Feb. 25, 2021

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N • Broken protocol

C •Down to earth

Loretta Lynch’s year-long review of DPS found that the department violated its own policies while investigating hate crimes on SU’s campus.

Page 3

Professor Rawiya Kameir has profiled celebrities like Cardi B and Noname for publications like Pitchfork and The FADER. She now teaches students in Newhouse.

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S • The basis of sex Former Syracuse tennis player Abbe Seldin faced gender discrimination when she tried to join her high school’s boys tennis team.

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‘Reliving history’ Residents fear I-81 project will lead to displacement — this time by SU

asst. sports editor

Syracuse women’s lacrosse issued an apology Wednesday after posting a photo of a player making what appeared to be a white supremacist symbol on its Instagram story.

asst. news editor

A

This was an unacceptable lapse in judgment and lack of awareness SU women’s lacrosse team statement

When the viaduct was constructed, racist housing policies forced families to move to the shadow of the highway. elizabeth billman senior staff photographer

which lie adjacent to the current viaduct.

Activists and residents who live near the viaduct said they support its removal, but many fear that redevelopment could lead to gentrification and displacement, especially if large institutions — such as Syracuse University, which sits just feet away from the viaduct and the surrounding community — obtain a portion of the available land.

“They’re really concerned that the land will be taken from them in much of the same way that it was taken before,” said Lanessa

Owens-Chaplin, the assistant director of the Education Policy Center at the central New York chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “It’s not something that they conjured up in their imagination. This has happened in the past.”

At least 40% of residents living in the majority of neighborhoods surrounding the I-81 corridor live below the poverty line, and at least 50% of the population is people of color, according to data from the CNY Fair see displacement page 4

Nonprofit uses grant to prevent displacement

By Sarah Alessandrini asst. news editor

To Arlaina Harris, the best way to effect change in the East Adams Street neighborhood is by empowering its residents.

Harris, who grew up on Syracuse’s Southside, is the director of community partnerships at Blueprint 15, a Syracuse nonprofit aiming to revitalize East Adams. The area is a portion of the former 15th Ward, a predominantly Black neighborhood destroyed by the construction of the Interstate 81 highway in the mid-20th century.

“What better way to figure out how to inform our policies and our practices than actually investing in the neighborhood and helping (residents) and empowering them to be a part of those solutions,” Harris said.

An organization that works with the New

SU team posts racist symbol

By Skyler Rivera

By Maggie Hicks

s a child, Deanna Holland’s mother lived where the parking lot for Upstate University Hospital now sits. Her home was destroyed to make room for Interstate 81.

Like 1,300 other Syracuse residents, she was forced to leave her home so the state could construct the highway, which splits through Syracuse’s Southside neighborhood.

Now, nearly 55 years later, the state plans to remove and replace the deteriorating section of the raised highway. Holland, who lives less than a quarter of a mile from I-81, fears her community could face the same fate as her mother.

“We’re reliving history at this point,” she said.

The New York State Department of Transportation and the Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council began the official process of deciding what to do with the section of highway, referred to as the I-81 viaduct, in 2011.

In 2019, NYSDOT announced that it would favor a plan to remove the viaduct and replace it with a “community grid” of surface level streets in the area. Although the state is still waiting on an environmental review of the project, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said that the state plans to break ground on the project in 2022.

When the viaduct is removed, it will leave behind 18 acres of developable land, eight of

women’s lacrosse

York attorney general’s office recently awarded Blueprint 15 a $1 million grant. The nonprofit will use the funds to kick-start several antidisplacement strategies in the neighborhood, including hiring neighborhood representatives and establishing a housing trust fund.

The state plans to begin work on the aging highway in 2022, replacing the current viaduct with a community grid that will redirect some traffic onto city streets. But some residents worry that the project will force them from their homes once the viaduct comes down.

Robert Mike, president of the Pioneer Homes Tenants Association and a Blueprint 15 board member, said the nonprofit’s goal is to ensure that the state doesn’t make the same mistakes it made when the highway first went up. Pioneer Homes is a public housing complex that the highway’s construction bisected in the 1950s and 60s.

“We’re going about it a totally different way,”

Mike said. “We’re getting information from the tenants, the people in the community, to see what they want. It’s not what we want — it’s what they want.”

Displacement has been a major issue in the area since construction of I-81 viaduct first displaced residents, said Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens, who also serves as president of Blueprint 15’s board of directors.

“Blueprint’s role is to be a partner in what that redevelopment looks like and to ensure that our community does not make the mistake that it repeatedly makes: dislocating the indigenous residents of the neighborhood,” Owens said.

Blueprint 15 received the $1 million grant from Enterprise Community Partners, a national nonprofit that works with the state Attorney General’s office to direct money won see grant page 6

The photo was posted on Tuesday evening as part of an Instagram “take over” hosted by a player on the team. In the photo, a different player is seen making an “OK” hand gesture, which the Anti-Defamation League has deemed a symbol of hate. The team did not identify the player who made the symbol and has since deleted the post.

The hand gesture was “part of a game” the team plays called “the circle game,” and the post was never intended to be “malicious or antagonistic,” the team said in a statement issued Wednesday.

“But in any situation like this, intent does not matter. This was an unacceptable lapse in judgment and lack of awareness on the part of our entire team,” the statement reads. “We as members of this program take collective responsibility for the harm this post may have caused.”

During a Wednesday press conference, head coach Gary Gait reiterated the statement and said, “It was a mistake, an unintended one.”

“This incident does not reflect our character, but it does demonstrate the work we have to do,” the team’s statement reads.

“It shows that many of us are privileged enough to live free of the fear and hate that white supremacy brings to the Black community as well as other marginalized groups.”

“The future of lacrosse is bright, and we are determined to help it grow in inclusivity, diversity and love of the game.” skrivera@syr.edu @skylerriveraa

2 feb. 25, 2021

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INSIDE

The best quotes from sources in today’s paper.

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OPINION ”It’s mandatory for all inmates to wear masks, but the rules don’t apply to officers and staff. - Felipe Lebron Page 5

CULTURE ”I’m an introvert. I’m terrified of people in general, so whether I have to ask if there’s more oat milk in the back of the grocery store or if I have to ask LeBron James why he’s launching a tequila, it’s equally intimidating to me.” - Professor Rawiya Kameir Page 7

SPORTS ”She was incredibly courageous for what she did. It was gutsy to do this in the late 60s, early 70s.” - Jeff Gottesfeld on Abbe Seldin Page 12

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Interesting events today and this weekend.

The D.O. strives to be as accurate in our reporting as possible. Please email editor@dailyorange.com to report a correction.

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“There’s human beings that live at the bottom of the Hill.” - Bernard Cannon, Syracuse resident living by I-81.

Page 3

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NEWS

dailyorange.com news@dailyorange.com

PAG E 3

feb. 25, 2021

on campus

on campus

DPS didn’t comply with its own procedures SU to start new computer degree

By Sarah Alessandrini asst. news editor

DPS utilizes more than 160 standard operating procedures to guide officers and other department personnel about how to conduct operations.

The procedures cover use of force, internal affairs and terrorist incidents, among other topics. emily steinberger photo editor

By Michael Sessa news editor

A year-long review of the Department of Public Safety led by former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch found that DPS didn’t adhere to its own operating procedures while investigating hate incidents on campus.

The 97-page report, which explores how the department interacts with members of the Syracuse University community, was spurred by campus protests that began after a series of racist, antiSemitic and homophobic incidents at or near SU. Lynch’s review of documents from those investigations found that “there were at least some respects in which the documentation did not evidence full compliance” with DPS’s standard operating procedures. Lynch and her team also reviewed other DPS pro-

cedures to identify weaknesses.

Here’s a breakdown of what the department’s standard operating procedures do and the how Lynch and her team recommended DPS change them:

What did Lynch and her team review?

DPS uti1izes more than 160 standard operating procedures to guide officers and other department personnel about how to conduct operations. The procedures cover a wide variety of topics, including use of force, internal affairs and terrorist incidents.

In consultation with a community policing expert, Lynch and her team chose 26 procedures to review in depth.

Of those procedures, Lynch and her team made 10 specific recommendations about ways to better enforce the procedures or to overhaul them entirely.

What are the recommendations?

Of the recommendations related to operating procedures, the most wide-reaching addresses access to department policies and documents. Currently, department policy dictates that DPS manuals and documents are confidential.

Lynch and her team recommend that the department make nearly all of them publicly accessible.

The team also recommends that DPS update its operating procedures relating to hate crimes and bias incidents to expand the list of protected characteristics so that they align better with New York penal law and the university’s Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity Policy Statement.

DPS should also update its policies for dealing with campus protests and unrest to diminish the amount of subjective decision-making involved,

the team recommended.

Lynch and her team also made recommendations related to officer discipline and internal affairs investigations. DPS should update its policies to reflect how it actually deals with discipline matters, which Lynch and her team found often differed.

The team also suggested that DPS include rude and unprofessional behavior by officers, which was previously investigated as a quality of service complaint rather than an internal affairs complaint, as violations of department policy.

The department should also modify its policies to mandate that officers report excessive force to their supervisors and intervene when they observe excessive force by another officer, Lynch and her team said.

