Jan. 31, 2019

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dailyorange.com

Renee Berlucchi, a yoga instructor at Syracuse Yoga, builds an inclusive space to make her flow more accessible to everybody — and every body. Page 9

The “Syracuse Surge” initiative will revitalize a long-closed high school and bring new business and technology opportunities to the South Side of the city. Page 3

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Syracuse men’s basketball defeated Boston College, 77-71, behind a 31-point, six-assist performance from star shooting guard Tyus Battle. Page 12

in session

asst. news editor

Syracuse University canceled evening classes and all university-sponsored events after 4 p.m. Wednesday due to plunging, subzero wind-chill temperatures. The university, in a campus-wide email, also said the weather could affect Thursday classes, and that it would announce any schedule changes by 6:30 a.m. Thursday. A wind chill warning is in effect until Thursday at 6 p.m., as wind chills between negative 20 and negative 30 degrees Fahrenheit are expected, according to Weather. com. The coldest wind chills were expected Wednesday night into Thursday morning and could cause frostbite on exposed skin within 30 minutes, per Weather.com. The Women’s Building and Ernie Davis fitness centers remained open, but other fitness locations closed. SU last canceled a full day of classes in 2018 — only the third time in university history. That was during a large winter storm.

By India Miraglia and Kennedy Rose the daily orange

M

JUDGE RORY MCMAHON took charge of Syracuse’s opioid court to help people enter treatment quickly, he said. kai nguyen staff photographer

McMahon meets with participants every weekday, checking on their recovery progress and making sure they aren’t using drugs again. “When I see the success and I see people smiling again, it makes me realize I’m doing the right thing,” he said. The Syracuse program was modeled after a program in Buffalo, the first of its kind in the country. The court in Buffalo led to a significant drop in opioid overdoses in the city, McMahon said. More than 3,100 drug courts were oper-

ating in the United States as of June 2017, according to a report by the nonprofit Physicians for Human Rights. But Keith Brown, director of health and harm reduction at the Katal Center for Health, Equity and Justice, said drug courts have largely been unsuccessful. The courts require people to go into treatment when they may not be ready to do so because of housing instability, past traumas or employment concerns, he said. see court page 4

university senate

Faculty debate gender pay equity adjustments By Casey Darnell and Emma Folts the daily orange

The University Senate debated how to address gender pay equity among Syracuse University faculty at its first meeting of the spring 2019 semester on Wednesday. Diane Grimes and Laurel Morton of the Senate’s Women’s Concerns Committee presented a proposal to create a committee that would determine how SU should address

Evening classes canceled By Gabe Stern

Judge Rory McMahon leads Syracuse’s new opioid treatment court odeled after a first-of-its-kind system in Buffalo, the city of Syracuse has launched a court focused on treating nonviolent criminals with opioid addictions. And Judge Rory McMahon, a longtime public servant in central New York, is leading the new initiative. He took the job immediately after it was offered — he lost a family member to opioid addiction several years ago, McMahon said. Syracuse’s new opioid treatment court, called the Court for Addiction, Recovery and Education, opened this month. It aims to help people, arrested on charges of petty crimes, get treated for addictions. If they successfully complete treatment, their sentences could be reduced. “Our motto is ‘One more sunset.’ Get them to see one more sunset,” McMahon said. “Every day they feel better, they look better, they’re eating again, they’re sleeping again. Our goal is just one more day. One more day for them to stick with the program.” About 15 people have sought help from the court in its first month of operation, and none have had overdoses since they started, McMahon said. Onondaga County’s opioid-related deaths skyrocketed in 2016, but that number steadily dropped in 2017 and 2018, according to county data. McMahon said the court program will exist until the city no longer needs it, but that currently is not the case, after 75 people died from opioidrelated causes in 2018.

on campus

the salary appeal process and its transparency, as well as ways to prevent future inequity. The proposal came more than a year after the university released a report showing women faculty made less on average than men faculty. The proposal recommended that the Office of Academic Affairs work with the Women’s Concerns Committee throughout the semester to establish “the charge and membership for a faculty administration standing

oversight advisory committee.” Senators expressed confusion about the intent of the proposal and debated whether the committee should be created by the Women’s Concerns Committee, a permanent Senate committee or one led by university administration. Grimes said she imagined the new committee would be “facultyheavy,” combining members from Senate committees with university administrators. A standing commit-

tee, though, within the Senate cannot include non-senators, Bylaws Committee Chair Bruce Carter said. Senator Emily Stokes-Rees, associate professor of museum studies, expressed concern over delegating the responsibility of pay equity solely to the Women’s Concerns Committee and “placing the burden” of correcting salary disparities on women. “Gender equity affects all of us,” see senate page 4

I think the colder it got, it (became) smart of the university to do that because it protects people. Syeisha Byrd hendricks chapel director of engagement programs.

In the 90 minutes that followed SU’s Wednesday announcement, students and community members said the effects of the evening cancelation were minimal. Sophomore Cameron Stepec was in Hinds Hall when she received the email, shortly after her class started at 3:45 p.m. Her professor didn’t cancel class on the spot, she said, but her class was eventually released early. Two of her sorority sisters in Kappa Kappa Gamma penned “strongly-worded” letters to Chancellor Kent Syverud on Tuesday night, asking him to cancel classes, she said. Syeisha Byrd, Hendricks Chapel’s director of engagement programs, said morning classes should not have been canceled. “Why cancel classes? I went to work,” she said of the morning hours. “I think the colder it got, it (became) smart of the university to do that because it protects people.” Byrd, who runs the campus coat drive, said she got a phone call Wednesday saying that a student needed gloves and a hat. gkstern@syr.edu | @gabestern326


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