4 april 6, 2017
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cold case the directors of the program, the move also represents university leadership’s disinterest in the CCJI – disinterest they say has been growing since Chancellor Kent Syverud arrived three years ago. SU officials have claimed that the program doesn’t have the necessary funding to continue and that the directors, Professors Paula Johnson and Janis McDonald, need to return to full-time teaching roles. But Johnson and McDonald deny that those are valid reasons to close the program, saying they’re capable of funding the CCJI without SU’s help and have the capacity to teach courses while also running the program. In an interview this week, the two professors instead challenged the university’s priorities and whether it values issues of racial and social justice. They questioned the message shutting down the program might send, particularly during a time of tense race relations in the country. As evidence of the CCJI’s value to the college, Johnson and McDonald also pointed to the hands-on experience that law students receive by volunteering with the program. They added that, in recent months, they haven’t been part of discussions regarding the future of the program. “We haven’t been included in any of the conversations between the chancellor and the dean about it,” McDonald said. “They’ve evidently been talking for a couple of months. They just informed us, that’s all.” “If they were interested in reaching a solution and if there was a perceived problem for why we couldn’t go forward, then you would think that you’d bring the interested parties around the table,” Johnson added. “... That conversation hasn’t happened yet.” Members of leadership within the university and College of Law were not made available for interviews for this story. Instead, the College of Law provided The Daily Orange with a statement from Dean Craig Boise. In the statement, Boise said he has evaluated the college’s programs since becoming dean in July 2016. He added that, as part of that process, “we learned that funding commitments to the Cold Case Justice Initiative (CCJI) expired in June of 2016.” “The University and the College of Law have invested $3 million in the program anticipating that additional funding to sustain it would be obtained; however, such funding never materialized,” Boise said. “... Meanwhile, I am looking forward to Professors Johnson and McDon-
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lecture traveled 1,600 miles on top of seven freight trains. She was hit by branches that almost knocked her off of moving trains and was almost raped by a gangster. “I was having a nightmare every night when I got back to my house in L.A.,” Nazario recalled. “I felt tense, I felt filthy, I felt a fear of being robbed or raped or beaten most days on that train.” While on that journey, Nazario said she saw the best and the worst of humanity. She met families that would throw food to the passing migrants every day. They gave fruit, bread, tortillas and anything else they could muster together. Nazario recalled a woman named Maria, one of the people who threw food to migrants, saying that she did it because it was the right thing to do. “If I had one tortilla, I will give half away. I know God will bring me more,” Maria said to Nazario, she recalled. It was these stories that Nazario said should
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suspect tampering charges dismissed, something that could come up at Thursday’s hearing. Isaac received the tampering charge in early December after allegedly asking a witness not to testify against him in the murder case. Isaac and Ninimbe Mitchell, 20, were
JANIS MCDONALD (LEFT) AND PAULA JOHNSON (THIRD FROM LEFT), law professors, take part in THE General Body protests in 2014. daily orange file photo
ald returning to their full-time teaching responsibilities to provide our law students with the specific knowledge and skills required to be successful graduates in pursuit of legal careers.” But Johnson and McDonald contend that neither funding nor teaching is an issue.
196
Number of names of potential victims of racist crimes the CCJI submitted in 2012 to the Department of Justice
McDonald said that she and Johnson have accepted that they would need to raise money independent of the university for the program to continue, something she said they have communicated to leadership. Additionally, both professors are teaching this semester and are on the schedule to teach next semester, they said. “It’s not about money and it’s not about teaching,” McDonald said. “So what is it about? Is it about social justice on the campus?” illustrate to Americans how little they know and understand about the struggles children face to reconnect with their mothers. Even surviving the difficult journey to the U.S. does not guarantee the children will get to stay, as many of them get deported. “To me this is not due process, this is a sham,” she said. This is one of the biggest issues, Nazario said, when it comes to child immigrants who are searching for their parents. She suggested that the U.S. government, instead of focusing its resources on keeping immigrants out, put its money toward keeping people in their home countries. She said this could be done by providing services in dangerous neighborhoods that keep children away from gangs, drugs and alcohol, such as educating children, especially girls. If people could give a little of what they have to provide services for these children it would go a long way, she said. And until then Nazario said she “will keep telling these children’s’ stories and being a voice for those whose voices are often not being heard.” avlinan@syr.edu
charged in the fall with murdering SU student Xiaopeng “Pippen” Yuan, who was from China. Isaac and Mitchell were arrested in November and charged with murder in the second degree, robbery in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree. In January, Isaac was indicted on first-degree murder, an upgrade from the original second-degree charge. mdburk01@syr.edu | @michaelburke47