The team recommended officers receive trauma-informed sexual assault reporting training so they see review page 6

university senate

Syverud addresses Lynch’s recommendations

By Chris Hippensteel asst. digital editor

Chancellor Kent Sy verud addressed the findings of former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s review of the Department of Public Safety and new state COVID-19 guidelines at a University Senate meeting Wednesday.

Lynch released an independent review of DPS on Monday, which outlines 23 recommendations for improving the department. The 97-page report is the product of a year-long investigation into how the department interacts with members of the Syracuse University community and how officers interacted with students during protests on cam-

pus last academic year.

The report includes 23 recommendations to improve relations between DPS and the campus community, among them the publication of DPS operating procedures and the establishment of a citizen review board to field complaints against the department. It was the product of over 77 interviews with members of the SU community, as well as reviews of DPS internal communications and over 20,000 documents, Syrevud said.

Syverud said he accepts the conclusions of Lynch’s report, which he called “comprehensive and luminous,” and has instructed the “appropriate leaders” to implement the recommendations. More information about the implementation

process will come in the coming weeks, he said.

We have not always gotten things right, and we will make the changes needed to get them right in the future Kent Syverud chancellor

“We have not always gotten things right, and we will make the changes needed to get them right in the future,” Syverud said.

“Rebuilding trust in these areas is

going to take time and commitment from all of us.”

Tom Sherman, a professor in the department of transmedia, expressed concerns about Lynch’s recommendation that DPS stop providing off-campus escort services that allow SU students to request a DPS officer to help them get home at night. Lynch’s report stated that several students had recounted instances in which DPS officers seemed to dismiss or belittle students’ safety concerns when they requested an escort.

Syverud said that SU will likely allow another agency to take over the escort program from DPS. The chancellor also said he appreciated the changes New York state see updates page 6

Syracuse University will offer an online, part-time computer programming degree in fall 2021.

SU’s University College is currently accepting applications for the bachelor of professional studies degree, said Michael Frasciello, dean of the college. Students who pursue this degree may choose to seek careers in fields such as health care, criminal justice, defense contracting and finance, according to SU’s website.

All University College degrees are created based on demands from growing industries and inquiries from students, Frasciello said. Computer programming has been and continues to be one of those areas of interest, he said.

“The students that we are admitting to the program persist and succeed — those are markers of success that we put a lot of emphasis on internally, because it means we are doing our job really well,” Frasciello said.

University College worked closely with the College of Engineering and Computer Science to structure the degree’s curriculum, Frasciello said.

While University College runs the program, the electrical engineering and computer science department serves as a consultant for any course or curriculum modifications to the program, said Susan Older, chair of the computer science department, in an email.

“The program has been designed to prepare graduates for career placement and advancement in computer programming fields,” Older said. “The coursework emphasizes applied computing and programming skills, with less emphasis on the math-oriented aspects of computer science.”

As a professional studies degree, the program will require 120 credit hours that include a liberal arts core and a professional competency core, Frasciello said.

Mark Borte, an adjunct professor in the School of Information Studies, teaches a project management course that will comprise one of the core courses for the new degree.

Since industries utilizing computer programming tend to be mostly project-based, it makes sense to include the course as one of the program’s core requirements, Borte said.

“It is very typical for programmers to be involved in efforts that are temporary in nature and produce a new product, service or result,” he said.

University College tailors to “non-traditional” students, which typically include adult learners who are either returning to college or are pursuing a degree later in life. Borte’s online project management course is only eightweeks long as opposed to a typical 15-week in-person semester.

The part-time and online element allows students to pursue a degree without abandoning

see degree page 6

4 feb. 25, 2021

dailyorange.com news@dailyorange.com

from page 1

displacement Housing report.

When the viaduct was initially constructed, families like Holland’s faced racist housing policies that left them to move to the shadow of the highway, where many still remain today.

“It’s a true injustice what’s been done to our community,” Holland said. “We learned to survive in this community, and now it’s going to be taken away again, so now we gotta regroup and figure it out all over again. It’s like we’re going back to the back of the line again.”

But this time, displacement will be a “slow leak,” Owens-Chaplin said. Rather than the fastpaced removal of families that allowed for the initial construction of I-81, development now threatens to slowly push residents out.

“On the surface, it may sound good — the real estate value triples, the city gets more tax dollars to provide services to people,” OwensChaplin said. “However, when you have prime real estate, property taxes go up for those folks who have been living in those houses for 20 to 30 years, and if they’re on a limited income or a fixed income, they can’t afford a tax increase on their property.”

The available land is currently state-owned and will eventually be transferred to the city, Owens-Chaplin said. But it will be up to community partners to ensure that the project won’t harm the surrounding area.

Latoya Allen, the common councilor for Syracuse’s 4th district — which includes the I-81 corridor — said many residents are concerned that SU will obtain the land and develop student housing, parking lots or other buildings that won’t benefit residents in the area.

“We understand that Syracuse University is for higher education, but also they should be able to be a community partner,” Allen said. “And not just a community partner just to put your logo on the flyer, but be a true community partner — build a community center, build something where people from the community and the students can interact with each other.”

SU isn’t aware of any plans to develop on the land by the viaduct but would assume the state will work closely with the city and Onondaga

County when these conservations begin, said Sarah Scalese, senior associate vice president for university communications, in a statement to The Daily Orange.

But many residents still fear that the university could have a negative impact on their communities, especially given the footprint SU already leaves on lower income areas in the city, Allen said.

Some residents have also expressed concerns about the environmental impacts of SU’s Steam Station, which is located on the corner of McBride and Taylor streets in the middle of the neighborhood bordering I-81, Owens-Chaplin said.

The plant, which provides energy for SU and nearby institutions, has contributed to air pollution in the area and significantly depressed land value in the surrounding neighborhood, according to an NYCLU report about the I-81 project.

SU offers a full four-year scholarship to residents in the neighborhood near the highway. But Owens-Chaplin said this is not enough.

“If we’re looking at contributing negatively to the quality of life of an entire community, offering a scholarship to a limited amount of students just isn’t adequate,” Owens-Chaplin said. “This is just another reminder of how this community is often treated in society as a whole.”

And the steam plant isn’t the only environmental issue residents in the area have faced.

Black residents in the area have significantly higher rates of lead exposure from leadbased fuel in vehicles on the highway, lead paint and dust from the viaduct itself and lead-based paint in aging homes, according to the NYCLU’s report.

Air and noise pollution from the highway have for years affected residents’ quality of life, leading to increased rates of asthma and respiratory illness in the area. According to a 2017 report from the New York State Department of Health, the rate of emergency department visits for asthma per 10,000 population was 105.6 in the city of Syracuse compared to 100.8 across the state.

Adlonia Judy Evans, a resident who lives near the viaduct, said she had never experienced respiratory issues until she moved to the area about 12 years ago. Now that she has asthma, she

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Residents who live near I-81 fear its removal may lead to displacement, especially if SU obtains a portion of the land.

elizabeth billman senior staff photographer

worries about pollution that could come from the viaduct’s removal.

“These are people. They have lives. They have loved ones. They have dreams,” Evans said.

“They are there and something really needs to be taken into consideration for the people that are there before that project is started.”

When the viaduct was initially constructed, the community lost nearly 101 acres of land, said David Rufus, who is the community organizer for the I-81 project with the NYCLU. He said that the city should, in some capacity, return the land to the people who are living in the area.

The NYCLU has proposed that the city place the eight acres of land that are directly below I-81 in a land trust so residents in the area can decide what happens to it, Owens-Chaplin said.

“There’s enough already of people discussing what the community wants,” Owens-Chaplin said. “Give this property and give this land to the community. Put it in a land trust for their benefit and let them decide what they want to do with that.”

Institutions such as SU still have the opportunity to play a positive role in deciding what

happens to the land, Owens-Chaplin said.

Allen suggested SU help build an affordable grocery store in the area that both students and residents can afford. The university could also create programs and offer resources to help residents in the area rebuild their community, Rufus and Owens-Chaplin said.

“You have a school with unlimited resources,” Owens-Chaplin said. “Provide training, provide mentorship, provide entrepreneurship opportunities, provide your staff, provide architecture students, provide urban planners to come into this community and help.”

Most of all, residents are hoping for more humanity. Bernard Cannon, who has lived about a quarter of a mile from I-81 for the past 30 years, believes the viaduct should be removed but only if it is done in a way that gives everyone a chance to be healthy and safe.

“There’s human beings that live at the bottom of the Hill,” Cannon said. “When you step on the top of the Hill and look down, it’s not a bunch of animals that live down there. It’s people that care.” mehicks@syr.edu @maggie_hickss

OPINION

dailyorange.com opinion@dailyorange.com

absence of light

PAG E 5

feb. 25, 2021

column

1 day in a maximum-security prison SU needs to do better for city of Syracuse

By Polina Plitchenko columnist

S

Every morning, Felipe Lebron wakes up in Auburn Correctional Facility thinking the same thing: “I can’t wait to go home.” This is an account of a day in his life imprisoned. gabe stern enterprise editor

By Felipe Lebron columnist

E

very morning I wake up to the same ringing. You know that bell at school that rings at the beginning and end of the day?

