Student Association is organizing a Campus Safety Challenge to provide solutions to campus problems through innovation.

The 24-hour hackathon-style event, which will take place on Saturday and Sunday, will split students into teams to build technical solutions combating three campus problems: bias/racism, sexual assault/rape and mental wellness.

The event was inspired by the SU administration’s handling of the Theta Tau videos controversy in spring 2018, said David Fox, SA’s director of technology.

“Administration wants to think everyone is over Theta Tau, but it’s only brought light to other  problems that exist on our campus,” a slide at last Monday’s SA meeting read. “The solutions don’t exist because our school simply does not care enough. But the students do.”

Fox started talking about the idea two to three weeks into the fall 2018 semester, SA President Ghufran Salih said. Since then, he’s mostly worked independently to organize the event.

The three categories are based on student feedback that Fox gathered by surveying students on campus. Before he sent out a Google feedback form to a larger number of students, Fox said he asked students what they thought were most prevalent issues on campus, particularly from students in minority fraternities and sororities.

Fox said he believes SU’s bias problem is bigger than just Greek life.

He’s noticed a bias problem on campus for the past three years, Fox said. He said he has been stopped by SU’s Department of Public Safety while walking with friends to a minority fraternity party.

The Theta Tau videos, which showed people using racial and ethnic slurs and miming the sexual assault of a person with disabilities, were a reflection of what he’s seen in the SU campus culture for the past three years, Fox said. He added that the administration didn’t act in a way that he felt was “necessary” to the situation.

SU permanently expelled the fraternity and suspended 14 students involved in the videos.

“Seeing the Theta Tau video come out so publicly and exploiting that bias and racism that I’ve kind of seen ingrained in the culture here for years,” he said. “It was kind of a wake-up call.”

Fox said he believed the Theta Tau videos controversy should be the administration’s priority.

During last Monday’s assembly meeting, SA voted to fund the full $4,204 requested for the event. Fox said he’s raised close to $4,500 from outside sponsors.

Salih and SA Vice President Kyle Rosenblum have helped support Fox’s event, Salih said. They said they’ve put him in touch with resources and have connections to SU’s senior administrators.

Rosenblum said he is confident SU administrators will hear about the outcome of the event and could be open to solutions that could change the university.

Published on November 4, 2018 at 9:54 pm

Contact Gabe: gkstern@syr.edu | @gabestern326