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TUESDAY
feb. 9, 2016 high 40°, low 29°
t h e i n de p e n de n t s t u de n t n e w s pa p e r of s y r a c u s e , n e w yor k |
N • Moving up
SU was ranked in the top tier for research among all doctoral universities in the United States. SU has looked to expand research under Chancellor Kent Syverud. Page 3
P • Culinary king
The new executive head chef at Syracuse University Food Services talks about his life and his plans for the future of the dining halls on campus. Page 9
dailyorange.com
S • Turnover
Kaleb Joseph has played less this season after starting 30 games last season. His fall from the starting lineup to the bench remains mostly unexplained. Page 16
Muslims at
syr acuse university
PART 1 OF 2
MEDIA STAIN SU’s Muslim community discusses media portrayal of Islam
University to change policy SU officials plan to add sanctions to student academic integrity policy By Nina Leeds staff writer
illustration by devyn passaretti head illustrator Editor’s Note: As Islam continues to grow and has become more prominent in the public’s eye, The Daily Orange took a look at Muslims and Islamophobia at Syracuse University. By Alexa Torrens news editor
M
aheer Azad was 6 years old and in a classroom a few blocks away from the World Trade Center on 9/11. He was confused, just like everybody else, he said. He was escorted home by security guards just like everybody else, he said, “because we didn’t know why the skies were so dark outside that day.” But Azad said that people forget he — an American-born Bengali, Muslim and junior at Syracuse University — was a kid, just like many others, on that day. It has been 15 years since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and though there has not been another attack with a magnitude of destruction close to that of 9/11 since, for many Muslims in the United States, the skies are once again dark, as oversaturated and negative portrayals of Islam and Islamophobic proposals by
presidential candidates stain the media. Like 9/11, the recent terrorist attacks formulated and executed by radical Muslim extremists in Paris and San Bernardino, California resonate strongly with members of SU’s Muslim community. The attacks are most often brought up in the context of Islamophobia, or the fear of Islam.
Trump is recent, but the media has been circulating these images or this narrative about fearing Muslims for a while. Zainab Abdali president of su’s muslim students’ association
This fear — which is often based on a lack of knowledge about the religion, said Gustav Niebuhr, director of the Carnegie Religion and Media Program at Syracuse University — is a phenomenon he said has been present in the U.S. even before 9/11. It’s also a phenomenon that Niebuhr
said is amplified among some people by individual presidential candidates who pander to what they perceive to be the worst fears of the American public. Zainab Abdali, president of SU’s Muslim Students’ Association and a Pakistan-born Muslim, said Islamophobia tends to surge after terrorist attacks and after presidential candidate Donald Trump makes an Islamophobic remark or proposal. “Trump is recent, but the media has been circulating these images or this narrative about fearing Muslims for a while,” Abdali said. “So even though now they’re like, ‘Oh, Trump sucks,’ the media has been doing the same thing but just a lot more subtly for a while.” But, Niebuhr said, this pandering does not affect everyone. “One’s got to remember that there were people who spoke out against that fear-mongering in January and December that was aimed at Muslims,” he said. “It’s a mix, in other words.” The mix could be attributed to the many misconceptions about Islam that members of SU’s Muslim community attribute to both media portrayal of Muslims and general ignorance toward the world religion, see islamophobia page 6
Syracuse University officials are working to relax the university’s academic integrity policy and institute a sanction system so that, in some cases, students with minor offenses do not have to go through a formal hearing. The revised policy aims at fixing specific problems that have come up over the years. Margaret Usdansky, the director of the Academic Integrity Office, said the committee was addressing goals that include eliminating hearings when students acknowledge they have violated the policy and classifying violations at three different levels. Each level of violation would correlate with a specific sanction: a formal letter of reprimand for level 1, academic probation for level 2 and suspension or expulsion for level 3, Usdansky said. Student Association President Aysha Seedat said she is also on board with the revamping of the academic integrity policy. “I think that the current policy is outdated and doesn’t take into account the ways in which students work nowadays,” Seedat said. Seedat has also been involved with the revision’s process, specifically contributing to the idea of sanctions, which is a new concept for the policy. The current policy only provides one avenue to take: a formal hearing, according to the Academic Integrity Office’s website. Since the hearing is the only way a problem can be dealt with under the current policy, there are between 55 and 69 hearings per year. The sanctions would provide less time-consuming alternatives for lesser types of inflictions and save faculty and colleges resources, according to the website. “We’ve outgrown the current system,” Usdansky said. “It’s time to modify it, keeping the aspects that work best and adding improvements to make sure our processes
see policy page 6