A string of alleged racist incidents took place at Syracuse University last fall, prompting school officials to create new punishments for students accused of various offenses.
As Jonathan Turley, an attorney and professor at the George Washington University Law School, <a href="https://jonathanturley.org/2020/08/13/syracuse-university-warns-students-that-they-may-be-punished-for-not-acting-to-confront-bias-motivated-speech-or-conduct/">explained</a>, the new rules were implemented after a group calling itself NotAgainSU demanded students who witnessed or were present when racial incidents occurred be expelled. The school’s first diversity and inclusion officer, professor Keith Alford, didn’t accept expulsion as a punishment but did say campus rules would be changed to punish student bystanders.
“The Code of Student Conduct has been revised, based on your input, to state that violations of the code that are bias-motivated—including conduct motivated by racism—will be punished more severely. The University also revised the code to make clear when bystanders and accomplices can be held accountable. The code will be prepared and distributed for students to sign in the fall,” Alford wrote in <a href="https://news.syr.edu/blog/2020/07/10/july-2020-progress-on-campus-commitments/">an email</a> to students.
Turley warned that the uncertainty surrounding “how silence or inaction will be judged” will “prompt many to guarantee compliance by speaking or acting to avoid even the chance that they might be subjected to a highly damaging bias charge.”
In addition to new punishable actions (or, rather, inactions), the school also announced it was installing new cameras throughout campus.
“The concern raised by the Syracuse rule is that there remains controversies over vague universities standards on bias or race motivated violations including <a href="https://jonathanturley.org/2017/04/25/oxford-university-warns-that-failure-to-make-eye-contact-can-be-microaggression-and-subtle-racism/">microaggressive language</a> or actions. Recently, a <a href="https://jonathanturley.org/2020/06/19/syracuse-student-newspaper-sacks-columnist-for-questioning-institutional-racism/">student writer at Syracuse</a> was sacked for simply questioning the basis for claims of institutional racism. What is viewed as bias-motivated speech for some is viewed as political speech by others. The new rule would suggest that even students who do not agree that an incident is ‘bias-motivated’ must still act to avoid scrutiny or punishment. Students could feel an obligation to prove that they are not racist by immediately and openly opposing such acts, lest they could be next to be accused,” Turley wrote.
Turley added that punishing those who do not act is a form of compelled speech, as it “would now require speech and action to avoid possible discipline.”
The new punishments come even though there doesn’t appear to be news on the outcomes of any investigations into allegedly racist incidents at Syracuse. One of the allegations came from a black woman who claimed a bunch of fraternity members yelled racial epithets at her. Four students from the fraternity were suspended, yet the fraternity’s national chapter <a href="http://dailyorange.com/2019/11/alpha-chi-rho-denies-involvement-racist-incident-ifc-expels-fraternity/">confirmed</a> to The Daily Orange that after “hours of voluntary interviews with authorities” along with everything they “have learned, we can confirm that no member of Alpha Chi Rho directed racial slurs at anyone.”
The only other incident where we have a potential outcome is of a white supremacist document allegedly sent to students while in a campus library, but that turned out to be a hoax. While there have been hundreds of allegations of racism at colleges and universities across the country over the past decade, most – if not all – have turned out to be hoaxes or misunderstandings.

Syracuse University

Syracuse University Will Begin Punishing Students Who Witness ‘Bias-Motivated’ Incidents And Don’t Act

