2020’s most defining stories in Syracuse
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In a year with a never-ending news cycle, it can be hard to recall the important moments that defined Syracuse in 2020.
COVID-19 made its way onto campus and into Onondaga County. Protests expanded on and around Syracuse University’s campus to advocate against racial inequality. An SU alumnus was even elected to the White House. Those are the big ones. But what else impacted Syracuse in a year of uncertainty and unrest?
The Daily Orange highlighted some of the most important stories of 2020, chronicled by the writers and editors who covered them. Here are our picks.
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Nabeeha Anwar | Presentation Director
Syracuse University alumnus Joe Biden elected as president
President-elect Joe Biden is set to become the first SU alumnus to serve as president of the United States. The former vice president’s win came four days after Election Day as the country waited for states to count massive volumes of mail-in ballots.
Biden eventually prevailed over President Donald Trump with over 300 electoral votes and victories in key battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), will be the first woman, first Black person and first Asian American to serve as vice president.
While Biden graduated from SU’s College of Law in 1968, he’s still maintained connections with the university and has visited campus several times throughout his political career. He delivered a commencement address to the College of Law in 2006 and 2016. He also served as a keynote speaker at SU’s 2009 commencement ceremony. Biden’s late son, Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in May 2015, also graduated from SU’s College of Law in 1994 and delivered the college’s commencement address in 2011.
— Maggie Hicks
Elizabeth Billman | Senior Staff Photographer
Campus shuts down due to COVID-19, twice
March 9 was the first true day of spring at SU. Students packed the Quad, throwing footballs and gathering in groups, because a nice day in early March is almost unheard of in Syracuse.
A week later, that same Quad would be deserted, the quiet center of a campus evacuated in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While unprecedented, the news of SU’s transition to online classes didn’t arrive without warning. After an initial announcement by Chancellor Kent Syverud that SU would transition to online classes until at least March 30, faculty began speculating that SU would soon follow other colleges and move courses online indefinitely. The decision came a few days later.
Eight months after that, a near-identical story occurred again as SU’s in-person fall semester crumbled in its final stretch. That time, though, the announcement was prompted by ever-increasing case numbers and swelling quarantine totals on campus and across Onondaga County. As for the spring semester, SU has not yet made a final decision on whether it will hold in-person classes.
“We have to be ready to change course depending on the conditions at the time,” Syverud said on Dec. 9. “Our goal does remain to begin the spring semester on Jan. 25.”
— Chris Hippensteel
Corey Henry | Senior Staff Photographer
Men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim contracts COVID-19
COVID-19’s grasp on college sports has only strengthened throughout this winter as the virus rages on. At Syracuse, the football team played its full schedule in the fall without any real hiccups, but the men’s basketball season got off to quite the rocky start when one of the most famous people in central New York tested positive.
Head coach Jim Boeheim, 76, experienced mild symptoms, completed his isolation period at home and coached SU in its season-opener versus Bryant. His positive test foreshadowed how fragile Syracuse’s season is.
Since Boeheim tested positive, a walk-on was diagnosed with COVID-19 and Buddy Boeheim missed multiple games due to contact tracing. Most recently, SU has had its final two games of 2020 postponed due to COVID-19 protocol after Buffalo players tested positive a day after playing the Orange in the Carrier Dome.
Boeheim’s view on COVID-19 remains the same as before he contracted the virus: He thinks college basketball should be played through the pandemic with necessary precautions in place. He believes his team is safer with regimented practice schedules, thrice-weekly testing and team doctors on hand than with canceling the 2020-21 season.
— Danny Emerman
Katie Getman | Senior Staff Designer
After almost two dozen reports of hate crimes and bias incidents, 100+ students react
Between the final weeks of 2019’s fall semester and the beginning of the spring — around a two-month span — at least 21 hate crimes or bias-related incidents were reported on or near SU’s campus.
What began as racist graffiti reported on Nov. 7, 2019 within two floors in Day Hall turned into more and more incidents. The incidents sparked student protests at the Barnes Center at The Arch in November 2019 and Crouse-Hinds Hall in the spring from students who demanded change from SU’s administration.
