Syracuse University apologized Monday for mistakenly suspending students who were not protesting at Crouse-Hinds Hall when the building closed on Feb. 17.

#NotAgainSU, a movement led by Black students, has accused SU of racial profiling because students of color were among those mistakenly suspended. The university has since lifted all suspensions, including those of more than 30 students who remained in Crouse-Hinds after the building closed.

Interim Provost John Liu and Graduate School Dean Peter Vanable explained how SU identified students in a letter responding to concerns from graduate students. A group of graduate student employees, who identify as Black, indigenous and people of color, have pledged to remain on strike until #NotAgainSU’s demands are met.

SU identified protesters through “personal knowledge” of students and comparing camera footage in Crouse-Hinds to photos on student IDs, Liu and Vanable said in the statement.

“We acknowledge that this approach was flawed,” they said.

The suspensions will not appear on the records of students who were mistakenly suspended, Liu and Vanable said.

Sarah Scalese, senior associate vice president for university communications, confirmed on Wednesday that four students received suspensions notices who were not at Crouse-Hinds. #NotAgainSU claims that five students were suspended — four black women and one Latinx woman. Scalese reaffirmed on Monday that the number of mistakenly suspended was four.

In interviews with The Daily Orange, two wrongfully suspended students said they did not enter Crouse-Hinds on Monday. Zoe Selesi and Maya Benjamin, who are Black, were involved in #NotAgainSU’s sit-in at the Barnes Center at The Arch in November. They told The D.O. they feel racially profiled.

Rob Hradsky, senior associate vice president of the student experience, told #NotAgainSU organizers on Tuesday that no facial recognition software was used in identifying students. The D.O. obtained a recording of that conversation.

“Let’s be clear. We don’t have facial recognition software,” Hradsky said. “We have cameras in public areas. We can look at that photo and pull up a database of everyone’s student ID cards.

Protesters pressed Hradsky on how SU could sift through photos by hand from SUIDs of more than 22,000 SU students. The university didn’t use any computer program or software to match ID photos with footage from cameras in Crouse-Hinds, Hradsky said.

SU identified the protesters in Crouse-Hinds in less than 12 hours. The sit-in began around noon on Feb. 17, and protesters began to receive suspension notices shortly after midnight. Selesi, however, did not receive her suspension notice via email until about 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Amanda Nicholson, assistant provost and dean of student success, told CitrusTV on Wednesday that some students were wrongfully suspended because they left Crouse-Hinds before the building closed. The building’s 9 p.m. closing time was the deadline for when protesters could leave before SU would issue conduct charges for violating the Campus Disruption Policy.

DPS body camera footage was also used to identify students, Nicholson told CitrusTV. Liu and Vanable did not mention body camera footage in their letter, nor did Hradsky in the recording obtained by The D.O.

“The mistakes were made because people left the building that we had identified and didn’t come back,” Nicholson said.

Selesi and Benjamin said they met individually with Dean of Students Marianne Thomson, who apologized for the suspensions. They also received letters formally lifting their suspensions that Thomson had signed.

SU administrators — including Hradsky, Thomson and Nicholson — worked with protesters during the Barnes Center occupation. Protesters sometimes left the main lobby space to meet privately with administrations. Some #NotAgainSU organizers also met with members of the Board of Trustees on Feb. 16 to discuss their demands.

Senior Staff Writer KJ Edelman contributed reporting to this article.

Published on February 24, 2020 at 2:25 pm

Contact Casey: casey@dailyorange.com | @caseydarnell_