Education

Racial Bias

After writing an opinion piece for a conservative news outlet rejecting the notion of &#8220;institutional racism&#8221; with studies and statistics, Syracuse University student Adrianna San Marco was removed as a columnist from the school&#8217;s largest paper, The Daily Orange.
The student has also been receiving &#8220;physical threats&#8221; in response to the piece, San Marco told The Daily Wire.
In an email (see below) sent to San Marco outlining her termination, The Daily Orange claimed the student&#8217;s column, published at <a href="https://www.lifezette.com/2020/06/why-institutional-racism-is-a-myth/">LifeZette</a> on Friday, was &#8220;particularly harmful to our Black community members&#8221; and included &#8220;racist undertones&#8221; &#8212; an accusation the Political Science major utterly rejects.
In the piece, titled &#8220;Why institutional racism is a myth,&#8221; San Marco cited a study published in scientific journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/116/32/15877">PNAS</a> (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) that found &#8220;no overall evidence of anti-Black or anti-Hispanic disparities in fatal shootings.&#8221; Additionally, the student linked the number of police interactions by race to fatal interactions with police officers to contextualize the raw numbers.
&#8220;The current media trend indicates that blacks are targeted by the police; however, new <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/116/32/15877">research</a> reports just the opposite. A study released in late 2019 found &#8216;no evidence of anti-Black or anti-Hispanic disparities&#8217; across police shootings,&#8221; she wrote in the opinion piece. &#8220;The findings continue, citing that &#8216;white officers are not more likely to shoot minority civilians than non-White officers.'&#8221;
&#8220;Rather, police are far more likely to kill whites during a confrontation. <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/">For example</a>, in 2017 457 white Americans were shot to death by the police in comparison to 223 black Americans,&#8221; San Marco outlined.
Noting that black Americans are only 13% of the population, the student contextualized the data with crime statistics and noting that &#8220;black American men <a href="https://www.dolanconsultinggroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Dispelling-the-Myths-Surrounding-Police-Use-of-Lethal-Force.pdf">represent</a> 33% of cop killers despite being only 6.6% of the population.&#8221;
&#8220;Instead of looking toward the percent a population represents, we should also take into account how often populations interact with police,&#8221; she emphasized. &#8220;The chance of having a deadly confrontation with police increases as the rate of interaction rises.&#8221;
&#8220;As politicians are working to find solutions to police violence, having a comprehensive understanding of the statistics is essential,&#8221; San Marco closed. &#8220;The idea of institutional racism existing in the U.S. is a myth—and a dangerous one at that.&#8221;
On Tuesday night, the paper announced the removal of San Marco via Facebook.
&#8220;The Daily Orange removed a columnist because she wrote an op-ed in another publication arguing that institutional racism doesn&#8217;t exist,&#8221; read the post, signed by Casey Darnell, The Daily Orange editor-in-chief.  &#8220;Racism is real and deadly. Dismissing that is harmful to our community members of color.&#8221;
Darnell claimed San Marco &#8220;reinforced false and dangerous stereotypes of Black people as criminals, and dismisses that police officers kill Black people at disproportionately higher rates than white people&#8221; and claimed the student&#8217;s &#8220;values&#8221; are incompatible with their own.
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In an email to The Daily Wire, San Marco said The Daily Orange only has two conservative columnists left. When she was hired, she said, &#8220;the editorial editor asked me to confirm that I didn’t have any  &#8216;extreme&#8217; Republican beliefs before I began writing for him after citing other students he wouldn’t hire because of their views.&#8221;
&#8220;College campuses are havens of liberal ideology and any opinion that diverges from the progressive left is attacked viciously,&#8221; San Marco said in a statement sent to The Daily Wire. &#8220;This isn&#8217;t the first time a conservative voice has been censored at Syracuse University and it&#8217;s apparent that it won&#8217;t be the last.&#8221;
Below are screenshots of an email outlining San Marco&#8217;s termination from The Orange Daily provided to The Daily Wire:
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-119703 size-large" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Screen-Shot-2020-06-11-at-7.40.27-AM-1-410x576.png" alt="" width="410" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2020/06/Screen-Shot-2020-06-11-at-7.40.27-AM-1-410x576.png 410w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2020/06/Screen-Shot-2020-06-11-at-7.40.27-AM-1-214x300.png 214w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2020/06/Screen-Shot-2020-06-11-at-7.40.27-AM-1.png 688w" sizes="(max-width: 410px) 100vw, 410px" /></div>
<div id="attachment_119704" style="width: 420px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-119704" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-119704" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Screen-Shot-2020-06-11-at-7.55.18-AM-537x576.png" alt="" width="410" height="440" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2020/06/Screen-Shot-2020-06-11-at-7.55.18-AM-537x576.png 537w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2020/06/Screen-Shot-2020-06-11-at-7.55.18-AM-280x300.png 280w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2020/06/Screen-Shot-2020-06-11-at-7.55.18-AM.png 684w" sizes="(max-width: 410px) 100vw, 410px" />Courtesy of Adrianna San Marco</div>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