That same bell rings for up to five minutes nonstop every morning at 7 a.m. I’m so accustomed to it that I wake up before it goes off and put headphones on so I don’t have to hear it. I say to myself the same thing I’ve said for the entirety of my incarceration — “I can’t wait to go home” — and begin my daily morning ritual.

We don’t have hot water running in the sink. Only cold, so I wash up with it. The officer does the count around 7:05 a.m. and, as usual, he walks by without a mask.

I shake my head and say “chow” — we have to do that in order to go to breakfast and work.

Around 8 a.m. we are let out of the cells. It’s mandatory for all inmates to wear masks, but the rules don’t apply to officers and staff. Here they feel they are above the law.

So I walk to chow, and as I descend the stairs, I walk by dozens of officers without masks who are closer than 6 feet apart. Even the sergeants don’t wear them. They don’t care about our lives here. In their eyes, we don’t deserve to live. Because of them, a few inmates have lost their lives to COVID-19, and they see it as a victory. There is no point in telling them to put their mask on. We can get written up or possibly worse. I continue on my path to chow.

The mess hall is a petri dish.

Inmates are forced to wait in line

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closer than 1 foot apart, and here, the officers try to enforce social distancing. It never works out — there are too many inmates here, and they often sit us next to or across from each other, and you have to take your mask off to eat. I hurry up with my food. I’m always the last one to arrive at work, so I don’t want to take any more time sitting here risking my life.

I start my way to work and pass by more officers, some with their mask and some without. And often, they speak of having been infected, but still, they come to work. I don’t know how they are allowed to.

They have industry here, where inmates can work for up to 45 cents per hour so they can take care of themselves or send family money.

Trust me, there are a lot of inmates really dedicated to hard work even if it is for so little.

I work for the grievance office.

I try to be a voice here for other inmates who are having issues.

While some we can’t help, such as the occasional assault on inmates by officers, we help those who have problems such as missing property or cell damage, among other things.

Honestly, I’ve seen enough to make me disgusted with the way things work here. I just want to go home.

Being that grievance is the only program running during this pandemic, me and four others are about the only inmates allowed in the school building so we can take care of the work the staff doesn’t want to do. No one wears a mask in the school building. I do because I have asthma and I take my life

seriously, especially after losing my grandfather to COVID-19. I don’t want to take unnecessary risks.

After my morning shift, I go back to my cell for the 11 a.m. count, and it starts all over again, bell and all.

Depending on the day, we have recreational time for about one hour except night rec, which runs from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Today we have 1 p.m. rec, so I don’t go to work in the afternoon.

I usually have to work until 2:30 p.m. everyday except weekends.

After lunch — during which I most likely didn’t eat because the meat is something I can’t identify — I get ready for yard so I can call family and loved ones. We only have an hour, so we have to use it wisely — either phone calls, workout or shower. I currently have medical showers, so I check that off my to-do list.

I opt for the phones, which only run for 15 minutes each group, and there are only three groups today.

I try to get on at least two of them because one group is never enough time. After that, I have about 10 minutes to workout, so I hit the pull-up and dip bar and bang on as many sets as I can until they end yard time. Outside, social distancing is enforced in only one part, and that’s the phone line. They don’t care about the showers or the library. They only enforce it with the phones because they know we want to call home, and they do their best to make contacting home difficult. I don’t understand it.

• Please include your town of residence and any relevant affiliations • Topics should pertain to the Syracuse area • Letters should not include any personal information pertaining to other people unless it is relevant to the topic at hand, which will be decided at the

discretion of The D.O.’s editor-inchief and managing editor • Any links to third-party websites will also be published at the discretion of the editor-inchief and managing editor • All letters will be edited for style and grammar Thank you in advance for following these guidelines.

Asst. News Editor Maggie Hicks Asst. Editorial Editor Megan Cooper Asst. Editorial Editor Hamere Debebe Asst. Culture Editor Louis Platt Asst. Culture Editor Chris Scarglato Asst. Sports Editor Allie Kaylor Asst. Sports Editor Skyler Rivera Design Editor Maya Goosmann Design Editor Yiwei He Design Editor Talley Schroeder Design Editor Sarah Jimenez Miles Asst. Photo Editor Annabelle Gordon

yracuse University must find more ways to be the city of Syracuse’s strongest support system.

Over 30% of Syracuse’s population lives in poverty, and 44% of children in Syracuse are impoverished — these are significant challenges for the community as a whole.

And though the university has committed to allocating $600,000 for volunteer programming to serve low-income and underserved communities in the city, SU should further invest in Syracuse and recognize the role it plays in driving economic growth.

SU provides the city with employment and, in turn, economic stability. But businesses near the university are dependent on SU students for their survival, which becomes problematic when students are away from campus.

Businesses on Marshall Street struggled to stay afloat when the pandemic started and students left campus, and they lost the customers they depend on beyond the normal downturns they expect in the summer and over winter break.

SU students are one of the only sources of income for businesses near the university.

Neighborhoods surrounding universities have poverty rates that are typically 50% higher than that of other neighborhoods.

This is a consequence of affordable housing options in university towns prioritizing students instead of residents. Landlords often rent off-campus properties in Syracuse’s University Neighborhood to students at higher

costs because they know students can afford the price more than residents can — this is one way the university’s presence in Syracuse greatly affects the area.

SU involving students in improving Syracuse’s economy would not only benefit the community but also students as well.

Taking care of the place you live in develops a sense of responsibility and raises globally conscious people who actually care about what’s going on around them. Paying attention to what can be improved in a local community can help cure ignorance, create good habits and reinforce an empathetic nature in students. Especially as we begin to leave this pandemic.

SU provides education to future politicians, economists and urban planners who could all currently play a role in working on real city projects. Students’ participation in these projects will also provide more ideas for city representatives and will increase the involvement of students in the surrounding community. This would be an optimal option both for the university and for the Syracuse community as a whole.

The ultimate goal is for the university and the community to thrive together. Accomplishing this requires the recognition of SU’s influence on the community as a whole. Most importantly, students talking about the issue and taking an active part in the community’s development can make the change the greater Syracuse area needs.

Polina Plitchenko is a junior psychology major. Her column appears biweekly. She can be reached at pplitche@syr.edu.

scribble

Felipe Lebron is a Syracuse resident currently incarcerated at Auburn Correctional Facility.

He is serving a 16-year sentence.

illustration by skyler rivera asst. sports editor

Casey Darnell

Emma Folts

KJ Edelman

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from page 1

grant in lawsuits toward the affordable housing crisis.

Enterprise launched its New York state anti-displacement learning network in 2019 with the goal of helping city leaders reduce displacement in their communities, said Jenny Yang, senior program officer in Enterprise’s New York office. The organization put out requests for proposals in 2019 and 10 New York cities, including Syracuse, applied, Yang said.

Blueprint 15, the Syracuse Housing Authority and the New York Civil Liberties Union worked with other cities to learn about strategies to address displacement as part of the year-long application process, Owens and from page 3

review can respond more appropriately to survivors of sexual violence.

What happens next?

Chancellor Kent Syverud said in a statement from page 3

updates has made to its COVID-19 guidelines for colleges and universities.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that colleges and universities would be required to move all classes online and limit on-campus activities if the campus’s positivity rate exceeds 5%. For SU — which has an oncampus population of about 17,600 students, from page 3

degree their daily responsibilities, Frasciello said.

Having a combination of adult learners in a class allows for students to learn from the experiences of their classmates, Borte said.

Students may also find themselves in a class

Yang said. The city then worked with Enterprise to determine a plan of action before it could receive the grant, Owens said.

“The team at Syracuse was really engaged from the beginning,” Yang said. “We’re confident in giving the Syracuse team the grant in terms of helping them put their strategies into action.”

The idea to develop a housing trust fund, which will provide flexible resources for homeownership and mixed-income development, came from other communities in upstate New York, Owens said. The city and its partners are still deciding whether the fund will operate as an entity of the city or as a nonprofit, she said.

Blueprint 15 also hopes to use some of the grant money to further its partnership with the Volunteer Lawyers Project of Onondaga County,

a nonprofit organization that provides free legal information, assistance and representation in civil legal matters to low-income people.

The Volunteers Lawyers Project plans to hold workshops for residents to help them know their rights and what resources are available to them, Harris said.

“A lot of times people don’t have representation or they don’t know about different resources that are available and sometimes that’s the difference between them being in an even more difficult situation,” she said.

Blueprint 15 also plans to establish a physical location in the East Adams neighborhood so residents have a central location to go to for information.

In terms of ensuring that residents’ voices are

heard, Owens said that the work has just begun.

Residents of the East Adams neighborhood have been taking part in conversations about displacement and the I-81 viaduct for decades.

For some people, it’s just a debate, but for residents, it’s about where they live, Owens said.

Owens hopes that Blueprint 15 and the city will move forward with their proposed strategies in the upcoming year.

“We’re talking about people (living) in the middle of a transportation infrastructure construction zone,” she said. “The work is just beginning.”

Monday that he accepts the report’s conclusions and has directed the appropriate campus leaders to implement its recommendations.

Actions by the university and by DPS have, at times, exacerbated fear among members of the campus community, he said.

