The university has formed a committee to explore upgrades to Department of Public Safety officer uniforms that would make them more recognizable to students, said Student Association President Boris Gresely at the organization’s meeting Monday night.

The upgrades are being discussed in light of fights that broke out at the Schine Student Center last spring during a dance party organized by the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations and the National Panhellenic Council. The Syracuse Police Department was called in to assist DPS in breaking up the fights and eight students were eventually arrested in connection with the incident.

DPS later received a complaint about an officer using excessive force but because of the similarities between DPS and SPD uniforms, the university was unable to determine whether the incident in question involved a DPS or a SPD officer, Gresely said.

“The university now is looking at whether students can identify the difference between Syracuse Police Department and DPS, so they’re trying to adapt this uniform change so that students can actually identify the difference,” he said.

The uniform upgrades would cost about $19,000 and include a vest that says DPS on the back and a new patch that would appear on each shoulder and on the front of the uniform, Gresely said. He added that the funds would come from the DPS operating budget.

Gresely noted that SPD and DPS have different powers and functions. He added that an effort should be made to ensure students understand the difference. SA Vice President Daniela Lopez will serve on the committee that is exploring this change, he said.

Also during his president’s report, Gresely said that SA will not sponsor this year’s Mayfest. The Mayfest committee asked SA to step down as a sponsor because SA has not contributed much to Mayfest recently, Gresely said.

In an interview after the meeting, Gresely said that SA’s changing role in Mayfest is in line with how SA has evolved as an organization. When SA first started Mayfest, SA was a programming board, but that is no longer the case, he said.

“But what SA will do and will continue to do is to make sure that Mayfest continues and to make sure Mayfest is being planned successfully,” Gresely said. “So we will be present in this meeting, we just won’t necessarily be a sponsor.”

Former SA Vice President Duane Ford also presented six bills that would reform election campaign rules. Although Ford is not an SA representative, any SU student can bring bills before the assembly.

The bills are as follows:
• A bill that would require all members of a candidate’s campaign team to abide by the SA code of ethics, regardless of whether they are a member of SA or not.
• A bill that would split half of the SA public relations budget between the candidates running for office. Each campaign would receive up to $1,000 in funding. If the amount when split among the campaigns is less than $1,000 each, candidates can subsidize the remaining amount with their own funds as long as they do not exceed $1,000 in total.
• A bill that would forbid candidates from using academic listservs to campaign and from campaigning in residence halls during election week.
• A bill that would give the Board of Elections and Memberships the power to designate a moderator for election debates.
• A bill that would require the BEM to review any campaign that has five election violations to determine if their violations could influence the outcome of the election. At the beginning of each campaign, candidates put down a $50 deposit to cover campaign violations. Each violation is a $10 fine.
• A bill that states if an SA candidate enters the office with any visible campaign advertisements, the candidate would be fined $10. Previously, if a candidate committed this violation, SA codes stipulated that the candidate be removed from the ballot.

The bills will be voted on and further discussed at a future meeting.

Additional business discussed:
• Following a discussion, the assembly voted to keep home college committees as part of SA by-laws. These committees are made up of everyone in the assembly who are from one college and meet at least once a month to address issues that are of particular importance to that specific college.
• Gresely met with GSO President Patrick Neary to discuss whether the grants the GSO gives to graduate students for research could be replicated at the undergraduate level. They also discussed GSO partnering with SA to run the buses to Target and Wegman’s.

Published on January 28, 2014 at 2:32 am

Contact Jessica: jliannet@syr.edu | @JessicaIannetta