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Chancellor Kent Syverud addressed the findings of former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s review of the Department of Public Safety and new state COVID-19 guidelines at a University Senate meeting Wednesday.

Lynch released an independent review of DPS on Monday, which outlines 23 recommendations for improving the department. The 97-page report is the product of a year-long investigation into how the department interacts with members of the Syracuse University community and how officers interacted with students during protests on campus last academic year.

The report includes 23 recommendations to improve relations between DPS and the campus community, among them the publication of DPS operating procedures and the establishment of a citizen review board to field complaints against the department. It was the product of over 77 interviews with members of the SU community, as well as reviews of DPS internal communications and over 20,000 documents, Syrevud said.

Syverud said he accepts the conclusions of Lynch’s report, which he called “comprehensive and luminous,” and has instructed the “appropriate leaders” to implement the recommendations. More information about the implementation process will come in the coming weeks, he said.

“We have not always gotten things right, and we will make the changes needed to get them right in the future,” Syverud said. “Rebuilding trust in these areas is going to take time and commitment from all of us.”

Tom Sherman, a professor in the department of transmedia, expressed concerns about Lynch’s recommendation that DPS stop providing off-campus escort services that allow SU students to request a DPS officer to help them get home at night. Lynch’s report stated that several students had recounted instances in which DPS officers seemed to dismiss or belittle students’ safety concerns when they requested an escort. 

Syverud said that SU will likely allow another agency to take over the escort program from DPS. 

The chancellor also said he appreciated the changes New York state has made to its COVID-19 guidelines for colleges and universities. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that colleges and universities would be required to move all classes online and limit on-campus activities if the campus’s positivity rate exceeds 5%. For SU — which has an on-campus population of about 17,600 students, faculty and staff — this means that 880 positive cases within two weeks would require the university to go on pause.

“The new guidance issued Friday is more reasonable given the size of our campus,” Syverud said. “This policy change is good for Syracuse.”

But the 880 mark “is a floor, not a ceiling” for restricting activities on SU’s campus, Syverud said. The university would take action to mitigate the spread of the virus before case totals reached that point, he said. 

SU currently has 31 active cases among students and employees, and 102 students are in quarantine.

The new standard also only applies if SU maintains “rigorous” COVID-19 testing procedures, Syverud said. SU has required students to receive weekly testing since the start of the spring semester, with steep penalties for students who don’t comply.

John Liu, interim vice chancellor and provost, said SU’s quarantine and isolation housing would become overwhelmed as the university approached a 5% positivity rate. 

“We cannot take New York state’s flexibility as a permission to let down our guard,” Syverud said. “This goes for our entire community. Our expectations for students abiding by the Stay Safe Pledge and the public health guidelines has not changed.”

Published on February 24, 2021 at 10:31 pm

Contact Chris: cjhippen@syr.edu