In between the two sit-ins, The D.O. asked more than 100 SU students if they felt safe on campus after winter break and if the university could do more to remedy issues of transparency and safety. In January, students varied in how safe they felt at SU, but many were unsure whether campus-wide change had been made.
— KJ Edelman
Daily Orange File Photo
Large gathering on Quad becomes national story
Less than a week before the start of classes this fall, more than 100 SU students gathered on the Quad, many not wearing masks or practicing social distancing. Department of Public Safety officers, whose Sims Hall headquarters is just feet from the Quad, cleared the area about 45 minutes after the gathering began. SU eventually suspended 23 students in connection to the incident.
“Make no mistake, there was not a single student who gathered on the Quad last night who did not know and understand that it was wrong to do so,” said Mike Haynie, vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation, in an email the day after the gathering. “Instead, those students knowingly ignored New York State public health law and the provisions of the Syracuse University Stay Safe Pledge.”
— Michael Sessa
Emma Folts | Managing Editor
Last Chance for Change organizes to make lasting impact
Protests against racism and police brutality erupted across the United States as news of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s deaths shook the nation in June. Faced again with painful loss and political momentum, organizers in Syracuse rallied in honor of Floyd, Taylor and several others who had died and were part of the local community.
The spectrum of both political organization and emotion ranged widely this summer. Syracuse was no exception to this variation and the all-too familiar cases of police brutality. Fifteen local groups, including Last Chance for Change, came together to discuss, plan and protest.
Last Chance for Change members marched throughout Syracuse for 40 days. The activists collaborated to present Mayor Ben Walsh with the People’s Agenda for Police Reform, a list of demands for police reform Walsh partially agreed to in July. But beyond the hours of chanting and walking, Last Chance for Change organizers devoted time to creating community spaces and events for Syracuse natives.
Most protests and public attention for police brutality and racism faded as summer ended, but for many in Syracuse’s Black community, the losses and scars remain fresh. Nevertheless, Last Chance for Change’s conversation on justice and healing hasn’t stopped. Charged with solidarity, the group’s organizers are determined to keep the movement and its name in the minds of Syracuse’s leaders and community members, they said.
— Marnie Muñoz
Jordan Phelps | Staff Photographer
Syracuse season ends during ACC tournament, sports cancellations begin
March 12 will certainly be a date people remember when looking back on 2020. That’s when the sports industry halted. But the path to that day — when every college conference scrapped all of their winter tournaments and spring seasons — started days prior.
The College Basketball Invitational and the Ivy League basketball tournaments were both canceled. Syracuse’s men’s lacrosse game against Rutgers, if it had happened, would’ve been played without fans in attendance. And everything culminated on March 11 in Greensboro, North Carolina, as Syracuse blew out North Carolina by 28 points in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament’s first round.
The bigger picture, though, contained uncertainty about whether there would even be a second round — if all those added hand sanitizer stations, extra surface wipe-downs and restricted media protocols could hold off the looming coronavirus threat. They couldn’t.
Fans flocked to the Greensboro Coliseum on March 11, but by the next afternoon, the ACC tournament had been upended. Hotel pivots and flight adjustments followed for travelers. Canceled tournaments turned into canceled seasons, canceled seasons into canceled offseason workouts. Suddenly, there was no timeline of when sports, collegiate or professional, would return.
— Andrew Crane
Corey Henry | Senior Staff Photographer
SU initially suspends 30 #NotAgainSU organizers during Crouse-Hinds sit-in
#NotAgainSU, a movement led by Black students, began occupying Crouse-Hinds Hall on Feb. 17 to further protest the university’s response to a series of hate incidents on and near campus. Crouse-Hinds houses the offices of Chancellor Kent Syverud and other university administrators.
There were about 50 organizers in the building’s lobby when it closed at 9 p.m. At that time, Rob Hradsky, vice president for the student experience, threatened the organizers with interim suspension for violating SU’s Code of Student Conduct by remaining inside past closing. About 30 organizers chose to stay inside Crouse-Hinds. As of 12:50 a.m., a DPS officer gave the students letters stating that they were suspended, effective immediately.
The movement first held a sit-in at the Barnes Center at The Arch for eight days in November 2019. SU officials did not issue conduct sanctions to the organizers for staying in the facility overnight. Hradsky told an organizer in Crouse-Hinds that the university suspended the rules in that situation.