“We let you down,” Syverud said. “I am committed to ensuring we do better to

rebuild and strengthen trust and mutual respect among our campus community.”

In an interview with The Daily Orange, Lynch said that SU is working with Chief Ronald Davis of 21CP Solutions to help implement the recommendations in her report. Davis has served in various policing positions for 30 years and was appointed executive director of

former President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

Syverud has said he will provide additional information in the coming weeks about how the university plans to implement the recommendations.

faculty and staff — this means that 880 positive cases within two weeks would require the university to go on pause.

“The new guidance issued Friday is more reasonable given the size of our campus,” Syverud said. “This policy change is good for Syracuse.”

But the 880 mark “is a floor, not a ceiling” for restricting activities on SU’s campus, Syverud said. The university would take action to mitigate the spread of the virus

before case totals reached that point, he said.

SU currently has 31 active cases among students and employees, and 102 students are in quarantine.

The new standard also only applies if SU maintains “rigorous” COVID-19 testing procedures, Syverud said. SU has required students to receive weekly testing since the start of the spring semester, with steep penalties for students who don’t comply.

John Liu, interim vice chancellor and

provost, said SU’s quarantine and isolation housing would become overwhelmed as the university approached a 5% positivity rate.

“We cannot take New York state’s flexibility as a permission to let down our guard,” Syverud said. “This goes for our entire community. Our expectations for students abiding by the Stay Safe Pledge and the public health guidelines has not changed.”

with someone in a profession they’re looking to pursue, Borte said.

“The added benefit for everyone in the class, including the instructor, is because there is this combination of adult learners in there,” he said. “They’re bringing their experience into the classroom as well.”

Students pursuing the degree will also be

required to attend one live 90-minute session per week. The requirement is unique and differentiates University College from many other online degree programs, Frasciello said.

Creating the degree, including determining the curriculum and seeking approval from New York state, has been in the works for almost two years now, Frasciello said. The

state has just approved the degree.

“It does end up being a unique experience,” Borte said. “There’s a euphoric feeling at the end of the course, this sense of accomplishment that you wouldn’t necessarily think that you would get in an online course.”

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CULTURE

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PAG E 7

feb. 25, 2021

Staying grounded

RAWIYA KAMEIR profiled artists such as Tierra Whack, Davido and Noname for The FADER before joining the Newhouse School of Public Communications staff last fall.

emily steinberger photo editor

By Sydney Bergan culture editor

T

he first time Rawiya Kameir spoke with Cardi B, the rapper was known for her posts on Vine, her time on the reality TV show “Love and Hip Hop” and her famous catchphrase, “okurrr.”

It was 2016, and Kameir was writing a profile of Cardi for The FADER, a lifestyle and music magazine. The next time the two would speak — in 2017, while meeting for lunch at Nobu in Manhattan — the up-and-coming rapper had found more success, and Kameir’s profile of Cardi would be The FADER’s cover story.

Though the artist had received more recognition from the music industry by the time they met up at Nobu, she was still Cardi, Kameir said.

“We just talked. It was really fascinating to see all the ways in which she had clearly grown, all of the things that were clearly different in her life,” Kameir said. “But then, on the other

Professor Rawiya Kameir has profiled music artists such as Tierra Whack and Cardi B hand, she was completely the same person.”

Besides Cardi, Kameir has profiled rapper Tierra Whack, Afropop star Davido, rapper Noname and many other music artists through wher role as a contributing editor at Pitchfork magazine and through her time at The FADER. And besides writing, she’s now an assistant teaching professor at the Newhouse School of Public Communications in the magazine, news and digital journalism department, a position

she took on this fall.

Despite Kameir’s qualifications for the job, when the opportunity to work at Newhouse appeared, she thought the university wouldn’t pick her for the role. She always had the ambition to be a professor after watching both of her parents work in academia, but she had abandoned the dream after feeling culturally disconnected from her professors during her time at York University in Toronto.

Growing up, Kameir always loved music, and she would often read the liner notes inside of CDs and cassettes such as Mariah Carey’s “Daydream” and Wu-Tang Clan’s “36 Chambers” to learn behind-the-scenes details about the music. She originally saw herself working in the music industry, but having been born in Sudan and having grown up in Côte d’Ivoire, Tunisia and Egypt, she never really had access to “that world,” she said.

It wasn’t until she moved to Toronto for her undergraduate degree at York University that her life would revolve around music. All of a see kameir page 8

beyond the hill

Nonprofit empowers Black women to become ‘Fearless Queens’

By Kamal Morgan

contributing writer

One night in 2016, Tommi Billingsley saw a phoenix in her dream and described it as a “rebirth.” The dream drove her to create the nonprofit organization Fearless Queens.

“It was just all about inspiring, uplifting, motivating, encouraging and teaching other women like myself,” Billingsley said. “To tap into the power that we possess within ourselves, to loving ourselves on a deeper level (and) to do it unafraid.”

Fearless Queens is an organization of Black women seeking to empower each other through sisterhood and solidarity to help their

own communities. The organization holds events, panels and workshops for female business owners and entrepreneurs to promote and sell their products. In January, Fearless Queens received $4,600 from the CNY Community Foundation for their initiative Queens Level Up. Queens Level Up provides workshops and networking opportunities for Black women. Members virtually meet with Billingsley three times a month and are provided expert advice based on the needs of the community.

The organization now has more than 200 members and holds workshops on professional development topics such as finance, marketing

and branding.

Fearless Queens holds an annual brunch where women can network and build relationships with other like-minded individuals. In the past, guest speakers have included entertainment manager and entrepreneur Yandy SmithHarris and American media personality, author, actress and businesswoman Juju Castaneda, who both star in the TV show “Love and Hip Hop: New York.”

Billingsley has considered herself an entrepreneur since 2004, when she started selling boots out of the trunk of her 2004 Oldsmobile Intrigue. Since then, she has also worked as a food vendor and owned a

clothing line.

After two years, Billingsley was proud of her success as a clothes vendor but wanted to try a new industry. In 2006, she bought a hot dog vending cart, a grill and received the permits to start selling from her cart.

“I got connected and created a business line with Maine’s market,” Billingsley said. “We had Smith’s restaurant equipment, and I found somewhere that I could set it up.”

In 2013, Billingsley launched her clothing line Flygirlishh, which stands for “forever love yourself.” She managed that business for four years and wanted to inspire women to love themselves

and be confident when they wore her clothing, she said.

Her passion to provide and set good examples for her family and the Black community has driven her entrepreneurial drive. But in 2015, Billingsley was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She told no one about her diagnosis and burnt herself out working to the point where she reexamined her purpose in life.

“My whole life changed because I realized that I had to love myself on a deeper level than what I was,” Billingsley said. “I realized that I was playing small. My dream was to just touch one woman at a time. And I still do believe in that. But it was see fearless

queens page 8

8 feb. 25, 2021

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from the studio

C

WERW managers, performers gear up for annual launch party

By Sydney Rednik

contributing writer

Asha Fuller is booking performers for the niche communities of Syracuse — not the mainstream listeners — for WERW. She and co-general manager Jack Franklin are gearing up for the station’s annual Spring Launch Party, scheduled for Thursday, featuring hip-hop duo Coco & Clair Clair and rapper 645AR. WERW is the only independently-run radio station on the Syracuse University campus. Fuller and Franklin hope that this year’s launch party will create buzz for the station’s new and returning shows for this semester.

DJs at the station are allowed to curate their own playlists and can choose to talk about whatever is on their mind in between songs. WERW gives their DJs creative leeway with the hope that listeners will find new

music either through the party or weekly radio shows, Franklin said. The station hopes their DJs will draw listeners back each week and spread the word about shows.

For the event, the pair worked on posters together and Franklin crafted a promotional video for the event on his own.

The posters, featured on the WERW Instagram and Twitter, utilize bright colors and bold letters that seem to come straight out of the ‘90s.

“We’re doing it all ourselves, in the indie spirit,” Fuller said.

Fuller and Franklin have been involved with WERW since the fall of their freshman year in 2018. Now juniors, the two are looking forward to how the artists they’ve selected can create buzz for the station.

Freshman Corey Chun is looking forward to the performances since it’s a great way for her to meet other DJs at the station. WERW

will livestream the prerecorded show on Zoom so audience members can see other participants and chat with each other.

Normally, when Chun DJs her show, “You Rock, I Roll,” at WERW, she can only see her roommate, freshman Maria Nido, with whom she co-hosts the show. Chun, who plans to watch the Zoom concert from her dorm, is excited for the show so she can branch out and see other DJs. Franklin agreed that it is meant to be an interactive experience.

We wanted to make it a live experience for everyone,” Franklin said.

Fuller and Franklin have wanted to book Coco & Clair Clair for several semesters, but something always fell through. So when the time came to plan this spring’s event, she and Franklin crafted a list of performance ideas with the hip-hop duo sticking out as the main candidate.

The juniors also wanted to include rapper 645AR because he matched the vibes of the other performers, Fuller said. Together, the hip-hop duo and 645AR create a vibe that Fuller and Franklin seek in the music their DJs play.

Chun also hopes to discover some new music from the performance. She said she has never heard music from either headliner prior to the announcement, but is now looking forward to seeing how they perform live over Zoom.

