democracy

Before the votes are tallied, Election Day 2014
By Valerie Crowder
November 4, 2014 - 10:41pm
Democracy in Action students cover local, state and national races for the mid-term elections in Onondaga County.

Through the Democracy in Action project, undergraduate and graduate students in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications share voters' Election Day stories through photos, audio, video and text.

Students went to the polls, speaking with voters in Syracuse and the surrounding suburbs, where they heard voters' opinions about electronic voting scanners; met families casting their ballots together; and witnessed local traditions, such as Syracuse's annual Election Day spaghetti dinner.

MSNBC's Chris Hayes goes all in with Syracuse
By Jillian Lynch
February 26, 2014 - 1:27am
The talk show host discussed America's meritocratic system and how it has led to elitism in his University Lectures Series speech.

At the beginning of his lecture Tuesday night, political journalist Chris Hayes asked the audience to participate in a thought experiment. He asked everyone to create an alternate universe consisting of sociopaths with no moral conscience.

“If you have a sense of superiority, that the laws don't apply to you, and combine it with a sense of precariousness, you would get something potent. You would get subjects that would be willing to do anything,” Hayes said. “This accurately describes the characteristics among groups that lead to dominance and success in America.”

University Lectures speaker Eric Liu defines "true meaning of patriotism"
By Linda Gorman
October 23, 2013 - 12:19am
In SU's second talk of the year, the civic entrepreneur spoke to students at Hendricks Chapel about the spirit of citizenship.

Americans are not always at ease with the idea of patriotism, Eric Liu told the crowd at Hendricks Chapel last night.  “The very word patriotism makes people uncomfortable,” Lui said.  In the second University Lecture of the year, the civic entrepreneur spoke on the topic of “The True Meaning of Patriotism.”