Syracuse U Expels Student who was disgusted by black racism

As a private university its students do not have 1st Amendment protection: A good reason not to enrol there.

"Syracuse University‘s School of Education has now effectively expelled a graduate student from its teaching program after he expressed resentment in his Facebook status for a community leader’s complaint that student teachers were coming from Syracuse rather than historically black colleges. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) reports:

“On July 20, 2011, Werenczak was student teaching with Danforth Middle School when he was introduced to a member of the city’s Concerned Citizens Action Program (CCAP).

Shortly afterward, in the presence of Werenczak and one other white student teacher, the CCAP member, who is black, said that he thought that the city schools should hire more teachers from historically black colleges.

Werenczak later discussed the remark on Facebook, saying, ‘Just making sure we’re okay with racism. It‘s not enough I’m … tutoring in the worst school in the city, I suppose I oughta be black or stay in my own side of town.‘

Werenczak further wrote that ’it kind of offends me that I’m basically volunteering the summer at Danforth, getting up at 630, with no AC, to help tutor kids and that’s not enough.’

While Werenczak was summoned to a meeting with administrators shortly before the school year began, he was not charged with any infraction of Syracuse’s rules and never received a disciplinary hearing. On September 7, however, Social Studies Education Coordinator Jeffery A. Mangram sent Werenczak a letter stating that the School of Education (SOE) was effectively expelling Werenczak because he had ‘posted on [his] Facebook page comments the SOE finds unprofessional, offensive, and insensitive not only to the Danforth School but also to the SOE and Syracuse University.’”

“FIRE wrote Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor on January 10, pointing out that SOE‘s action ’profoundly violates Syracuse’s express promises of freedom of speech.’ Syracuse promises in its Student Handbook that ‘[s]tudents have the right to express themselves freely on any subject‘ and that ’Syracuse University … welcomes and encourages the expression of dissent.’

Syracuse has failed to respond, leaving Werenczak’s future in limbo.

The nonprofit educational foundation notes that this is not the first time Syracuse has punished a student for online speech

“Syracuse’s promises of free speech and due process are rapidly becoming some of the biggest jokes in higher education,” said Kissel. “I can see why Werenczak might be disturbed about his job prospects after hearing a remark that implicated his race. But it’s impossible to see how any reasonable person in the School of Education could use such a mild, off-campus expression of offense to destroy a student’s career.”

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