WERW is expecting to host over 160 DJs for the upcoming semester, so both general managers are banking on the performance’s success.

“We have a lot in store for this semester,” Franklin said. “We’ve been working very hard these past couple months to make sure everything starts off smoothly. And with a bang.” sarednik@syr.edu

slice of life

Alumni lecture discusses mental health in Black community

By Christopher Scarglato asst. culture editor

After the Q&A, the sharing of resources and the jokes, moderator Cedric Bolton asked his final question to the two Syracuse University alumni on the Sankofa Alumni Lecture Series call: What are some healthy ways to cope with stress?

The two SU alumni and mental health experts, Fola Lasisi and Khira Fryar, both mentioned methods like music and yoga. But both firmly agreed on writing.

“Writing is a way to express yourself when you can’t do it in the moment,” Fryar said.

The advice was just one of the many tips given during the event, which was a part of SU’s Racial Equity Academic Symposium.

Moderated by Bolton, the coordinator of student engagement at the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Wednesday night’s chat highlighted from page 7

kameir sudden, she was living in a city where she could attend concerts and get her hands on albums as soon as they dropped.

Even then, combining her passions for music and journalism to make a career as a music journalist was something that was just in the back of her mind. It wasn’t until she was getting her master’s degree at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism that she became more aware of how the music journalism industry worked.

Now, 11 years later, Kameir has received a nomination for the 2020 National Magazine Award in the essays and criticism category and has been featured in publications such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

But Kameir would never tell anyone that — not even Soo Yeon Hong, an assistant teaching professor at Newhouse, during her January 2020 interview for her current position. Kameir was all but silent on voicing her accomplishments.

“With some people, it’s all about what they did and how they try to impress you,” Hong said. “I didn’t even know she was a finalist for the Magazine Award. She never once bragged or said anything about her accomplishments even though she’s so young.”

Melissa Chessher, chair of the magazine, news and digital journalism department, worried during the hiring process that Newhouse may lose Kameir, as she had just been from page 7

fearless queens like, no, I need to do something bigger.”

This idea of expression and self-love became the root of Fearless Queens. It is meant to rediscover the confidence that Black women rarely see in mainstream media so they can understand their power

mental health challenges in the Black community. Additionally, Lasisi and Fryar talked about their own backgrounds in mental health and other instances where they gave out advice.

Mental health awareness in the Black community is something that isn’t spoken about enough when it should be, Bolton said.

Wednesday’s Zoom call also featured a Q&A after Bolton’s questions, which included topics like how to work with Black patients as a white social worker.

During a gap in the Q&A, Lasisi and Fryar also shared effective mental health resources such as Therapy for Black Girls, Inclusive Therapists and telehealth.

Both Lasisi and Fryar spent time talking about technology and its effects on mental health. While it can be beneficial due to the abundant access of information, Lasisi said people are being overexposed to social

media, which can have negative effects on mental health.

Fryar mentioned that the Black community is still trying to learn about what mental health means and how to talk about it. They also discussed the issues that arise with being stuck inside because of COVID-19.

“There’s like a Zoom fatigue. We’re tired of being on Zoom,” Lasisi said.

“Amen,” Bolton chimed in.

There was also a discussion about the challenges that come with talking about mental health. Lasisi said parents should be paying attention to their children and initiating conversations.

“It starts at home,” Lasisi mentioned.

She’s worked with adults who don’t understand their emotional needs, which is a cause for the lack of conversations about mental health.

After introductions, Bolton asked why the two decided to get involved with mental health and how the two decided to attend SU. Lasisi, a 2015 graduate, came to SU as a first generation college student from New York City. Her degree eventually propelled her to open up her own practice in Liverpool called Restore and Renew Therapy Services.

Fryar first came to SU with dreams of becoming a journalist, but later realized she wanted to become a social worker, something she called her passion. After meeting her mentor, she dived into the topic of mental health, eventually graduating with a bachelor’s in social work and then two master’s degrees by 2016. And since leaving SU, she has stuck locally.

“This community needed someone who looked like me,” Fryar said. “ Because there aren’t many of us. There still aren’t.” cscargla@syr.edu

nominated for the National Magazine Award — “the highest honor you can receive in the magazine world,” Chessher said.

As a teaching candidate, Kameir had to create a class presentation, which she chose to center around Beyoncé. Chessher remembers thinking that Kameir has to teach a class on the A-list artist, which she said will hopefully run in fall 2021.

“She basically has every skill,” Chessher said. “She, if we are lucky enough to keep her, will change us for the better and I just feel incredibly lucky that she’s here.”

But despite her accomplishments, Kameir said she’s an anxious person in general, which often makes the interviewing process nervewracking. She believes being introverted is common in the journalism field, as all of the things that make up a good journalist — such as empathy and compassion — are encapsulated in people who are nervous and overthink often.

When she speaks with high-profile celebrities, Kameir grounds herself by remembering that she doesn’t really care if the person likes her personally because she’s not there to be their friend. She also remembers that she’s there as a representative of the publication to do her job.

“I’m an introvert. I’m terrified of people in general, so whether I have to ask if there’s more oat milk in the back of the grocery store or if I have to ask LeBron James why he’s launching a tequila, it’s equally intimidating to me,” Kameir said.

Another way Kameir stays grounded is through the healing crystals she charges on

the bookshelf in her downtown Syracuse apartment. As the world has grown more chaotic in the past year, Kameir uses not only crystals for their healing power but also mindfulness techniques such as journaling, yoga and meditation.

She often tries to understand the world through a lense of astrology — she’s a Capricorn, or, as she clarified, “the oldest sign in the Zodiac, which often means we’re the wisest.” While she doesn’t know what she 100% believes in, astrology is a way for her to have faith, just not in the religious sense.

“I’m just a person who likes to be introspective and try to be a kind contributor to the world,” Kameir said.

When Kameir made the decision to contribute to the world through teaching at Newhouse, her colleague and longtime friend Lakin Starling was not surprised.

Starling, who worked with Kameir at The FADER from 2016 to 2018 and is now a freelance journalist, said Kameir cares about cultivating people in very thoughtful and intentional ways. She has seen Kameir be such a resourceful person who brings new perspectives to her work and is “wonderful to learn from in and out of a classroom.”

“There are so many people that have benefitted from just being around Rawiya,” Starling said. “Whether it’s a conversation, whether it’s a casual encounter, there’s no way you could be around her and not take away something.”

Pitchfork senior editor Jillian Mapes felt intimidated by Kameir because of her accolades and success. The former New

York University professor used to talk about Kameir’s Cardi B cover story in her classroom, and she wasn’t sure what to expect from the writer.

But to Mapes’ surprise, they spent their whole first lunch as colleagues at Pitchfork “shooting the sh*t” about the cooking show “Chopped.” From their chat, she quickly realized that Kameir was down-to-earth and “lowkey like a genius.”

Whenever there’s a cultural event or phenomenon that’s happening in real time, Kameir is the person she reaches out to to critically analyze the situation and how it ties into the larger culture as a whole.

“It’s amazing to have somebody that is literally maybe the best writer work with you regularly, and they’re one of the most humble people,” Mapes said.

And even with all the pieces she’s written, one stands out. In October, Kameir wrote about Toronto-based singer-songwriter Mustafa and his debut project “When Smoke Rises,” which deals with the rapper’s grief and mourning process.

Kameir believes that Mustafa is misunderstood and was grateful to be able to present different parts of his experience using her words, something that was a very moving experience for Kameir.

“And it’s not about me, it’s him, it’s his words, but to have been able to facilitate that and to have done that story as someone who knows more about him than just what his art is was very important to me personally,” Kameir said. sydney@dailyorange.com

and worthiness, Fearless Queens member Victoria Coit said.

“We self-sacrifice for our family, for our men, for our children,” Coit said. “As a result of that, we don’t take care of ourselves as much as we should.”

Collaborators have come into the organization to provide healing and direction in these safe and vulnerable spaces. Ebony

Tutora — a spiritual coach — focuses on healing, mindfulness and mindset mastery through her holistic coaching brand Queens Recognize Queens. Tutora, just like Billingsley, pushes for sisterhood, love and compassion for each other.

“Sisterhood is that code of you help your sister no matter what,” Tutora said. “You help her rise no matter what.”

Billingsley sees a bright future not only for

Fearless Queens but for every woman she can help become the best version of themselves.

“I believe in the queen being the foundation of the tree, the vessel of her community,” Billingsley said. “When the queen is striving and she is blossoming and growing and facing her fears, she’s able to shift the entire community” kmorgan@syr.edu

feb. 25, 2021 9

dailyorange.com

from page 12

crabbers Back in Puerto Rico, Andrea has watched her home gradually turn into a Crabbers museum, too. It’s filled with very similar memorabilia, items her dad has gathered both before and after he became president of the team in 2017.

Tere Paniagua, director of La Casita,

To represent something that (has) always been included in our culture, in our heritage and that’s part of the story that we want to tell and the history that we want to highlight.

Tere Paniagua director of la casita

hosted students last year to talk about Hurricane Maria’s devastating aftermath more than a year after the natural disaster.

Andrea briefly spoke about how it affected the Crabbers.

