legal things, but I think I should’ve known what happened to those students.”

Fourteen students were ultimately suspended for one or two years, in connection to the videos. Theta Tau’s vice regent, Tyler Vartabedian, successfully appealed his suspension and could return to SU this year.  

Greek letters in front of the Theta Tau house on Harrison Street were covered in black spray paint. Alexandra Moreo | Senior Staff Photographer

Joe Cohn, an incoming freshman in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, said he watched the controversy play out on national media just days after he decided to attend SU. He’s been following the news about Theta Tau all summer, he said.

Though he wasn’t around during last spring’s protests or public forums, Cohn said he still can sense the lingering shockwaves of the videos, including when diversity and inclusion are discussed in freshman orientation activities.

“The effects of (Theta Tau) are probably going to be present on campus through my entire four years here,” he said.

On Saturday night, Recognize Us, a social coalition organized to advocate on behalf of minority students in the wake of the Theta Tau incident, released a statement saying it will continue efforts to press for institutional change at SU during the fall 2018 semester.

In the statement, the movement applauded the university for revamping the first-year student experience, hiring new Title IX officers and Counseling Center members and beginning an audit on Greek life. But students participating in the movement made clear they don’t plan to back down from their demands despite the four-month break from campus.

“Our work has no end in sight, and we will continue holding the University accountable and demanding change,” the statement read.

Protesters hold signs outside an accepted students event in Schine Student Center last April. Kai Nguyen | Staff Photographer 

Karly Roux, an incoming freshman in Newhouse, said the student response to the Theta Tau videos had an impact on her decision to attend SU. She was among the incoming freshmen present at the spring event for accepted students where dozens of demonstrators, including Recognize Us participants, gathered to protest Theta Tau and what they said was institutional bias at SU.

At her second-choice school, she said, she didn’t think students would stand up for what they believed in. That wasn’t the case at SU.

“There’s gonna be stuff you don’t like everywhere,” Roux said, sitting on the University Place promenade as the sun set over campus last Thursday. “The fact that there’s people that are actually fighting to make it better was really cool for me.”

---

Published on August 26, 2018 at 11:46 pm

Contact Jordan: jmulle01@syr.edu | @jordanmuller18