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Syracuse University announced the members of the university’s Community Review Board of the Department of Public Safety in a news release on Tuesday. 

Attorney General Loretta Lynch recommended the creation of the board in a 97-page report following her external review into how the department interacts with members of the SU community and how officers interacted with #NotAgainSU student protesters in spring 2020. 

In Lynch’s report, she provided a structure and other recommendations for the CRB to further hold DPS accountable after her review was completed. 

Brianna Sclafani, a graduate student in the College of Law and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, is the chair of the board. The board is well underway and working on structuring the board to be a community resource, she said in the release. 

“The board has been particularly focused on creating a fair, expedient and efficient process that supports both our campus community and DPS team members through the appeal process,” Sclafani said.

According to its webpage, the CRB reviews appeals of complaints filed by community members against DPS. The board will also release an annual report of findings and recommendations annually to the university community.  

The board will not hear appeals until after an internal affairs process has been completed, Sclafani said. A person must file a complaint with DPS’ Internal Affairs via email, mail, telephone, on the complaint form via DPS’s webpage or in person. These complaints will undergo a review process with Internal Affairs.

If either the community member who complained or the DPS team member is not happy with the Internal Affairs review, they may then appeal with the CRB via their intake form. The CRB will then issue a recommendation to Chancellor Kent Syverud or an appointee, who will then have 15 days to make a formal decision about the appeal. 

Megan Thompson | Design Editor

The CRB is made of 11 members. There are supposed to be three undergraduate representatives, one of which still needs to be filled.

The two undergraduate students on the board are Alexandra Zoey Pollack and David J. Williams, both of whom are students in the Maxwell School. The graduate student on the board is Yusuf S. Abdul-Qadir, a student in the School of Information Studies. 

The rest of the board is made up of faculty, staff and administrators: Guilherme Maurell Costa, senior associate vice president and deputy university secretary; Liz Green, executive director of Online Student Success; Keith Henderson, chief compliance officer within the Office of University Counsel; Theresa Jenkins, an academic adviser in the Newhouse School of Public Communications; Milton Laufer, director and associate professor in the Setnor School of Music; and Corrinne Zoli, a research faculty member at the Forensic Science Institute.

Published on November 3, 2021 at 11:59 pm

Contact Karoline: kaleonar@syr.edu