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The University Senate passed a resolution Wednesday calling for the Board of Trustees to rescind Rudy Giuliani’s honorary degree conferred by Syracuse University’s College of Law in 1989.

The resolution — introduced by Student Association President David Bruen, SA Vice President Darnelle Stinfort and Graduate Student Organization President Yousr Dhaouadi — was passed with 76% of the senate voting in favor and 11% opposing. The remaining 13% abstained.

The senate also passed a resolution to endorse a proposal of adding a two-day fall break on Indigenous Peoples Day and the following day. The resolution outlines that two instructional days will be added at the end of the fall semester.

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More coverage on efforts to revoke Rudy Giuliani’s honorary degree:

• SA sends resolution urging revocation of Rudy Giuliani’s honorary degree
• SA calls for University Senate to rescind Rudy Giuliani’s honorary degree
• 30 years later, Rudy Giuliani’s honorary doctorate from SU remains intact

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During the meeting, the senate’s honorary degree committee presented the demographic information on the past honorary degree nominees and recipients since 2006. Among 107 people who were nominated for an honorary degree since 2006, 78, or 72.9%, were men. White men comprised 75.7% of all nominees and 78.6% of all recipients.

Among 22 nominees since 2019, 12 were men, while 10 were women. White people made up 59.1% of nominees and 66.7% of recipients since 2019.

The senate tabled a resolution introduced by the committee on curricula, expressing support for participation points as long as points aren’t awarded simply for attendance. The committee also recognized the right of faculty to subtract grade points for missed classes.

Steven Diaz, a professor in the mathematics department and the co-chair of the curricula committee, indicated the majority of the committee agreed that it isn’t appropriate to award students points simply for “showing up.”

“There wasn’t universal agreement of this on the curricula committee, but most of us felt that it wasn’t appropriate to give any points towards a grade just for showing up and maybe spending the entire class time playing video games on your tablet,” Diaz said.

The resolution was met with doubts among faculty in the meeting.

Jacob Bendix, a professor in the geography and the environment department and a senator in the honorary degrees committee, said in the meeting that a way for him to encourage attendance in large introductory courses is to tell students that while he will not grade their attendance, he will give extra credit for “excellent attendance.”

“I’m troubled philosophically that we are placing a rule that says we can attempt to alter students’ behavior by using a stick but not by using a carrot,” Bendix said.

On Wednesday morning, SU’s Vice Chancellor, Provost and Chief Academic Officer Gretchen Ritter sent a campus-wide email detailing resources the university has provided to Ukrainian students who were affected by the ongoing Russian invasion.

Sam Gorovitz, a professor in the philosophy department and a senator of the academic affairs committee, said in the meeting that the committee sent an email to Ritter and Chancellor Kent Syverud on Saturday calling on the university to provide Ukrainian and Russian students with lodging at no cost if they need. Gorovitz said he hasn’t seen a response to the email.

Allen Groves, SU’s senior vice president and chief student experience officer, said the university has sent emails to 21 students who the university identified as born in, residing in or holding citizenship of Ukraine in February and on Sunday. The university has specified that it would arrange summer housing for those in need, he said.

Jamie Winders, SU’s associate provost for faculty affairs and a professor in the geography and the environment department, said the university has joined the Scholars at Risk network. The network protects scholars suffering from threats to their lives, liberty and well-being by arranging temporary research and teaching positions at cooperating institutions.

Published on April 13, 2022 at 10:26 pm

Contact Francis: btang05@syr.edu | @francis_towne