The history and evolution of student movements at SU By Ava Lombardi
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n a time of such division, if there is one value that all Americans share, it is protest. Our nation was founded on protest and continues to change based on movements throughout the country. Both historically and currently, students have made up a large part of this demographic, and Syracuse University students take advantage of this reality. Groups of student activists have risen up to protest against the instances of sexual assault and rape culture on the SU campus. What started as a small march around campus in September, has now grown into a union of students spearheading vigils and promoting awareness for sexual assault survivors. The “StandWithSurvivorsSU” Instagram account was created in September of 2021 with a specific purpose: to be there for survivors. “We have put together an executive board of students and hold vigils, participate in
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events with the Vera House, and organize peaceful protests and vigils,” says the founder and president, who is a junior at Syracuse University and prefers to stay anonymous. Through this platform, students created their own movement to demand a change in protocol for how SU deals with sexual assault and rape on campus. The coalition focuses on providing resources for survivors and reaching administration in their calls for a fairer process of handling sexual assault and rape. StandWithSurvivorsSU is one of many student groups formed over the university’s long history of protests. Spanning over decades, students have started multiple movements in the face of racism, sexism, and physical and mental harm. On May 4, 1970, Syracuse students returned from Yale University to mobilize the SU campus around three central issues: the expansion of the Southeast Asian War,
the suppression of political opposition and challenging of policy, and the university’s complacency with war through defense research and ROTC contracts. The next day, picketers disrupted several classrooms on campus in a successful attempt to cancel classes. An estimated 5,000 students and faculty marched from the academic quad to downtown Syracuse and lined both sides of Salina Street for three blocks. As a result, students and faculty organizers were permitted to launch a series of workshops and seminars for students and families about these issues and ways to take action. More recent physical demonstrations of activism have also left a lasting impact on SU’s campus. #NotAgainSU was formed in November of 2019 to demand changes in the campus climate for students of color. After the school failed to address instances of anti-Semetic, anti-Asian, and anti-Black