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Students voiced concerns over problems on Syracuse University’s campus at a town hall meeting Tuesday night, including on-campus buses, SU’s recent management of the COVID-19 pandemic, tuition and campus safety.

The Student Association held the meeting to encourage discourse among students about problems on and around Syracuse University’s campus. SA President David Bruen and Assembly Representative Dylan France moderated the meeting and will bring the issues discussed to the Board of Trustees in November.

“This type of town hall is definitely to make sure that student concerns are being heard on the highest level,” France said. “I’m so happy that we’re having it now.”

Bruen and France, the two student representatives for the board, held the meeting at 119 Euclid Ave. with just over a dozen students present.

The town hall is the first time time in several years where the student representatives for the board hosted a discussion with current students, Bruen said. SA has previously hosted multiple town halls between the association and the student body to discuss on-campus concerns.

On-campus bussing was a major topic of debate, especially for students without a car on campus or living on South Campus. Sukhleen Atwal, a junior SA assembly member, said the amount of people that use the buses causes issues with the system.

“The way that these buses are packed is incredibly unsafe,” Atwal said. “It’s miserable.”

Students also expressed concerns about community safety as over the last few weeks, SU’s off-campus neighborhoods have had a rise in robberies. Junior Sianna Harvey said safety needs to be a bigger priority for SU.

“I think safety is prioritized (more) on main campus than South Campus and the surrounding neighborhoods,” Harvey said. “The university is not doing enough. All they do is notify students after an incident happens.”

Bruen and France also addressed SU’s efforts to expand its campus. According to the university’s 2017 Campus Framework Plan, SU is seeking out locations for potential expansion. Bruen said he wants to increase transparency regarding the university’s long-term plans for expansion.

“If this expansion is going to happen and if it is inevitable, and housing or other academic buildings are going to be built, what are the student priorities for those sorts of buildings?” Bruen said. “This is a really good opportunity to talk with students about the here and now … and translate that of what this university and student life issues that are happening now can look like in five or six years.”

If the university is going to focus on a strategic plan for years down the road, France said she wants to see change within the university.

The board’s student representatives will submit a report compiling students’ concerns by Oct. 12, Bruen said. The representatives’ semester reports for fall 2021 and winter 2022 are available on SA’s website and Bruen confirmed the next report will also be public.

“It’s really an opportunity to meet with students, talk about our roles, what we do and take the concerns… and hopefully turn them into topics that we’ll look into over the next couple of weeks that end up in our report to the board,” he said.

Bruen said he hopes the new report can give the board a clearer understanding of the student experience at SU and bring together trustees and students.

“(Students’) perspective for these trustees is really valuable because they want to know, and they do care about hearing from students directly,” he said.

Published on September 20, 2022 at 11:34 pm

Contact Dominic: [email protected] | @DominicChiappo2