By the morning of Feb. 18, DPS had sealed off Crouse-Hinds, preventing outside food, medicine and resources from entering until the following afternoon. DPS officers at the building’s entrances also exhibited hostility to students who wanted to deliver supplies inside. At one point, DPS Deputy Chief John Sardino physically struggled with protesters outside Crouse-Hinds and touched his gun holster.
Two days after the start of #NotAgainSU’s occupation, Syverud announced that he had lifted the organizer’s interim suspensions. SU also misidentified four students who were not at Crouse-Hinds and placed them under interim suspension, prompting accusations of racial profiling. The university rescinded the four conduct charges.
Crouse-Hinds reopened Feb. 20. The movement would continue it’s occupation for a total of 31 days, becoming one of the longest-running student protests in SU’s recent history.
— Emma Folts
Sarah Lee | Asst. Photo Editor
Greek life during COVID-19: No parties, social events at chapter houses
SU has been consistently ranked as a top party school by The Princeton Review. During the pandemic, however, fraternity and sorority members at SU returned to campus for a semester devoid of parties and many other social events. Students had to limit gatherings to 25 people and practice social distancing, according to SU’s Stay Safe Pledge. Fraternities and sororities also couldn’t host registered social events at chapter houses, and access to chapter houses was limited.
Prior to the start of the fall semester, members of fraternities and sororities shared their hopes, fears and expectations for what was to come. One student hoped that Greek organizations would learn from the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity’s suspension for allegedly violating public health guidelines at a gathering in April. Another worried that students would still host parties instead of abiding by health guidelines.
“I’ve heard that a lot of people are very intent on keeping people safe and keeping to themselves, which is very promising to me,” said Adrianne Morales, a member of Delta Delta Delta. “But at the same time, that doesn’t speak for everyone and ultimately, people’s actions will speak volumes more than their words.”
— Mandy Kraynak
Daily Orange File Photo
Professor put on leave after including racist language in course syllabus
After social media posts circulated of a course syllabus containing derogatory language against Chinese and Asian American students, SU placed the professor responsible on administrative leave.
Jon Zubieta, a chemistry professor in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences, referred to COVID-19 as “Wuhan Flu” and “Chinese Communist Party Virus.” While Zubieta did not respond to The D.O.’s request for comment, he later claimed that his use of such language was intended to mock “PC culture,” and he began working with a free speech group to reinstate himself at SU.
Chinese students at SU, some from Wuhan, spoke out against Zubieta’s language. Meanwhile, those calling for Zubieta’s reinstatement argued that SU’s temporary removal of Zubieta was a violation of free speech.
“We will not allow any member of our community to violate the University’s commitment to a safe, inclusive and welcoming learning and living environment,” said Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Karin Ruhlandt and Interim Provost John Liu in a campus-wide email that announced his leave.
— Sarah Alessandrini
Sarah Allam | Senior Staff Illustrator
Athletes form Black Oranges to help create blueprint of social change
When Brian Tarrant helped establish Black Oranges, its first meeting contained five or six people. The idea for a collective mostly containing former Syracuse athletes stemmed from conversations Tarrant and other founders had following the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in late spring. Protests over police brutality and systemic racism had started across the country, and Black Oranges’ goal was to outline steps for creating change in local communities while fighting for social justice within SU Athletics and the larger university.
As of September, Black Oranges had expanded to over 350 members. It’s now part of a new task force within SU’s athletic departments, one implemented by Salatha Willis, associate athletic director for diversity, culture and climate, after he was hired in July. The collective has also coordinated a social media campaign, conducted a webinar highlighting the importance of voting and organized town halls with #NotAgainSU and DPS Chief Bobby Maldonado.
“If we do these movements and we get these things in people’s minds to start, to research and to look at themselves and how they can better themselves, it’s going to improve their community,” said Monica Belk, a Black Oranges founder. “It’s going to improve the country.”
— Andrew Crane
Gavin Liddell | Staff Photographer
Former SU student arrested for sexual assault of 2 students
Jacob Cohen, a former SU student, is set to appear in Onondaga County Court in January for the alleged sexual assault of two SU students. Cohen, who was arrested in his Ohio home in December, faces charges of rape in the first degree, burglary in the second degree, attempted sexual abuse in the first degree and forcible touching.
