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Theta Tau

Disability community calls on SU officials to improve campus accessibility

Hieu Nguyen | Asst. Photo Editor

Priya Penner (left), president of Syracuse University's Disability Student Union, and Jennith Lucas, DSU's vice president, led the Disability Caucus and Campus Conversation in Hendricks Chapel on Monday night.

UPDATED: May 4, 2018 at 4:45 p.m.

About 60 Syracuse University community members gathered in Hendricks Chapel on Monday night to discuss disability and accessibility issues on campus.

The forum was called in response to the release of videos showing members of the Theta Tau fraternity using language Chancellor Kent Syverud called “extremely racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, and hostile to people with disabilities.” The second video shows the miming of sexual assault of a person with disabilities.

At the forum, faculty and students with disabilities expressed dissatisfaction with the physical accessibility of buildings and spaces on campus and with what they said was a lack of change surrounding disability rights at SU.

Priya Penner, president of the Disability Student Union, and Jennith Lucas, vice president of DSU, facilitated the discussion, which was broken into two parts. The first hour allowed people with disabilities and allies of the disability community to reflect on actions that should be taken following the Theta Tau incident.



Syverud, Vice Chancellor and Provost Michele Wheatly and several other administrations attended the second portion of the event, which was open to all community members.

“A lot has to change, and I’m not prepared to wait until October in a committee meeting to have that change occur,” Syverud said, when asked when the audience’s concerns would be addressed. He added that the previously-announced disability services audit “is coming” and that he plans on making some of the suggested changes this summer.





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