SU Student Terminated From School Paper, Threatened For Opinion Piece Rejecting ‘Institutional Racism’

Censorship

Members of the Syracuse University Student Association recently authored a resolution “<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1ORlFwlB85qLuTGJkk4Ftt5cbrUndlEjyGEGg7z-RUF0/mobilebasic?urp=gmail_link">Condemning the Appearance of Ben Shapiro at Syracuse University</a>.” The resolution passed on Monday.
<a href="http://dailyorange.com/2020/04/student-association-condemns-visit-ben-shapiro/">The Daily Orange</a> writes that on April 6, the university’s Finance Board had “approved the College Republicans’ $39,000 request to invite Shapiro to SU” in October.
The document notes that the original title of the resolution was: “A Resolution Condemning the Appearance of a White Supremacist at Syracuse University.” However, it was changed because “white supremacy” isn’t the only alleged offense perpetrated by Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew. The list further includes “racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, classism, and xenophobia.”
Following a “trigger warning,” the resolution, which has two co-sponsors and well over 150 “authors,” asks the assembly to “condemn Ben Shapiro to set the precedent that hateful speakers/speakers who engage in hate speech are not welcome on the SU campus.”
The authors of the resolution write that while hate speech is protected under the First Amendment, and that those reading the document might view the resolution’s demand as inhibiting such free speech, “hate speech can actually limit free speech because it creates a hostile and unsafe environment where those who disagree and/or want to defend themselves feel like they cannot due to fear of retribution.”
“The fear and lack of safety caused by hate speech does not allow for free debate, learning, and open discourse,” the authors add.
The authors then quote The Stanford Daily, which wrote: “Shapiro says his beliefs are rooted in facts, not feelings, but there’s not a single fact in sight – only clear and blinding white supremacy.”
The resolution continues, listing numerous alleged incidents of “hate speech” from Shapiro, including but not limited to statements of fact about transgenderism, non-controversial conservative viewpoints, and a number of other statements lacking any context or explanation whatsoever.
The resolution concludes:
<blockquote>Whereas, Ben Shapiro is overtly xenophobic and hateful against those of marginalized communities. Whereas, inviting such a divisive and hateful speaker does not support marginalized students of Syracuse University and serves no purpose other than to antagonize students of marginalized identities and divide our campus even further. Therefore, be it resolved that the Syracuse University Student Association condemns Ben Shapiro speaking at Syracuse University and requests that the University take whatever measures are necessary to prevent this event from taking place.</blockquote>
The Daily Wire reached out to several members of the Syracuse University Student Association for comment, but none have replied as of publication.
The Syracuse College Republicans, however, directed The Daily Wire to a statement from their organization.
The statement reads in part:
<blockquote>We emphatically reject the idea that Ben Shapiro is a white supremacist. There is no evidence for this beyond the sewing together of less than a dozen statements said over two decades that have been interpreted in the most uncharitable way possible. Real white supremacists exist. Racism continues to plague the United States as it has for centuries. White Nationalism has found new life in this country in recent years. These realities should be of concern to all good-natured Americans. Ben Shapiro has never subscribed to the ideas of racism and white supremacy. In reality, he has vehemently attacked these horrendous racist ideas repeatedly&#8230;</blockquote>
The statement then correctly notes that Shapiro has been the “top recipient of online anti-Semitic harassment &#8230; according to the Anti-Defamation League,” and that Shapiro <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-shapiro-dismantles-the-alt-right-and-radical-lefts-dangerous-game">gave a speech</a> at Stanford in the fall of 2019 condemning the Alt-Right and their ideology.
The statement continues:
<blockquote>Accusing Shapiro of being a white supremacist, assuming his views are representative of our views as College Republicans, is tantamount to accusing us of being white supremacists. At the very least, the accusations lead one to assume that the College Republicans are so lacking in moral character as to invite a white supremacist to campus&#8230;
We invite people to think carefully about the implications of the resolution of the SA candidates.</blockquote>
This isn’t the first time Shapiro has been wrongfully accused of being a white supremacist or part of the Alt-Right. A March 2019 piece in The Economist called Shapiro an “<a href="https://www.economist.com/open-future/2019/03/28/inside-the-mind-of-ben-shapiro-a-radical-conservative">alt-right sage</a>.” The paper was later forced to issue an editor’s note retracting the comment.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">subscriber</a>.

