1. On a rainy Saturday on October1st, a peaceful protest was held outside SUNY
Canton’s Richard W. Miller Campus Center to address systemic issues of racial
injustice at the university. The protest was lead by the Concerned Students of
SUNY Canton, or CSSC, whosemembers wish not to be referred to by name at
this time of tension in schoolissues. St. Lawrence students and members of the
Canton community joined CSSC in a march from the outdoorvolleyball courts up
to the Campus Center holding signs with phrases like, “Freedomof expression?
More like black suppression”and “No room for racism on our campus.”
The protest came about after a number of incidents occurred on SUNY Canton’s
campus, including social media posts by campus police officer David Cummings
that SUNY students of color felt offended and threatened by. The CSSC “found
these photos which were posted by Officer Cummings on his Facebookpage, and a
lot of students were talking about it and were really angry about it.” The student
noted that Cumming’s Facebookpage often mocks Black Lives Matter protesters,
and is loaded with images of the confederate flag. Officer Cummings also
accidentally discharged his gun in a campus building last year, and no apparent
disciplinary actions were taken.
These concerns were met with an Open Forum back in September for students to
voice their concerns and for productive dialogue between students and
administration to begin. The CSSC’sFacebookpage recaps the forum, citing issues
members felt were addressed poorlyor not addressed at all. President Zvi Szafran
of SUNY Canton defended Officer Cummings on the grounds of freedom of
speech, but many students were not satisfied with that answer, saying “it’s kind of
a silly comparison to make because [students] are not expected to have the same
behavior as a police officer.” Another argued that the officer’s posts on social

2. media are “not free speech. He’s in direct violation of his employer’s conduct
policies.”
Before the protestbegan, The Hill News sat in on a short round table discussion
under a gazebo in the pouring rain, as inclement weather would not stop the CSSC
from getting their message across on SUNY Canton’s Family Weekend. First-hand
accounts of racial discrimination experienced on the school’s campus were told,
and overall feelings of unease as a student of color on SUNY Canton’s campus
were voiced.
One alum of color described an accountof being arrested for stealing property he
was told by an RA was free for the taking, and not being allowed to explain
himself. The person whose property was taken did not press charges, but law
enforcement arrested the student anyway.
At the Open Forum in September, the student spokeabout his experience and his
concerns of being racially profiled. After his speech, members of the
administration, all of whom did not know the student had even been arrested, came
up to him baffled and embarrassed, saying they had “no idea why [the police]
handled the issue that way.” One student told us that “[Officer Cummings] is
ignorant, and he’s been educated into that. He lives in a climate that is actually
accepting to him, and he gets racist or in people’s faces. [The SUNY Canton
police] are all ignorant.”
At the proteston October1st, President Szafran came out of the Campus Center to
address the protestors. He listened to the students, read their signs, and respected
their right to peacefully organize outside of campus buildings. After a few minutes,

3. Jake Rhuel, a SLU student participating in the protest, addressed the President,
asking “Will you stand with us?” President Szafran responded, saying he agreed
with some of the statements on the signs the protestors were holding, but not all of
them. Individual protestors asked him if he agreed with his or her sign. If the
President did agree, the protestorcrossed an invisible, but important, line in the
sand in a symbolic, empowering few moments.
One sign President Szafran disagreed with read, “SUNY Canton protects racist
cops.”He encouraged the dialogue the CSSC was starting, but reminded the
protestors that “when there is dialogue, all that’s required is people who are
listening with an open mind. That doesn’tmean that at the end of it we agree.”
As members of the CSSC stood outside of the Campus Center in the rain
discussing issues of racial injustice with the President, other students began to join
the crowd, listening in and piping up with their own concerns. A parent of a
freshman student at SUNY Canton spokeup, voicing her concernof “no real work
being done to really address the climate and the environment [of racism] that has
clearly been established.”
President Szafran responded quickly, stating that SUNY Canton is bringing in an
outside figure to work on building relationships between administration, faculty,
and minority students. He was also proud to announce that “One of the things [the
administration is] doing is opening a center for diversity and inclusion on our
campus.”
The President also continued to push the next Open Forum to be held later in the
month, asking students to continue the dialogue and voicing their concerns. He

4. suggested approaching Officer Cummings or any other member of the police force
or administration directly with concerns. He also left the discussion with “Our
students can contact me at anytime. If they’ve got an issue, they know that, they
have my phone number,” and wasn’t opposed to students calling at any hour of the
day.
The President left the protestwith some positive feedback, however, students were
concerned that administration is still all talk and is taking no direct action towards
solving the issues at hand, like disciplining or firing Officer Cummings for his
racist Facebookposts oraccidentally discharging his weapon on schoolgrounds. In
the words of one student, “The campus bodyand the campus administration are on
completely different wavelengths.”
Find the CSSC on Facebookto get updates on when the next Open Forum is, and
consider standing with your fellow Canton students in solidarity against racial
injustice on their campus.