Among the dozens of administration, faculty, staff and students that serve on Fast Forward Syracuse’s committees, there are still key voices that need to be heard and considered in the plan’s development.

This was the purpose of the Town Hall meeting in Hendricks Chapel Monday afternoon, said LaVonda Reed, a member of the Operational Excellence Executive Committee and a Syracuse University College of Law professor. After Reed and Chancellor Kent Syverud addressed the crowd that filled Hendricks up to the balcony, a panel of selected Fast Forward members answered questions in front of the stage.

In addition to Reed and Syverud, the panel included Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina, member of the Operational Excellence Executive Committee and the Strategic Plan Steering Committee; Jeff Kaplan, chair of the Operational Excellence Steering Committee and senior advisor to the chancellor; Rebecca Reed Kantrowitz, member of the Strategic Plan Steering Committee and senior vice president for Student Affairs and several other members.

Fast Forward Syracuse is an initiative developed by Syverud and the Board of Trustees that includes several plans detailing how the university can improve in the future. The initiative is made up of three components: a Strategic Plan, which is a shared vision of what the university needs going forward; a Campus Master Plan, which will guide the university’s movement, infrastructure, maintenance and safety procedures; and Operational Excellence, which will tackle ways that SU can operate more efficiently and effectively, Syverud said.

In his opening remarks to the audience, Syverud said the purpose of Fast Forward Syracuse is not to be identical to other universities, but to “be the best Syracuse University we can be.”

The question-and-answer session began when Becca Glaser, a graduate student in the creative writing program, asked about the Advocacy Center closing.

“Why have you not apologized for shutting down the Advocacy Center? You’ve really made things hard for students who are victims of sexual assault,” Glaser said.

Following applause from the audience, Syverud said if he knew the response the university would get from closing the Advocacy Center, he would have done things differently. He said he now realizes just how important the Advocacy Center is to the student body and that the task force is currently working on a resolution.

The closing of the Advocacy Center was one of several other critical issues that students in the audience raised. One audience member mentioned the removal of 24-hour security in the Brewster, Boland and Brockway residence halls, and questioned whether this would be touched upon in the Campus Master Plan’s review of university safety procedures.

“I want to assure you that this is something that will be touched upon in the safety portion of the Campus Master Plan,” Kantrowitz said. “But it is my understanding that that change was made after several years of analytics and that area is still locked.”

Other students used the forum as an opportunity to bring up social justice issues on campus and concerns of student involvement in the committees.

Danielle Reed, event and programming chair for SU’s NAACP chapter and a junior Spanish and African American studies double major, asked if recommendations submitted by Ronald Taylor, a class marshal for the class of 2015, on behalf of undergraduate students would be considered in the Campus Master Plan. She also asked if the committees will be monitoring a student forum Taylor is holding in October.

Lorraine Branham, dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and a member of the Strategic Plan Steering Committee, said the committees will be paying close attention to the student forum. She added that all Fast Forward Syracuse committees are looking for student involvement outside of the student members that are already involved.

Beyond questions about student participation, several faculty members asked questions about the timeline of Fast Forward Syracuse, the diversity of members sitting on the committees and their concerns about the plan’s effects in the future.

“If we’re working really hard to solve all these problems that we have, why is so much of that in the hands of so many people who were involved in creating those problems in the first place?” said Samuel Gorovitz, former dean of The College of Arts and Sciences.

Syverud responded by saying that despite whatever happened in the past, the previous administration was made up of individuals who “meant well.” He added that the committees have also carried over those intentions and have no plans of obstructing the quality of the university.

The Board of Trustees is expected to meet in November to develop the mission statement for the Strategic Plan. The final draft for the Campus Master Plan and Strategic Plan “living plans” will be sent to the Board of Trustees in May, Syverud said. Until then, he said additional community meetings will be held for students, faculty and staff to raise concerns.

Published on September 23, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Annie: apalme05@syr.edu