In recent years, the program has grown in both scope and recognition. In addition to Burr citing the CCJI on the Senate floor, the program submitted a report to the United Nations Office at Geneva two years ago, when the UN was reviewing the United States’ human rights record, Johnson said. Johnson and McDonald have also met and worked with high-ranking members in both the FBI and the Department of Justice in recent years. But as the program has expanded its reach to national and international levels, it has simultaneously received virtually no interest from Syverud since he assumed his role about three years ago, they said. The university did spend $30,000 during the third quarter of 2016 for the CCJI to push for the passage of the Emmett Till Reauthorization Act, according to lobbying reports. But whereas the previous chancellor, Nancy Cantor, supported the program and enabled them to devote significant time to the project, Syverud hasn’t had any involvement with the CCJI “except messages delivered by somebody else,” McDonald said. “It’s been since that time that we’ve kind of been adjusting and just trying to survive,” she added. McDonald also pointed to the univer-
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threat presidential campaign is being run and statements Rossi made at the first SA debate, Tin said. At Sunday’s debate, Rossi’s comments opposing sanctuary campuses and vice presidential candidate Angie Pati’s experience appeared to shock the audience in the auditorium. Rossi, whom Tin said is currently out of town, has not responded to a request for comment on this story. “We condemn any kind of threat to any-
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price rite Syracuse Model Neighborhood Facility, Inc., as reported by Syracuse.com, in the name of the Southwest Community Center. There was need for another grocery store location in the area because many customers were unable to travel to get groceries at the original store — especially if they did not have access to transportation, Bartholomew said. He said the community has had a positive response to the new store’s opening on South Avenue. On Sunday, people started lining up around 5:30 a.m. to get into the Price Rite, and because of the cold weather, the store opened around 7 a.m. The opening was originally scheduled to be 8 a.m., according to Syracuse.com. In the afternoon, a traditional ribboncutting ceremony with local politicians
sity cutting funds in September 2014 for the Posse Foundation, which supports high school students from underrepresented backgrounds with scholarships. The university has called for increased diversity in recent years, but given the incidents with the Posse Foundation and CCJI, McDonald questioned whether diversity is actually improving at SU. “I don’t know the answer. I’m not making those accusations,” she said. “... But we want to know is this important or is this not important.” Johnson added that it’s particularly concerning to see the university cut the CCJI during a period of poor race relations in the U.S. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported almost 1,100 bias-related incidents in the month after President Donald Trump’s election, and police killings of black people have often made national headlines in recent years. Those incidents have continued at high rates this year, with police so far having shot and killed 69 black people in 2017 as of Wednesday evening, according to The Washington Post. “At this particular time is not a message for any major institution in our society to cut back on this as opposed to planting ourselves in that place where we say we’re firmly committed to doing racial and social justice,” Johnson said. Johnson also pointed out that SU’s Academic Strategic Plan, one part of Syverud’s three-pronged Fast Forward Syracuse initiative, calls for and encourages experiential learning — something she said is at the heart of the CCJI. Mark O’Brien, a College of Law alumnus who graduated in 2014, volunteered with the CCJI while he was a student. He said it was his first opportunity to put legal theories and legal ideas into action. “This was my chance to kind of take things we were learning in the classroom and apply them to literally real world scenarios,” he said. “... Students work really hard on this, and I think it would be a shame if the program ceased to exist under the banner that it currently does.” Soon, though, the program likely will cease to exist in its current form. And that’s something that Johnson said makes her worry that there’s a changing landscape at the university, where everything is secondary to issues that Syverud values most, such as veterans affairs. “Is this university willing to stand for racial justice, social justice and innovative, experiential work, or not?” she said. “That isn’t about one dean’s decision. That’s about the university as a whole.” mdburk01@syr.edu | @michaelburke47
one’s safety on this campus and we hope that Roy stays safe throughout this entire ordeal,” Franco said, adding that Franco’s campaign hasn’t received any similar threats. Tin said he discussed the threatening text messages with Franco and that Rossi’s and Franco’s campaigns would issue a joint statement Thursday. As a candidate for office, Tin said he understood that people might disagree with his policies. “But if I were not running for public office, and if I were to take (the threats) personally, I would be devastated,” Tin said. jmulle01@syr.edu
and clergy members was held for the new grocery store. “This whole project has been going on for 10 years, and the attendance speaks volumes of the community,” Bartholomew said. “It was a great turnout.” Price Rite, Bartholomew said, receives deliveries of food six times a week, ensuring the store will meet the needs of the people in the community. Neil Duffy, president of Price Rite, said that the company was excited about the new store, according to Syracuse.com. Local residents have been waiting for a grocery store in this area for a long time, he said, and the company was looking forward to becoming “a vital part” of the community. “We are privileged to be part of this community and all the great new development that is happening along the southwest corridor,” Duffy said. jzuk01@syr.edu