Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Update: This story was updated at 1:43 p.m. on May 8, 2024.

Ronn Torossian, the chairman and founder of public relations firm 5WPR, confirmed in a message to The Daily Orange that he was the parent arrested on the Shaw Quadrangle Sunday afternoon.

Torossian — the president of the Syracuse Jewish Parents Council, which he wrote represents 450 “Zionist families involved with Syracuse University” — wrote that his detainment came after he demanded Chancellor Kent Syverud and Department of Public Safety Chief Craig Stone meet with the Jewish community.

“We — proud American Zionist Jews — are concerned for the safety of our children and community. Our greatest fears as Jews are coming true. It is happening again. The Jewish people are not safe,” Torossian wrote. “Syracuse Chancellor Kent Syverud, the Jewish community has pleaded for a meeting with you and the Chief of Police since October 7th, and you have refused.”

Chief Student Experience Officer Allen Groves and Stone wrote in a campus-wide email Sunday that “one parent,” Torossian, was being “especially aggressive in his verbal treatment of students” at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. After being asked to deescalate, they wrote that Torossian grabbed and tossed students’ food from a table.

“Syracuse University remains focused on the safety of all our students,” a university spokesperson wrote in a statement to The D.O. Monday night. “We will continue to take swift action in the face of harassing behavior or conduct.”

Torossian denied that he tossed food from the table, saying that he was handed food from someone within the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. He also questioned how the university claimed the food on the table was students’ and not someone else’s.

“Your police do not arrest nonstudents off-campus after they assault Jewish fraternity students but demand those strong good Jewish young men lower Israeli music in that same location,” Torossian wrote, referencing an incident Saturday where a person unaffiliated with the university reportedly gestured a Nazi salute and then punched a student.

Groves and Stone wrote in a campus-wide email Saturday that the student did not want to pursue charges. The Syracuse Police Department is investigating the incident, an SPD spokesperson previously told The D.O.

Torossian was previously the CEO of 5WPR but stepped down in 2022 months after The Daily Beast published an article detailing his relationship with then-New York City Mayor-Elect Eric Adams and his website “Everything PR,” which was “known to trash rival PR agencies while promoting 5WPR’s work,” according to The Daily Beast’s Lachlan Cartwright. Torossian later apologized for his “lack of transparency” about the website.

Torossian has also represented clients such as the Eric Trump Foundation and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s regime, The Daily Beast reported.

“Why was I — who has lectured to Newhouse students this semester — removed from that encampment, but a local man whom your officers know is permitted to video our students on campus?” he wrote.

Torossian additionally claimed that “outside agitators” were at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment and said it was “reprehensible” that protestors had signs with phrases like “Free Palestine” and “From the River to the Sea.”

“There must be an emergency meeting to discuss the safety of Jews at Syracuse University,” he wrote.

A university spokesperson confirmed that Torossian was charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing in a Wednesday email to The Daily Orange.

The spokesperson addressed Torossian’s claim that he lectured at Newhouse, saying that Newhouse’s Department of Public Relations brought a group of students to New York City to meet with multiple public relations groups, including 5WPR.

“The students participated in a one-hour meet and greet with 5WPR staff,” the spokesperson wrote. “Mr. Torossian reportedly spoke with the students for roughly 10 minutes during that visit.”

The spokesperson also addressed Torossian’s claim that Chancellor Syverud has refused to meet with Jewish community members following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

“Syracuse University has engaged parents and families in a variety of ways since October 7. This includes countless phone conversations, emails and text messages, as well as zoom sessions,” the spokesperson wrote.

Published on May 6, 2024 at 10:39 pm

Contact Kyle: kschouin@syr.edu | @Kyle_Chouinard