Ben Shapiro

Syracuse University SA Resolution Calls Ben Shapiro A ‘Hateful’ ‘White Supremacist’

A male student at Syracuse University is trying to clear his name after the school’s investigation into sexual assault allegations failed to allow him to properly defend himself.
The student, whom The Daily Wire will call John Doe, was previously accused of raping a female student, who will be called Jane Roe. Both were Syracuse students. The two attended a party in 2017 co-hosted by John’s fraternity and Jane’s sorority. Surveillance footage from that night showed the two students enter John’s room at about 12:30 in the morning. The two, according to court documents, awoke in the same bed the next morning – fully clothed – and had no memory of what occurred the night before, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/she-claimed-he-raped-her-a-medical-examination-showed-no-sex-he-was-expelled-and-is-suing-her-for-defamation">reported</a>.
After John was expelled, he filed a lawsuit against the school alleging his due process and Title IX rights were violated. He also sued his accuser for defamation because she called him a rapist online and to his friends even though there was no evidence the two even had sex. Jane tried to get the lawsuit dismissed, but a judge denied her motion.
Syracuse, likewise, is trying to get John’s lawsuit against the school dismissed. The Daily Wire was provided a copy of John’s legal response to Syracuse’s motion to dismiss, which outlines the ways the university violated John’s rights.
For starters, the man assigned to investigate the allegations, Bernerd Jacobson, was a victim’s advocate, not an impartial observer, and, according to John and his attorneys, acted as an advocate. John’s attorney argues that by the time Jacobson spoke to Jane for the first time, she had changed her story multiple times. She initially said she thought she was drugged – though a test showed no drugs other than caffeine and marijuana in her system. She also repeatedly said she didn’t remember what happened that night in the months before meeting with Jacobson. Yet months after the alleged incident, and only after going to therapy for her alleged trauma, did Jane start to “remember” things, including sexual intercourse with John. Such memories are not accurate and bring to mind the “recovered memories” of the 1980s Satanic daycare panic.
Jacobson, according to John’s lawsuit “blatantly disregarded objective facts and failed to collect highly relevant evidence – which Defendant Jacobson knew existed – that exonerated Doe and pointed to the implausibly of Roe’s sexual assault claims.”
For instance, Jacobson didn’t speak to a veteran sex crimes prosecutor who said there was no evidence sex even occurred between the two students, the detective whom Jane repeatedly told she didn’t remember what happened that night, the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) who found no evidence of sex, or the representative who helped Jane fill out a Family Court Petition against John.
Jacobson didn’t even obtain a copy of the SANE report or Jane’s clothes from the night in question. Instead, Jacobson alleged that a finding in the SANE report regarding two tears in Jane’s labia was enough evidence of sexual assault, even though that isn’t evidence of anything. Even with the tears, the examination found no “abrasions to vaginal walls and she had smooth hymen edges,” according to Judge Roslynn R. Mauskopf’s summary of the case contained in her <a href="https://reason.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/GoldmanvReddington.pdf">ruling</a>. Also, a DNA analysis of Jane’s vagina found no male DNA.
