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dailyorange.com
N • Diplomatic visit
S • Onto Duke
Itay Milner, a representative of the Israeli consulate in New York City, visited a Newhouse class to prepare the students for an upcoming spring break trip to Israel. Page 3
With a blowout win over Florida State in its ACC Tournament opener, Syracuse advances to face top-seeded Duke in the quarterfinals on Thursday. Page 16
city
The great collaborator Charles Willie focused on advocating for students during his career at SU
Rented homes in city face disparity By Danny Amron and Kyle Chouinard the daily orange
photo illustration by meghan hendricks photo editor, photo courtesy of james willie
By Kyle Chouinard
Palmer said Charles Willie was a wonderful presence. “(He was) very thoughtful and raserless pencils were strewn across James deeply committed to the school Willie’s childhood home. and university with his concerns as an advisory board member,” His father’s writing proPalmer said. “(He had) a very cess demanded it. All of his books strong moral voice.” were written with a pencil in hand on yellow paper. Palmer said Charles WilJohn Palmer “He would burn through lie was deeply attuned to the former dean of the maxwell school concerns of students and how erasers,” James Willie said their experience at SU could be about his father. James’ father, Charles “Chuck” Willie, was Syracuse Uni- improved. On the advisory board, Willie was an advoversity’s first Black academic administrator and first Black cate for students, Palmer said. Charles Willie had issues with the use of the “Saltine tenured professor. He joined SU in 1950 as a teaching assistant. In 1957, Willie received his Ph.D. from SU, and in 1967, Warrior’’ as a symbol for the university. According to a he became the chair of the university’s sociology department. clipping from The Syracuse Post-Standard in SU’s archives, Willie wrote letters in 1972 to school departments and In 1972, he became vice president for student affairs. Charles Willie died on Jan. 11 at the age of 94. student organizations alike, saying he was disturbed by the John Palmer served as the Maxwell School of Citizen- symbol’s use, though he didn’t consult with the Onondaga ship and Public Affairs’s dean from 1988 until 2003. Nation before sending the letters. The mascot would be disWhile the two didn’t work together while Charles Willie continued six years later. was at SU, Willie did serve on the school’s advisory board Beyond letters, James Willie said his father was always while Palmer was its dean. see willie page 4 asst. news editor
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If you ever met him and spent time with him, you didn’t forget him. His presence was very strong in a very positive way.
Just under half of Syracuse’s properties are occupied by their owner, according to data from Open Data Syracuse. Homeownership can be a crucial part of economic stability, according to Syracuse University geography professor Timur Hammond. Throughout the city, Syracuse’s median property value in owner-occupied properties is 13% higher than in rental properties, according to data analyzed by The Daily Orange. Hammond added that the differences between rental and owner-occupied housing within the university neighborhood includes different levels of maintenance and quality of the housing. The balance between rent and upkeep costs is a tension landlords face, Hammond said. An improving rental market may lead a landlord to invest more in property upkeep, he said. Rental properties may also require more work than their owner-occupied counterparts. Hammond said that unplowed driveways and icicles are often ignored but are signs of a lack of upkeep for a property. These signs are especially present within the university neighborhood, he said. “It’s one thing if landlords live in the city and they have a vested interest in the city of which they’re a part (of ), but it becomes really easy for landlords who live outside of Syracuse to see these properties as only kind of dollars and cents, financial calculations,” Hammond said. W hen landlords are not around the city on an everyday basis, they may not see the impact of their lack of investment, Hammond said, which makes it easier to justify the bare minimum instead of taking on maintenance as part of the shared responsibility of living in Syracuse. Hammond added that the location of a landlord does not entirely indicate “good” or “bad,” but does play a role in how their decisions are made. Mary Traynor, an organizer see housing page 4