Upon entering Ernie Davis Dining Center for this semester’s Black History Month-themed dinner Feb. 7, students were greeted with a poster of President Barack Obama hanging above the counter at the dining hall’s entrance.

The poster has initiated student discussion both on campus and online surrounding the appropriateness of the poster’s content and placement.

The poster features a close-up photo of Obama with the word ‘Change’ written below in bold yellow text. Above that, a quote reads: ‘There is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there’s the United States of America.’ The poster, which was hung up in honor of Black History Month, was still displayed as of Monday night.

David George, the director of Food Services at Syracuse University, was not available to comment. Ernie Davis Dining Center management declined to comment on anything regarding the poster.

Zach Weiss, chairman of SU College Republicans, said hanging the poster turns the decoration into something more political and less celebratory of African-American accomplishments.

To him, the poster exemplifies the ‘left lean’ of SU’s campus. The political undertone is what makes it so controversial, he said.

‘The thing I take issue with is the slogan at the bottom,’ Weiss said. ‘It reveals kind of another motive behind the poster, which I really dislike.’

Weiss said he appreciates the other decorations hung up around the dining hall and said it’s undeniable that Obama is a huge piece of African-American history. He said if the campaign slogan were to be cropped out of the poster, he would have no problem with it.

Jared Kraham, a junior broadcast and digital journalism and political science major, posted a comment about the poster on Facebook. He said he thought the poster was not the best choice to use in celebrating Black History Month and instead struck students with a political message.

Kraham said it wasn’t a matter of his political beliefs against Obama’s, as he thinks it’s important to celebrate him and his historic election. However, he said the choice to feature an elected official so prominently struck him as ‘politically divisive.’

He said he thought it was funny the dining hall didn’t feature Heisman Trophy winner and the building’s namesake, Ernie Davis — a famous African-American SU football player.

‘In terms of inappropriate, I just don’t think I would take a modern-day political figure and display it in such official form,’ he said. ‘It is a political figure that some Americans, and I’m sure a number of Syracuse University students, disagree with politically.’

Some students eating at Ernie Davis did not think anything of the displayed poster, but others thought there were ways to celebrate Black History Month without involving politics.

For Justin Dorsen, a sophomore public relations major, seeing the poster triggered thoughts of this year’s upcoming presidential election. He said he was surprised at first, and it made him wonder for whom dining hall employees would vote.

Dorsen said he thought Obama was an important person to think about in celebrating Black History Month, but displaying the poster at the entrance to the dining hall implied people should vote for him. It was also biased because there were no photos of the other political candidates displayed, he said.

‘I mean, they could have left politics out of it,’ Dorsen said. ‘There’s a lot of other figures they could have put in the front when we swiped in.’

Max Heilbrunn, a freshman aerospace engineering major, said he didn’t think the poster showed any bias on the part of the university, as Obama is a very significant person in the United States as well as to black history.

Heilbrunn said he understands why some students would think otherwise, as they may not like Obama as a president. However, he said, they need to realize that he is the president and that he made history in 2008 by becoming the first black candidate to win a presidential election.

‘There’s a million people who have political affiliations at this school,’ he said. ‘I just hope that, politics aside, that (students) see him as a person, not the political figure.’

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Published on February 13, 2012 at 12:00 pm

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