Syracuse University has created a new position to support the university’s initiative to respond to reports of bias-related incidents and provide bias education to prevent acts of discrimination.

The university hired Deka Dancil, a graduate of the Class of 2014, as manager of bias response and education in the Division of Enrollment and the Student Experience. She has held the position since June. 

Dancil was hired to assist the division in implementing its STOP Bias Initiative. Since 2010, the initiative has sought to educate students about bias-related incidents and respond to those reported by students, faculty or staff, said Rob Hradsky, vice president for the student experience. 

“When I saw that this was happening, I was just really excited,” Dancil said. “Actually putting a person to the initiative will centralize our response, our reporting and our education on campus and will allow students to really believe the university is serious.”

Deka Dancil has held the position of manager of bias response and education in the Division of Enrollment and the Student Experience since June. Emily McNeill | Contributing Photographer

Dancil is the co-founder of RiseUp for Social Action, which trains organizations and groups on how to appropriately respond to incidents of bias or discrimination. Her extensive experience in bias-response education made her stand out from other candidates for the position, said Marianne Thomson, associate vice president for the student experience. 

“She showed she was a continuous learner in the interview process. In diversity and inclusion work, we can never cross off a box and say, ‘Yep, we got it. We understand.’” Thomson said. “There’s always another community, a different intersection, a new way of understanding an old problem.”

As an SU alumna, Dancil is excited about the opportunity to return to the university and reshape how the school handles bias-related incidents, she said. There was no centralized bias-reporting system when she was a student at SU, and she’s glad she was chosen to play a role in the university’s initiative to take incidents of prejudice more seriously on campus. 

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Since stepping into her new role, Dancil has already held eight bias education workshops and has more than two dozen planned for the next two months, she said. She is also in the process of working with SU officials who haven’t been involved with the STOP Bias Initiative to update the university’s bias response protocol. 

In the next few weeks, a group of peer educators will also begin to help Dancil bring bias education to more students at SU. Hearing about bias-related incidents and how to report them from a peer, rather than a university official, will likely have a greater impact on students, she said. 

Through the STOP Bias Initiative, the university hopes to provide a meaningful education to students who commit an act of bias, Thomson said. Rather than punishing the student, Dancil will explain to them why their actions are harmful. Many students don’t understand the true significance behind their actions, she said. 

“We really hope that by the time a student graduates from SU they will have a deeper understanding and be a little more culturally competent,” Thomson said.

Dancil hopes that the SU community will continue to file reports of bias-related incidents, because an increase in the number of reports would demonstrate that students, faculty and staff trust SU and the STOP Bias Initiative and believe their reports will be taken seriously. 

As more reports come in, Dancil hopes to track patterns in bias reports and implement changes to prevent future bias-related incidents. She also wants to tailor her workshops and presentations to address these patterns. 

“Hopefully, the initiative will assist different members of the SU community in being able to recognize bias and being able to manage their own personal biases so we can create a nice, inclusive and welcoming environment for everybody,” she said.

Published on September 4, 2019 at 11:22 pm

Contact Gillian: gifollet@syr.edu