This letter is a call to action from a coalition of current Syracuse University School of Architecture students and alumni, in defense of Assistant Teaching Professor Valeria Herrera and the recent discrimination lawsuit filed against the School of Architecture. 

Initially stunned and outraged when we learned that the SOA had decided to end Professor Herrera’s employment at the school, recent knowledge of this lawsuit has triggered a shockwave of relief and appreciation amongst the student and alumni community for the bravery of Professor Herrera in revealing sentiments gone unspoken for much too long.

This letter is a response to the silence of the administration and their actions taken to suppress Professor Herrera. This collective voice of past and current students is aware of the school’s discriminatory and hurtful actions towards Herrera over the years. Valeria Herrera is a beloved and deeply respected professor, a role model to so many, an alumnus of the School of Architecture and an SOA Britton Medal winner. Her drawing courses have a legendary status in the school and her uncompromising and dedicated support for students, their education, personal confidence, and wellbeing is palpable in everything she does. Valeria is a fierce advocate for students and has been a mentor to innumerable students, those who know her and have had the privilege of being her student, as well as those who admire her from afar. Her representation as a Latina faculty member, the only full-time Latina on the faculty during her years in the SOA, is critical and invaluable to so many underrepresented individuals. In addition to her teaching and openly generous character, she has served for years as the faculty representative for the SOA chapter of the award-wining National Organization of Minority Architecture Students. She is a role-model that we cannot afford to lose.

The undersigned students and alumni strive to hold the current administration accountable and hopefully motivate more action from current faculty, students, alumni, and external colleagues who share our same concerns. We have clearly come to a breaking point with the treatment of Professor Herrera. As Herrera has shown us the possibility for action to be sparked, we students require further action to be made within the school to right a history of grievances, abuses, and opportunism. The loss of Herrera's teaching sends an alarming message about the state of the school and the administration’s questionable commitment to diversity, advocacy, integrity, and the cultivating of an inclusive and equitable work environment. Within the school there exists a culture of silence among the faculty, staff, and students alike which has negatively impacted morale throughout the SOA. Our administration seems to have isolated the School of Architecture outside of the normal realm of accountability and support that the broader university usually provides to students and professors in other departments.

When Herrera has taught the ARC 181 course it has soared to heights, including media coverage, that celebrated the quality, collaboration, and diversity focus that she brought to the required freshman drawing course. She introduced the idea of activism and community in her teaching in drawing and in her award-winning thesis advising. Why did the school prevent Herrera from continuing in this role as the ARC 181 drawing professor, a role she so successfully performed and that she passionately desired to continue? We think the answer is obvious.

Her repression by the SOA administration is both a symbolic and practical suppression of the students who benefit from her unique and invaluable presence in the school. She brings an optimistic and positive voice and spirit in her advocacy for the heard and the seen and the unheard and the unseen. She is special, we know it, and they know it.

Feelings of anger have spurred from news of the School of Architecture’s decision to not renew Herrera’s employment contract. Students have reported that her renewal was fully supported by the Fall 2023 SOA Teaching Professor Evaluation Committee with a unanimous vote of support and a very supportive letter by that committee, enthusiastically recommending that her full-time contract be renewed. We mourn the loss of the sacred environment she nurtured and for the extreme quality of the teaching, support, and mentorship she provides to students every day.

One could imagine the shocking acts of oppression articulated in the Daily Orange’s article on the lawsuit, would make it nearly impossible for Professor Herrera to do her job as an educator. Yet in the face of an unsupportive administration who lacks sufficient respect and regard for her general wellbeing, she still shows up every day to serve her students and her school in the freshman design studio, in her elective drawing seminar, in her Source Grant Advising, in her role as NOMAS advisor and in her SOA committee assignments. She continues to inspire the minds of all her students and bring light to the studios that we are proud to call home in her presence.

A fear that many alumni and current students feel is the realization that future students will not receive the same sort of care towards the development of their architectural education that Professor Herrera has provided and this has left many current and past students to question the education the school has promised to offer. Students are worried about the implications of a school that favors so many part-time instructors and professors with little if any prior teaching experience and who are paid lower wages, over full-time professors, and experienced educators. For years, the school has ignored the voice of the students and seems to have made curious staffing decisions and have repressed and dismissed of valuable professors who do not perfectly align with the administration’s vision. We feel that this has negatively impacted the quality of our education. In roughly the last year the SOA has lost four professors at the rank of Full Professor and has followed that by not renewing the contracts of four full-time Assistant Teaching Professors, including Herrera, eliminating eight full-time and experienced professors in total. The SOA claims Herrera and her full-time colleagues were not renewed because of curriculum changes that leave the school without enough courses for them to teach, doing so whilst continuing to hire numerous part-time faculty.

Professor Herrera fosters an intensity in critical design thought within a collaborative and supportive studio environment. Her teaching nourishes a motivation to do our best while helping us to maintain a healthy work-life balance – a testament to the genuine care she has for her students. The student body holds the highest level of respect and admiration for her work as an artist, professor, mentor, role-model, and cultural force.

We have invested such a large portion of our lives in a school that promised a safe, supportive, academically rigorous space when we were first applying for admission. Now, many students are left with feelings of uncertainty and disappointment for the ultimate value of the education provided to them. The outlying pride we feel for our time at Syracuse University lies with the meaningful connections we’ve made with our peers and the handful of professors left at Syracuse with genuine passion such as Professor Valeria Herrera. It is in opposition to the will of the students and alumni, that she has been terminated from employment at the SOA. This action by the school weakens the educational context and content and strips the students of an invaluable and esteemed educator. It sends another clear signal that the school has moved in a direction that does not best support the quality of the Syracuse University School of Architecture, its brand, and its fiercely guarded and dedicatedly maintained global reputation as a top tier school of architecture. We call upon Syracuse University and the greater architecture community hold the School of Architecture to a higher degree of accountability for their actions.

We will no longer allow our voices to remain whispers in the wind.