The Syracuse Police Department, along with DPS and the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office, launched an investigation after DPS responded to an assault complaint from Cohen in August.
DPS later found that Cohen was involved in a physical confrontation with another student that may have started when the student learned Cohen had allegedly sexually assaulted two classmates. Several posts also began circulating on social media at the time accusing Cohen and encouraging the university to take action.
— Maggie Hicks
Emily Steinberger | Photo Editor
Syracuse resident Howie Hawkins runs for president
Howie Hawkins never wanted to become president of the U.S. Yet this year, his name was on the ballot in an election with one of the highest turnouts in the country’s history.
Hawkins, a retired UPS employee who currently lives in Syracuse, was the Green Party’s nominee for the 2020 presidential election after receiving 210 out of 355 votes on the first ballot in July. Hawkins, a co-founder of the Green Party, was one of the few candidates in his party with the experience to run a large-scale campaign.
His presidential run came after 24 campaigns — and 24 losses — for public office. Apart from co-founding the Green Party in the early 1980s, Hawkins has also protested the Vietnam War and co-founded an organization that opposed nuclear power. Along with his former running mate Angela Walker, he advocated a federal plan to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat economic inequality.
More than winning the presidency, the main goal of Hawkins’ campaign was to encourage more Green Party candidates to run for local office and to put issues on the public agenda that Democratic and Republican candidates usually ignore.
“There are issues that need real solutions, and the Green Party offers them,” he said. “It’s important to build a party and a movement around those issues and those policies,” Hawkins said.
— Abby Weiss
KJ Edelman | Digital Managing Editor
How art from marginalized communities inspired in 2020
COVID-19 didn’t put a stop to creativity in the Syracuse community, and artists continued to inspire people. 2020 specifically was a year of growth and increased recognition for artists from marginalized communities.
Jaleel Campbell graduated from SUNY Purchase into a world of uncertainty. Shortly after receiving his Masters of Fine Arts degree, he began setting up a creative space for himself out of an Otisco Street apartment, where he displays his work. Campbell wants to make Jaleel Campbell Studios a dedicated space for Black artists to come together.
“In an ideal world where COVID isn’t happening, I want to have this be the center of all Black art creativity going on here in Syracuse,” Campbell said. “I want this to be the central hub where all of the Black creatives that are working here can meet each other and network and grow with one another.”
Indigenous artist and graphic designer Ikerson Hopper has focused on art since his childhood. He’s picked up new mediums over the years, including graphic design, carvings and quillwork. Recently, he made shirts bringing awareness to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement in the U.S. and Canada and donated a large portion of the proceeds to the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal. Lauren McComber, the owner of Lotus + Sage Holistics, loves how Hopper’s artwork depicts Haudenosaunee culture and said she’s never met an artist involved in social causes, building community and giving back quite like Hopper.
Cuban immigrant José Miguel Hernández Hurtado founded the La Joven Guardia del Teatro Latino in 1999 to enrich and educate disadvantaged youth through theater. Since some children in Syracuse don’t have a support system, he put together a group to help them increase their self-esteem. He serves as a mentor for his students inside and outside of the theater.
“(La Joven Guardia del Teatro Latino) literally changed my whole life,” said Yanetsy Meriño Bacallao, one of his former students and the current president of La Joven Guardia.
— Gavi Azoff
Katie Marcy and Kevin Camelo | The Daily Orange
Capturing quarantine: What isolation looked like for 15 SU students
Cooped up at home or away from Syracuse after classes moved online in March, many D.O. photographers were separated from the community whose stories they told. The Waiting for Normal project challenged photographers to turn the camera on themselves and their families while isolated from the rest of the world. In addition to photographs that illustrated their experiences, each photographer chose one all-encompassing word, supplemented by a journal entry, to describe their quarantine: how they felt, what they saw, how they changed.
Fifteen photographers volunteered to take this challenge, and together, they created a quarantine memoir woven out of each of their distinct stories. They chronicled how they reunited with family, how they felt lost in between, how they adapted and grew.
— Emily Steinberger
