Graduate Student Organization President Jack Wilson informed the GSO Senate on Wednesday evening that Syracuse University’s Student Association is considering working with the City of Syracuse to install more CCTV Security Cameras off campus.

The cameras would be placed on Westcott Street and Euclid Avenue, Wilson said. The efforts to add cameras comes after three students of color were assaulted on Feb. 9 on Ackerman Avenue. The Syracuse Police Department would manage the cameras. Department of Public Safety Chief Bobby Maldonado has said that the closest camera to the assault did not show the assault taking place.

In the past, several robberies took place in Clarendon Heights Apartments, primarily targeting international students from China, Wilson said. Clarendon Heights is located south of the SU campus, near Interstate 81. Wilson said the robberies led to GSO and SA allocating money toward installing cameras in the area.

The GSO Senate did not determine if it will support the installation of additional cameras or how much money would be allocated.

GSO Senator Obi Afriyie said he opposed the proposal because increased surveillance could infringe upon the civil liberties of residents or result in racial profiling. Afriyie said he wants to hear from SPD about how the cameras would be used and monitored.

GSO also brought in Joseph Personte from SU’s newly-formed Office of Student Living to talk about concerns graduate students have with finding housing.

Personte said the office is working with Off Campus Partners, an organization that showcases off-campus housing fit for student living, to make sure apartments and houses seen by SU students have had exterior and interior inspections. The Office of Student Living is also working with the City of Syracuse to ensure postings on the university’s off-campus housing search portal are up to city code.

Several senators said they have had to find housing results on Craigslist previously. In the past, students searching for off-campus housing were told to Google a place to live, Personte said. He added that international students have often been trapped in signing leases online for housing in “deplorable conditions” based on fake pictures.

“It’s not necessarily going to be the perfect experience,” Personte said. “But at least they have been vetted by the city and you know that the lights work, no one’s going to fall through the floor and the locks work.  These are real things that have happened.”

Afriyie said he wants the office to not only offer appropriate housing options but also have a way to educate incoming first-year graduate students about all aspects of living in the Syracuse area before they arrive on campus. Personte said his office is already working to educate students on those issues.

One senator asked Personte if graduate students with children are accommodated for in the website search. He said that specific needs for each family with children are different.  His office will sit down with and point graduate students to family-friendly housing if needed, but the office will not recommend anything, he said.

Other business

Stephen Farnham was elected to fill the vacant seat for Senator at-large in the GSO Senate.  Farnham was in the Senate last year and is currently on the GSO Finance Committee.

Farnham said he was reluctant to nominate himself for the seat because he has a class that interferes with the time Senate meetings run.

Published on March 20, 2019 at 11:36 pm

Contact Richard: rjchang@syr.edu | @RichardJChang1