Syracuse University

In the fall of 2008, Macia Batista, a junior at Le Moyne College, attended a women’s panel on human trafficking at Syracuse University. After the event, Batista sought out the familiar face of the woman who led the event. To Batista’s surprise, the woman, Joannie Diaz, was her high school classmate. But this woman was about to become much more to her. In just a few months, Batista would call Diaz her sorority sister, and fast forward six years later and she is now Batista’s business partner.

The first limit that Syracuse University alumna Emme Aronson’s initiative, Fashion Without Limits, ran into was mannequin size. Emme approached SU professor Jeffrey Mayer about offering students an opportunity to create clothes for the size 16 model.

“I said, ‘Well, the problem we are going to have is that our dress forms are all size 6 or 8,’” Mayer said.

In his lecture at Hendricks Chapel on Tuesday evening, civil rights and environmental advocate Van Jones called for young people on college campuses to take action.

“There is a new generation — the biggest, most diverse in world history — taking the stage,” Jones said. “When they look at the future we’re giving them, they don’t want it.” The audience gave him a standing ovation after he called for young people to “build a new civilization.”

Newhouse 2 – the bunker-like building between I.M. Pei’s iconic Newhouse 1 and the sweeping glass structure of Newhouse 3 designed by Polshek Partnership Architects – has stood as a concrete-clad box since 1974, unwelcoming to the public and confusing students with its dark interior layout.

Today, the school unveiled the new face of Newhouse 2: a bright, double-tier, glass curtain wall that extends from the front of the building on Waverly Avenue.