Syracuse University’s failure to properly handle the case of Matthew Werenczak harmed more than Mr. Werenczak and his reputation. The university’s actions also harmed its own students, the schools and the children at those schools that the students are trying to help.

Though there certainly is value in minority children being able to see role models with whom they can identify, the children really need teachers who truly care about them. The ethnicity of the teachers matters much less than the quality of those teachers.  By pandering to the racism of the member of the city’s Concerned Citizen’s Action Program, the university has taken the easy way out instead of standing up for those children and the students trying to help them. 

Did the university even consider that those children would also be helped by spending quality time with people who do not look like them and learning to trust those people? Many inner city children only see white people as the police officers who break down the door to their apartment to arrest their fathers, brothers or uncles.

Teaching is a very tough career choice. The average new teacher only lasts about three years before leaving the profession. How many other students in Mr. Werenczak’s program will look at the university’s conduct and decide not to accept student teaching assignments where the need is greatest? Graduate students have invested a great deal of time, money and effort training for a career that will never reward them financially. Without knowing that the university will not support them, many students in those programs will either only work in ‘safe’ schools or will leave their program.

Though the university may not appreciate the manner in which Mr. Werenczak expressed his displeasure with the comment he found so offensive, that does not mean Mr. Werenczak should not have protested the grossly insensitive comment. Has the university even spoken to the member of the city’s Concerned Citizen’s Action Program? In light of the university’s responses to many questions being asked about this, probably not.

The university may intend to send a message to Mr. Werenczak and other students who find themselves in such uncomfortable positions. Unfortunately, that message does more than harm Mr. Werenczak and his reputation. It casts the university as an institution that cares more about sweeping an unpleasant situation under the rug as quickly as possible than it cares about its own students and its own community.

Charles S. Brown, Jr., Class of 1986

Former SGA Parliamentarian

Published on January 30, 2012 at 12:00 pm