Police flooded the campus of Syracuse University last week — in response to a false alarm.
The school’s administrators have been flailing for weeks, reacting only slowly to a string of incidents that began with racist graffiti found on Nov. 6. Because the Syracuse chancellor, Kent Syverud, was slow to take any steps, Gov. Andrew Cuomo made a public stink and sent in investigators from the Division of Human Rights and the State Police Hate Crimes Task Force.
More graffiti appeared, on almost a daily basis. In the only “live” incident, fraternity members hurled a racist slur at a black student.
It seemed to culminate late last Monday: Just after midnight, word started spreading someone had AirDropped a white supremacist manifesto to the cellphones of several students in the library — the same manifesto spread by the Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque shooter.
As hysteria built, the administration put the school on lockdown. The next morning, State Police and other officers swarmed the campus. But, by week’s end, no one had been able to find any student who’d actually received the hate document — it was merely a rumor that had built on social media.
Syverud has suspended four students in the frat incident, but seems to think that his only hope of getting past the nightmare is to give in to radical student demands that will allow for race-based roommate selection, as well as toughening penalties in racial incidents (including for bystanders who do nothing) and spending $1 million on a new anti-racism curriculum. In other words, it’s not just students who are panicking.