“You’re not going to believe it,” Paniagua told her. “But my dad owned the team, too.”

The Paniagua family owned the team between 1976 and 2002, prior to the Morenos, but it was that moment during their discussion when the two — and their families — began to form a connection.

Now, the two families are rekindling a shared bond over the Crabbers. Andrea, now a junior, and Paniagua, a 1982 Syracuse University graduate, have grown closer over baseball and sharing their culture with the Syracuse community.

“She was like my parent here at ‘Cuse,’” Andrea said of Tere. “I definitely felt very at home with her and all of the people at La Casita.”

Baseball has always accompanied the Paniagua family. Tere’s father Reinaldo “Poto” Paniagua Diez was an avid Crabbers his entire life, admiring many Crabbers greats like Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente. He wanted to play professional baseball but was never good at it, said Tere’s sister Rita. So, at the University of Puerto Rico’s law school, he managed Sigma Beta’s baseball team. The experience inspired Reinaldo to purchase the Crabbers in 1976 when the founder, and his friend, Pedro Zorrilla offered to sell him the team.

After Reinaldo took over, everything Crabbers-related became a family affair. He always made it a point to walk through the lower concourse of the Estadio Sixto Escobar in San Juan to greet fans at their seats well into the early innings, current owner Justo Moreno Sr. said. Rita and Tere’s mother, Mary, perused the stadium concourse as an unofficial usher and second mom to all kids in attendance. Rita remembers her mom would sneak slices of pizza to children — if they asked politely.

And when Rita and Tere were teenagers, they joined their parents and traveled with the New York Yankees during summers so Reinaldo could scout Major League Baseball players for the Crabbers to sign.

“We would just go where (the Yankees) were going,” Rita said.

They traveled with the Crabbers during the Caribbean Series to host countries such as Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, too.

When Tere and Rita graduated from college in the early 1980s, they returned home to work for the Crabbers. Tere worked on and off for the team’s media department in the 1980s, while Rita worked marketing and sales from 1984 until 2002.

Rita, now a Syracuse Common Councilor-At-Large, said that working for the Crabbers developed her marketing and public relations skills. She worked with companies like American Airlines and Coca-Cola to sell tickets and donate them to fans from underprivileged communities near Santurce. She also set up events for the Crabbers’ players to play baseball with children in the neighborhood.

“We made sure that the team, the players, were also personable in the community,” Rita said.

Rita helped the players buy presents for their loved ones while they visited Mazatlan, Mexico, for the 1993 Caribbean Series. The task — like many others — wasn’t in her job description, but she did it out of love for her father’s team. After the souvenir shopping spree, the team went on to beat the Águilas Cibaeñas, a Dominican team, in the Caribbean Series.

While celebrating the win, Rita remembers two players lifted her into the air and placed her on top of the bar at Bora Bora Antro in Mexico. The group erupted when the first notes of “Tequila” by The Champs played on the speakers, and a conga line snaked through the bar.

“The pictures were in the paper the next day, and I got into so much trouble,” Rita said, laughing.

Within the sales side of Rita’s job, she formed relationships with customers and season-ticket holders. That’s when the current owner, Justo, first met Rita — he’d call every summer to renew his family’s tickets ahead of the upcoming season.

“I still remember where he sat in the baseball park, in box No. 9,” Rita said in February.

Justo knew it was important to maintain the Paniagua’s hospitality when he purchased the team in 2017. Financial stability was important, but the sense of community at Crabbers’ games was Justo’s priority. “Abonos,” or season ticket holders, sat in the same seats at the Crabbers’ stadium for years, growing close to the families who sat nearby.

“Fans more or less become an extended family,” Justo said.

In spring 2017, Justo and a loyal group of fans called the “Las Cocolias Crew” — small crabs — held a postseason dinner where the Crabbers owner announced he did not want to move forward with the team. Six weeks later, Justo and three others submitted a joint application to assume ownership, which was approved by that summer.

Like Reinaldo, Justo grew up an avid Crabbers and baseball fan. At the dinner table, no one could speak unless they were talking about baseball, he joked. Even on unrelated business trips, before owning the team, Justo would call home frequently during Crabbers’ games to get play-by-play updates.

That fall, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico and jeopardized the league’s 20172018 season. Representatives from each of the six teams in the PRIBL convened to determine whether or not a season would be played. Initially, Justo said he wasn’t in favor because the island wasn’t in playing shape.

But he changed his mind when he realized baseball was “the path to normality.”

The PRIBL hosted a one-month tournament. Despite finishing in second place for the second year in a row, the Crabbers represented Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Series and won.

Though the Crabbers opted out of the 2020-21 season due to COVID-19, Tere and Andrea are looking forward to the “Latinos and Baseball: In the Barrios and the Big Leagues” exhibit opening at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History this summer. The two will play a small role in the museum’s larger project to trace the unexpected stories of the United States’ diverse population, said Margaret SalazarPorzio, curator in the museum’s Division of Home and Community Life and overseer of this initiative.

“To represent something that (has) always been included in our culture, in our heritage and that’s part of the story that we want to tell and the history that we want to highlight,” Tere said. “Baseball is certainly that kind of overall project.”

Back in Syracuse, the Crabbers — and the families associated with them — are passing along their traditions to the next generation. Aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings attend Crabbers games regularly.

Growing up, Andrea was never a big baseball fan, but now, she is helping Tere make sure the team’s history is documented and shared at La Casita.

“I think it allows me to become more connected to my family,” Andrea said. “It’s just so cool to see everyone just sporting Cangrejeros merch and just (be) really immersed in the game.” louis@dailyorange.com | @jbl_98

from page 12

bracketology are on top of the No. 8-seed line, sitting at No. 29 overall. With conference games remaining against ACC bottom-feeder Boston College and second-place North Carolina State, Syracuse has all but locked up a spot in the tournament, Creme added.

Head coach Quentin Hillsman echoed that sentiment in a Wednesday press conference, saying that “I don’t see why we wouldn’t be in.”

“They’re going to make the tournament,” Creme said. “I don’t see any scenario, with the way things are laying out now, that they don’t make it.”

It’ll be Syracuse’s eighth consecutive season with an NCAA tournament appearance — not counting 2020, where the NCAA tournament was canceled. The bigger questions lie not in the Orange’s tournament chances, but their seeding.

Syracuse’s current No. 8 seeding

As it stands, Syracuse will most likely close out its season as a No. 7 or No. 8 seed, Creme said. Hillsman agreed, adding that SU could be a No. 9 seed, too. The 15-year Syracuse head coach said he entered the season wanting to avoid becoming a team seeded in the middle of the pack. The Orange, however, have become just that.

At Syracuse’s peak, Creme had SU at a No. 6 seed, but they’ve since fallen after road losses to Virginia Tech, Florida State and Georgia Tech. Struggles on the road have hurt the Orange’s tournament stock, Creme said, and in a different year, with fans, road wins would be even more valuable.

“There’s no home games in the event (this year),” Creme said. “(But) if you’re going to go far in the tournament … road wins are an important measuring stick. So I think that’s hurting their seed as well.”

Slow starts are the other major factor hurting SU’s stock, Creme said. The Orange have trailed by double digits at halftime in five of their six losses this season.

“They always make a move,” Creme said of SU’s pattern of second-half comebacks. “They (just) got to make it sooner than they’ve been making it.”

Against Virginia Tech, that move came too late, Creme emphasized. Too many of Syracuse’s contests have required hefty comebacks, and the Orange haven’t fully proved that they can play a complete four quarters against a tough opponent. There have been certain nights where Syracuse has played like a top ACC team, but the Orange haven’t been consistent enough to deserve a higher seeding yet, he said.

Syracuse’s ceiling

Before the season, Creme thought Syracuse’s ceiling was easily a Sweet-16 appearance. Now, after an underwhelming regular season, he’s “not confident in that anymore.”

The best-case scenario now is that Syracuse beats NC State on Sunday, makes it to the final of the ACC tournament and leapfrogs to a higher seed, Creme said.

From there, the Orange have the potential to win their first round game against a team such as Iowa State, Alabama, DePaul or Mississippi State. Their ceiling is a second-round exit against a No. 1 or No. 2 seed.

As Creme’s current bracket has it, the Orange would face Iowa State in the first round and most likely No. 1 UConn in the

second. Had Syracuse lived up to the expectations and played well enough to deserve a No. 5 or No. 6 seed, that would have created “a whole different animal of a matchup in round 2 than what they’re looking at now.”

“Are they good enough, from what we’ve seen, to beat a No. 1 or No. 2? I think my answer would be no, so I’m thinking realistically, the ceiling is probably a win, and then out,” Creme said.

Syracuse’s floor

Syracuse’s floor is a first-round loss. As a No. 7 or No. 8 seed, the Orange would face a No. 10-or No. 9-seeded team in the first round, respectively — matchups which “are largely considered tossups,” according to Creme.

Syracuse will face a team who’s had a “largely equitable season.”

“Losing in that game is certainly realistic,” Creme said.

The Orange have the most issues when they can’t get a third shooting option going beyond Tiana Mangakahia and Kamilla Cardoso.

Kiara Lewis might be Syracuse’s X-factor, Creme said, because she’s been a big facilitator in a number of its comebacks.

