UPDATED: March 2, 2020 at 12:24 p.m.

Chancellor Kent Syverud will not be physically present at this weeks’ negotiation meetings with #NotAgainSU.

#NotAgainSU, a movement led by Black students, has been occupying Crouse-Hinds Hall since Feb. 17 in response to a string of hate incidents that have occurred on or near Syracuse University’s campus since early November.

Organizers presented Syverud with a list of 19 demands in November. Syverud signed 16 as written and revised the remaining three. The movement has added 16 demands since it began its occupation last week.

The movement will begin negotiating with university officials on its additional demands Monday at 4 p.m., continuing until its demands are met. Organizers and SU administrators met Thursday to discuss the logistics of the negotiations.

Several university officials will be present at the negotiations, including Amanda Nicholson, interim deputy senior vice president for the student experience, and Deka Dancil, manager of bias response and education.

During the logistics meeting, organizers questioned if Syverud or executive members of the Board of Trustees would be in attendance at the negotiations. Protesters later received an email from SU stating that Syverud and trustees would not be in attendance.

The chancellor will be traveling Monday and Tuesday to manage the university’s response to the coronavirus outbreak and will not be available to meet in person, said Sarah Scalese, senior associate vice president for university communications, in a statement.

He will attend the negotiations by phone as much as possible, she said.

The Board of Trustees’s Executive Committee will not be present at negotiations, Scalese said. The university will continue communicating directly with the Board of Trustees Special Committee on University Climate, Diversity and Inclusion to discuss specific considerations that require trustees’ attention, she said.

Some #NotAgainSU organizers interrupted a lunch with SU donors Saturday to urge Syverud to participate in negotiations. Syverud did not address any of the protesters directly at the lunch, an organizer said in a statement.

#NotAgainSU protesters had announced intentions to negotiate with SU officials and executive members of the Board of Trustees on Wednesday at 4 p.m. No such meeting was ever planned, Scalese said in a statement Wednesday.

After no officials arrived for the 4 p.m. meeting, protesters blocked the intersection outside Crouse-Hinds Wednesday, calling for university officials to negotiate.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, Syverud’s actions at the lunch with SU donors were mischaracterized. He was not drinking wine at the event. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on March 1, 2020 at 10:58 pm

Contact Maggie: mehicks@syr.edu | @maggie_hickss