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The Lender Center for Social Justice, which will operate under new leadership next fall, hopes to better engage students in social justice.

James Haywood Rolling, who is a professor in Syracuse University’s School of Education and College of Visual and Performing Arts, will replace Marcelle Haddix, the center’s current co-director. He will serve as the center’s co-director for three years alongside Kendall Philips, who has been a co-director since 2018.

The center, which is housed in the School of Education, hosts events and provides fellowships that promote interdisciplinary approaches to issues related to social justice, equity and inclusion at SU.

Politicizing social issues is problematic, Rolling said. 

“There’s nothing partisan about looking out for the well-being and safety of the people to my left and my right,” Rolling said. “Everyone benefits when none of us collides or is injured. By addressing social justice from the perspective of looking out for one another, I disarm the zero-sum political pretense that taking care of the other guy means taking something away from you.”

Since its inception, the Lender Center has been focused on global issues of injustice. But it also prioritizes discussions about those large-scale issues in the context of SU’s campus, Phillips said. The center is responsible for engaging the SU community in conversations that will combat a give-and-take narrative surrounding social justice, he said. 

Inciting uncomfortable conversations is a top priority for the center, Philips said.  

In 2019, the center partnered with The Greenberg House to host “Difficult Memories,” a speaker series event that covered the history of racism, such as controversy about Confederate statues. Phillips said the event included many of the types of conversations the center hopes to provoke in the future. 

By reflecting on the past, he and Rolling will learn how to best cultivate justice at SU in the future, Philips said. 

“While we face many difficult issues and tragic instances of injustice, a college campus should be one place where we look for the possibilities of a new and more just future,” Philips said. “It should be a robust and interdisciplinary conversation, and it should be a conversation marked by dynamic energy and optimism.” 

Joanna Masingila, dean of the School Education, said the center must stick to its four main pillars — human rights, access, participation and equity for all — to create change in Syracuse.

“This means having these pillars at top priorities for everything we do: learning, teaching, advising, communicating, participating in any way with any part of the university,” Masingila said. 

Rolling said he is often struck by the disrespect that accompanies conversations about race. When these discussions turn into “you’re a racist” accusations and “I’m not a racist” rebuttals, they lose value, Rolling said. 

The conversations need to be about how society has reproduced racist structures, relationships and outcomes — and will continue to do so until those in power at the local level take action to create change. Rolling said that the center must work to fix the system that creates problems rather than just the problems alone. 

“I’m simply pointing out that the chicken comes before the egg,” he said.

The center is in the process of expanding its Lender Fellowship project, which unites a group of students to work with a faculty member on a given topic related to social justice. Philips said such initiatives will help community members engage in real, meaningful and honest conversations about social justice.

“I was born and raised in communities heavily impacted by the very social justices the Lender Center is poised to address,” Rolling said. “For this reason, my commitment to the mission of the Lender Center is not just professional. It’s personal.”

Published on March 22, 2021 at 11:37 pm

gfpagano@syr.edu