Hillsman has other options in freshman Priscilla Williams and four-year starter Digna Strautmane if Lewis’ shots aren’t falling.

Against Virginia Tech, Lewis was quiet, and her absence was apparent.

“They don’t make enough 3s most games, (and) especially when they get behind, they’re going to struggle,” Creme said.

Postponements and preparation Syracuse had a three-week pause due to COVID-19, but it’s since made up almost all of its missed games. That came in the form of two sequences with four games in eight days, but missed games are no longer going to hurt Syracuse’s tournament resume, according to Creme.

Syracuse has played about the same number of games as the teams around them, so the fact that everything is “fairly equitable” won’t ding the Orange during the evaluation process.

The ACC and Southeastern Conference have been particularly good about rescheduling missed games, but other conferences, such as the PAC-12, will be hit the hardest, Creme said.

Mangakahia and her teammates have also repeatedly said that playing so many games in such short windows serves as good preparation for the ACC and NCAA tournaments. SU certainly experienced fatigue, but she argued it’d be beneficial down the stretch.

SU beats No. 2 NC State — then what?

The Wolfpack are the perfect example of the type of team that Syracuse could face if it wins its first-round NCAA tournament game.

Teams from the same conference can’t meet before the regional final, so Syracuse-NC State in the second round wouldn’t be possible. The matchup does serve as a “measuring stick” for what’s to come,” though, Creme said.

If Syracuse can beat the Wolfpack on Sunday, or make it to the final round of the ACC tournament — which would likely require going through a team of NC State or Louisville’s caliber — Creme said the Orange have a good case for higher seeding. They could “leapfrog” up to a No. 7 seed, depending on how matchups play out throughout the nation. rferna04@syr.edu | @roshan_f16

ESPN women’s basketball bracketologist Charlie Creme has Syracuse as a No. 8 seed for his current March Madness bracket. courtesy of dennis nett syracuse.com

10 feb. 25, 2021

dailyorange.com sports@dailyorange.com

men’s basketball

Buddy Boeheim’s latest surge is the spark SU needs

By Andrew Crane

senior staff writer

Buddy Boeheim curled around a screen from Quincy Guerrier and inched his defender down toward the block. The potential for a 3-point shot had opened receiving the ball, but Buddy drove anyway. Syracuse’s chance for a win against Duke had all but evaporated by that point, the 13:30-mark in the second half, but just two days earlier, Buddy ignited a 20-point comeback against Notre Dame — hitting six of 10 3-pointers.

That resulted in a season-high point total, a return to the 3-point form that defined Buddy’s second collegiate season but had escaped him this year. His drive on Duke’s Jeremy Roach illustrated how much his offensive game had evolved, though, continuing to back him down before exploding to gain a step and bank a shot off the backboard.

Buddy’s path to this point in his Syracuse career has been defined by the 3-point shot, his accuracy shooting it and the threat it brings to the Orange’s offense. This season, though — one filled with Syracuse’s ups-and-downs that have paralleled Buddy’s — he’s been forced to find other ways to score. He’s had eight-point games mixed in with a 29-point one. Eight percent games mixed in with 50-plus ones. And

games that reflected his new aggressiveness and instinct to attack the paint mixed in with ones where he resorted to deep or contested 3s.

“He’s a shooter, that’s what he is,” said former Syracuse guard Eric Devendorf, who has trained Buddy. “He’s a knockdown shooter.

But his evolution, it’s a lot.”

But as SU’s season enters its final stretch, the reemergence of his complete offensive game is the lift it needs. Guerrier, SU’s leading scorer for most of the season, has sputtered on offense with just 16 combined points the past two games. Alan Griffin has, too. So it’s been Buddy, the junior averaging 19.8 points per game over Syracuse’s (13-7, 7-6 Atlantic Coast) last four contests heading into Saturday’s game against Georgia Tech (12-8, 8-6), that’s once again secured the role as the offense’s go-to shooter he briefly surrendered earlier this season.

“I’ve been here before,” Buddy said after Syracuse defeated NC State on Jan. 31. “I’ve struggled shooting, and I’ve had stretches where that happens. Even great shooters have struggles.”

For coaches and trainers who’ve worked Buddy in the past, those four games have brought the shot they once developed in Buddy back to the surface — the natural release and finish, the swish that always seemed to follow and the ability to replicate that from any spot.

After the coronavirus shut down Buddy’s

sophomore season in the middle of the ACC tournament, Buddy and his brother, Jimmy, started working out with Devendorf at the Boeheim family house. Devendorf arrived in the morning, strolled into the gym and pieced together drills and sequences that were simple yet still presented windows for development.

One area was Buddy’s ability to create his own shot. Instead of straying out wide when he drove, Buddy practiced driving to the defender’s outside leg — taking the straight-line angle before the defender can recover and cut him off, just like Buddy did against Roach on Monday.

“That’s where you’ll be able to play through contact and get your body into the finish,” Devendorf said.

It helped complement the 3-point shot that Buddy had already developed and fine-tuned.

Back at Jamesville-DeWitt High School, before he transferred to Brewster (N.H.) Academy for his senior season, head coach Jeff Ike ran Buddy through different stationary drills at the beginning of practice to sharpen his form. Sometimes, it was a two-man shooting drill, or a catch-and-shoot sequence from five mid-range spots and five 3-point spots. “Repetition after repetition,” Ike said, so that way, those shots were familiar by the league games and championships at the end of the season.

But four years later at Syracuse, those

same results — the 3-pointer after 3-pointer rate — didn’t follow. Part of that was because teams started face-guarding Buddy more at the 3-point line, Boeheim said, and limited his opportunities for open shots. It created additional opportunities for players like Marek Dolezaj to have 20 feet of driving space, but mitigated the offensive explosiveness of Buddy.

“Even when they went zone, they face-guarded Buddy, but that left it wide open in the middle for the other guys,” Boeheim said after the Notre Dame game. “But again, if we can get him some open looks, we know he’s a good shooter.”

With 2:30 left against the Blue Devils, Buddy took two dribbles on Henry Coleman III before turning his back to the defender and the basket. He flipped to his opposite hand, and shuffled his way across the paint before dropping a floater past a pair of Duke defenders and into the basket. “(I’m) just driving and knowing I can get good shots,” Buddy said days earlier, when he executed similar shots.

And on the next two Syracuse possessions, the ones where it scored the final points of the blowout, Buddy elevated twice from beyond the arc — just like he always had, and always tried to earlier this season even if the baskets didn’t follow. This time, though, he sunk them both. arcrane@syr.edu | @CraneAndrew

men’s basketball

Transfer Bubba Parham shines off the bench in 2nd year at GT

By Adam McCaffery contributing writer

Bubba Parham missed his first two shots of the night against a 2018 Kentucky team with Tyler Herro and Immanuel Quickley. Playing for Virginia Military Institute, Parham’s lone Division I offer, he quickly bounced back, hitting three consecutive 3-pointers. He finished the night with 10 — breaking VMI’s single-game record.

Despite the loss, Parham won over the Rupp Arena crowd, and fans were even asking his mother, Cynthia, for autographs.

Parham managed to make a name for himself at VMI, scoring over 1,000 points in his two seasons there. He averaged 21.4 points per game in his final season, and earned AllSouthern Conference second team honors.

After transferring to Georgia Tech, less than an hour away from his hometown, the senior is averaging 7.7 points per game as a key rotation player coming off the bench.

Although he’s no longer a starter like he was from page 12

seldin tenacity started in high school.

“She was incredibly courageous for what she did,” said Jeff Gottesfeld, a player on Teaneck’s tennis team in the 70s and a childhood friend of Seldin’s. “It was gutsy to do this in the late 60s, early 70s. She was ahead of her time.”

As a child, Seldin was inspired by her father, Arthur, who played in New York City tennis tournaments before and after World War II. Because of Arthur’s connections, she received professional coaching while traveling throughout the greater New York City area to compete. Seldin was always glued to the television, watching professional tennis tournaments. For Seldin, tennis was a natural fit.

But she’d never competed in a team environment, and she yearned for the sense of camaraderie that came with playing high school sports. Title IX was passed in June 1972, months after she attempted to join Teaneck’s team, but it wasn’t fully enforced nationwide — the state’s athletic association firmly maintained its stance on the rule even post-Title IX, prohibiting boys and girls from playing in athletic competitions together.

When Seldin was told she couldn’t play for Teaneck, she and her mother reached out to the ACLU because it was the only viable option, she said. At the time, 39-year-old Ginsburg specialized in cases involving gender and racial discrimination. The two never met faceto-face, but they had several in-depth phone conversations throughout the process.

at VMI, Parham’s role is a good fit, he and coaches agreed. His former high school coach said despite his reduced role, he’s a much more “complete player” at GT than he was at VMI. “He’s doing a great job in his role, and he’s helping them win games,” said Daniel Bowles, Parham’s high school basketball coach at Brookwood (G.A.) High School.

For Parham, the road to Georgia Tech was unexpected. VMI was the only Division I offer he received out of high school, and he was turned down by multiple Division II schools.

