Student Association President James Franco praised the installation of security cameras along a portion of Euclid Avenue during the organization’s Monday night meeting.

The security cameras are placed on light poles along Euclid Avenue and span cross streets between Comstock Avenue and Westcott Avenue.

Crime in the surveilled area decreased roughly 50 percent between 2016 to 2017, Franco said. Reported incidents of the eight most prevalent types of crime, including burglaries, larcenies and car break-ins, decreased from 49 incidents in 2016 to 24 incidents in 2017, he said.

Franco said it may be too early to draw conclusions about the cameras’ effectiveness. The cameras were installed in fall 2017. But early statistics have been promising, he said.

“It’s not long enough to show causation or correlation, but it is encouraging overall just for that area,” Franco said.

Franco, as outgoing SA president, added that he would pass along the camera statistics to next year’s SA leaders, President-elect Ghufran Salih and Vice President-elect Kyle Rosenblum.

Mass shooting email

Franco on Monday also addressed concerns from students who felt that SU should have notified them of a student’s mass shooting threat before they read a report from Syracuse.com published on April 5.

The university sent a campus-wide email about the threat roughly five hours after the article was posted online. Xiaoteng Zhan, a 22-year-old SU student, was apprehended by federal agents in late March after attempting to return to Syracuse from Mexico, Syracuse.com reported. Zhan had attempted to buy an AR-15, an assault rifle frequently used in recent mass shootings, and sought psychiatric care twice recently, according to Syracuse.com. Zhan was eventually deported.

There were several reasons for SU’s delay in communication, Franco said. Federal and city law enforcement agencies requested the investigation’s information be kept private, he said, and the student in question was traveling on spring break and posed no immediate risk to SU students. Because no crime was committed, the threat was an Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities issue, he said.

“(SU) did not know that city law enforcement was going to comment on it, so they wish they would have got that notice,” Franco said.

STI testing clinic

Student Association Vice President Angie Pati said a recent sexually transmitted disease clinic organized by SA, Health Services and Be Well SU filled 99 of 150 possible testing appointments.

Pati said less than 15 people attended the first clinic on April 5. That number was north of 70 people for the April 6 clinic, after an informational email was sent to the student body, she said.

The program would be expanded to four clinics during the 2018-19 school year, Pati said.

Invest Syracuse transparency

Responding to concerns regarding the status of the Invest Syracuse initiative, Franco and Pati met with Chancellor Kent Syverud to discuss increasing transparency around the plan, a $100 million academic fundraising initiative.

Pati said periodic reports informing students of Invest Syracuse’s progress would start circulating in fall 2018. Incoming first-year and transfer students starting at SU this fall will have to pay a $3,300 tuition premium as part of the Invest Syracuse plan. Total cost of attendance next year for undergraduate students is expected to be north of $70,000.

Ghufran and Rosenblum, the incoming SA president and vice president, respectively, during their campaign said they would push university officials to release a detailed cost report breaking down Invest Syracuse’s funding allocations.

Published on April 17, 2018 at 12:22 am

Contact Ryan: rarozenb@syr.edu