Syracuse University Students Occupy Building To Protest School's Response To Racist, Anti-Semitic Incidents
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Less than three months after student protests broke out on the Syracuse University campus, tensions are flaring again between protesters and campus police.
Students are outraged over the university's response to racist and anti-Semitic incidents.
About two dozen students have been protesting inside an academic building since Monday.
Video posted to social media shows campus police struggling to hold students back and stop them from entering.
On Tuesday, a mob of students threw pizza at campus officers who were barricading the door.
Faculty banned people from delivering food to protesters, and the administration sent letters suspending at least 23 students who refused to leave the Campus Hall, even when the building closes overnight.
"It's just very disheartening to see all this stuff happening and to see it happen all over again after everything that happened in November," one student said.
Less than three months ago, the same student organization staged a similar sit-in, protesting the administration's response to several racist and anti-Semitic incidents on campus.
RELATED STORY (11/21/2019) -- Student Protesters To Syracuse University Chancellor: Agree To All Demands Or Sit-In Continues
In November, the school's chancellor agreed to their demands, including allocating $1 million to a new curriculum on diversity.
But now protesters say the administration isn't keeping their end of the bargain.
"They have already violated several of the demands that they signed off and agreed to," one student protester said.
That student told CBS2's Ali Bauman over the phone that this sit-in has been much less peaceful than the last.
"It's actually been terrifying," the student said. "We anticipated a lot of push-back to the protests from the administration, but the level of outright attacks on students has been shocking."
Wednesday night, Chancellor Kent Syverud assured he has been working to address protesters' concerns, saying, "We are on the edge right now ... I ask that we all step back and take a deep breath [...] and work to make this University better for all of us."
The chancellor also announced Wednesday he is lifting all the suspensions given to protesters, but the student who spoke to CBS2 says they haven't received any official notices of that yet.
The students plan to continue occupying the building until all of their demands are met.