His freshman year of high school, he fractured his tibia during his first AAU game going up for a layup in transition. Rehabilitation was challenging, but even with a cast on his leg and in a wheelchair, Parham was getting shots up and dribbling the ball all the time.

“I was like, ‘I gotta do what it takes to get back,’” Parham said. “It took awhile for me to get used to the fact that I got screws in my leg and my leg isn’t the same. I was scared to drive at first, but once I got used to it, I felt even bet-

ter. I felt faster. I felt stronger.”

By his senior year of high school, he had recovered from his fracture and was among the best players in his county — which sent recruits to the likes of Duke and Indiana. Parham was even named the conference player of the year.

In the Georgia playoff game that year against Hillgrove High School, Parham hit a step-back buzzer-beating 3-pointer to send his team to the Elite Eight. Parham’s shooting helped Brookwood — a smaller school not known for its basketball program — advance to the final rounds of the state tournament. Cynthia said “he’s a part of history” at Brookwood.

Although he was arguably the best player in his conference, Parham still struggled to get Division I offers. At 5-foot-10, even Division II recruiters were hesitant to offer him because they thought he was too small to compete in college. He didn’t receive an offer from VMI until after the state tournament, and committed on his first visit.

However, Parham’s dad fell ill during his

sophomore season at VMI, and he wanted to transfer to a Georgia school closer to home, Bowles said. When Parham visited Georgia Tech, he could tell that the coaches had watched his film and took an interest in his role on the team — making his decision easy.

Parham’s transfer two years ago was motivated by his family, but, now more than ever, he appreciates being close to home. In January, he lost both his cousin and uncle. He talked to his cousin, Teco, every day about life and basketball. Being away from his family while traveling for games has been hard, but the proximity of his family allows them to grieve together.

This past summer, Parham and his girlfriend delivered a child, Magic. For Parham, it’s been tough being a father while travelling frequently during a pandemic. However, being a father is still one of the joys of his life.

“My family, my parents, brothers and sisters, my girlfriend — I just dedicate it to my family. I’m a family man and I’ll always be that way.”

Seldin remembers how Ginsburg was very personable and understanding. During their conversations, Ginsburg continuously warned Seldin that the legal process could be long and drawn-out, but she emphasized that she would be there to support Seldin.

“She was a very wonderful, kind person,” Seldin said. “She knew how to ask questions to a kid.”

Ultimately, New Jersey’s athletic association eased up on the rule barring girls from trying out for boys’ teams in particular sports — one of which was tennis. When Seldin finally had the chance to try out, she didn’t disappoint.

In 1974, she was finally a member of the Teaneck High School tennis team.

“Were it to happen today, knowing what Teaneck was and is, there would have been so much more support,” Gottesfeld said.

Looking back, however, Seldin and her parents didn’t see this accomplishment as a grand victory in the battle against gender discrimination in sports — she had just wanted to play tennis, and her parents had wholeheartedly supported that dream.

Although Seldin later made the team, she never played a match for Teaneck. A new coach didn’t fully support Seldin being on the team and took every chance he had to exclude her.

She felt uncomfortable, but she didn’t want to give up. The new coach — who was also the head football coach — held regular practices centered around upper-body exercise, ones that Seldin emphasized weren’t very beneficial for tennis players. On one rainy day, Seldin recalled climbing up a flight of stairs in a

school building using only her arms while a teammate held her ankles from behind.

When Seldin made it to the top of the stairs, the teammate holding her ankles thought it would be funny to just let go of her before she regained her balance. Seldin fell down the entire staircase, severely bruising her chest.

“I literally walked home. I didn’t want anyone didn’t see me cry because I was so badly hurt,” Seldin said.

Seldin went directly home to her mother, who told her, “Abbe, you did great. You don’t have to subject yourself to that.” So Seldin quit the team and went back to her previous routine of practicing in New York City everyday.

The saga of fighting to join the boys team, finally doing so, and then reaching a breaking point and being forced to quit before ever playing a match took a toll on Seldin’s personal life, too. She described herself as a “nice, quiet girl” that kept to herself and focused on tennis. Still, her name flooded headlines, first at the local level, then at the national level, and everyone at school developed opinions about her — for better or for worse, she said.

“It actually ruined my high school experience,” Seldin explained. “It just didn’t do (any) good socially for me.”

But Seldin had her sights set on furthering her tennis career in college. When looking at potential schools, it was SU’s picturesque campus — and its newly formed women’s tennis team — that made the decision easy.

As soon as Seldin arrived at Syracuse, she recognized a stark contrast between her high school and college environments. That “nice, quiet girl” in high school no longer had rules or

people standing in her way.

“That’s why my life really blossomed that freshman year,” Seldin said.

Seldin met teammate Cathy Lehman Gursha on the first day of practice as a freshman in 1974. Gursha admired Seldin’s work ethic both on and off the court, recalling how Seldin was “the clear star of the team.” After meeting, the two grew close and often played together at Drumlins Country Club on the weekends.

“Abbe … brought a certain gravitas to the team,” Gursha said. “I admired her work ethic and her natural ability to play the game.”

During her freshman year, Seldin approached Melvin Eggers, SU’s chancellor at the time, to discuss the establishment of women’s athletic scholarships with the recent passage of Title IX. Seldin also explained her tight financial situation and how her parents couldn’t afford her schooling after the first year. Soon after, she became the first woman in SU history to earn an athletic scholarship for tennis.

“She was an amazing competitor, a natural, and light years ahead of all of us,” Gursha said of Seldin’s scholarship.

Years before at Teaneck, Seldin never expected her situation to gain the amount of attention it did in her community, let alone on the national stage. She never expected to make headlines in New Jersey or at Syracuse when she earned a scholarship. She just wanted to play tennis, and she was willing to do whatever it took to make sure she could.

“This girl was incredibly courageous to do what she did then,” Gottesfeld said. “I admire her so much for it.”

amccaffe@syr.edu

brbrush@syr.edu | @bryanrbrush

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SPORTS

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PAG E 12

feb. 25, 2021

ABBE SELDIN wanted to play tennis at Teaneck High School in 1972, but was told the team was boys only. Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the ACLU helped her fight gender discrimination to get a spot. courtesy of stephen heaslip cape cod times

‘Ahead of her time’ Before playing tennis at SU in the 1970s, Abbe Seldin fought gender discrimination with Ruth Bader Ginsburg

By Bryan Brush staff writer

A

bbe Seldin wanted to play on the Teaneck High School varsity high school tennis team. The sophomore had played the sport her whole life and was nationally ranked at No. 22 for 15-and 16-year-old girls by the Eastern Lawn Tennis Association.

But Teaneck (N.J.) only had a boys team.

Back in 1972, just months before the passage of Title IX — the federal law that prohibited sex-based discrimination in any school or education program — Seldin was prohibited from playing on the boys team.

So Seldin and her mother, Shirley, turned to the American Civil Liberties

She was incredibly courageous for what she did. It was gutsy to do this in the late 60s, early 70s. She was ahead of her time.

Jeff Gottesfeld on his friend abbe seldin”

sports business

Union. The organization agreed to take on her case, assigning a Rutgers law professor and volunteer named Ruth Bader Ginsburg to assist free of charge.

Two years later, the case was dropped after it never officially went to trial, but Seldin finally had the opportunity to play tennis for her school when the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association loosened its rule on co-ed sports. Seldin was later a member and a three-time letterwinner as part of Syracuse’s women’s team program between 1976-78. She became the first woman in SU history to receive an athletic scholarship for tennis — and was one of the first six female athletes at SU to receive a scholarship, too. For Seldin, though, that see seldin page 10

women’s basketball

SU’s ties to Puerto Rican baseball Bracketologist looks ahead to tournament

By Louis Platt

asst. culture editor

When Andrea Moreno wandered through the dimly lit showroom at the La Casita Cultural Center in Syracuse almost every week her freshman year, she’d often stop to take photos of one certain exhibit: “Balcon Criollo: Béisbol.”

Posters and photos of players, championship trophies and artwork lined the left-side wall in honor of the Santurce Crabbers, a Puerto Rican professional baseball team that Moreno’s father owns.

The Crabbers are 16-time Puerto Rican Independent Baseball League champions, and are the current back-to-back champions. see crabbers page 9

By Roshan Fernandez sports editor

Two Syracuse families stories’ intersected on the Santurce Crabbers’ baseball diamond in Puerto Rico. emily steinberger photo editor

Syracuse women’s basketball has underwhelmed this year, according to ESPN bracketologist Charlie Creme. Preseason, the team was expected to be the third-best in the Atlantic Coast Conference, he said. He had them as a No. 5 or No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament.

But as of Wednesday morning, the Orange dropped to the No. 8 line, and they’re trending downward.

“To me, they should be the third-best team in the ACC, and it should be clear,” Creme told The Daily Orange of his preseason

expectations for Syracuse. “And it obviously has not been a clear-cut scenario where you call them the third-best team.”

The Orange currently sit in fourth place, three conference wins behind Georgia Tech, and they have the same conference record as fifth-place Florida State (8-6). With the ACC tournament just one week away, this is what Creme expects to see from Syracuse in the NCAA tournament:

Syracuse is a lock

In Creme’s most recent NCAA tournament bracket, the Orange see bracketology page 9