John maintained throughout the proceedings that he didn’t remember the night in question. Jane initially said she didn’t remember either, but later changed her story months later. Jacobson, however, found ways to dismiss issues with Jane’s story. Even though a toxicology report found Jane was not drugged, Jacobson noted that “it was not implausible” that Jane was drugged, according to John’s lawsuit. Jacobson even dismissed police detective works, saying “well you know how detectives are, they’re great, but they write down what they think they heard.” Further, Jacobson dismissed Jane’s claim in her Family Court Petition that John raped her with a foreign object by claiming it was Jane’s claim, but an exaggeration written in by the representative who helped her. He made this determination without speaking with this representative.
With all the deficiencies, Jacobson concluded that Jane was credible, but that John’s version of events was also “plausible.” Somehow that translated into finding John responsible for sexual assault even though there was no evidence of sex.
John was not provided the evidence against him and was not allowed to cross-examine Jane or any witnesses. He also didn’t have access to the exculpatory evidence, since Jacobson didn’t obtain it. A Syracuse Conduct Board found John responsible despite finding both students were credible and didn’t remember what happened.
Syracuse, in its motion to dismiss, claimed that because Jacobson briefly mentioned the inconsistencies in Jane’s story, it meant he wasn’t biased. The Conduct Board, however, wrote off those inconsistencies, which John’s lawyers maintain further proves the school’s bias. The Conduct Board also had no access to the SANE report, just the conclusion about the tears to Jane’s labia. The Board tried to claim that because it used a lower standard of proof (a preponderance of evidence, or 50% plus a feather), it could ignore the Assistant District Attorney’s assessment that “[t]here is no credible proof of any sexual conduct in this case, consensual or non-consensual.” As John’s lawsuit notes, this is a “red herring.”
“ADA Barry concluded there was no proof of any sexual contact whatsoever – thus any debate surrounding the standard of proof required in a criminal action is irrelevant to the allegations presented to the Conduct Board.,” the lawsuit states.
John claims in this lawsuit that Syracuse ignored the forensic evidence and findings of veteran law enforcement officials in order to find John responsible. In an email to The Daily Wire, John’s attorney, Seth Zuckerman, blasted not only Syracuse, but also the accuser for their actions:
<blockquote>Syracuse is no longer a safe place for male students. While claiming to protect its female students, the university’s extreme policies discriminate against males accused of sexual assault, regardless of the lack of evidence, as they are treated as guilty from the outset. Syracuse has gone overboard, trampled on the rights of male students, and created a dangerous environment for these young men. Our client was expelled as a result of a false allegation and the school’s bogus and biased investigation which denied our client due process while completely ignoring the police and district attorney’s office determination that there was no sexual assault. The school’s investigator intentionally failed to gather critical evidence. Following his unjustified expulsion, our client has been left to pick up the pieces of his life. The so-called victim has celebrated on social media our client’s expulsion and branded him a rapist and intentionally went out of her way to contact his employer to get him fired. He will never get his undergraduate life back, nor the social media anonymity, he had before these false allegations were made.</blockquote>

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Syracuse University

Syracuse University Will Begin Punishing Students Who Witness ‘Bias-Motivated’ Incidents And Don’t Act

SU Student Terminated From School Paper, Threatened For Opinion Piece Rejecting ‘Institutional Racism’

Syracuse University SA Resolution Calls Ben Shapiro A ‘Hateful’ ‘White Supremacist’

A Male Student Expelled Even Though There Was No Evidence Of Sex Is Fighting To Clear His Name