Students who joined the #NotAgainSU movement will not be suspended, said Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud. It comes after more than 500 faculty, staff, alumni and students signed a petition, calling on SU to reinstate students, and defending their right to peacefully protest on campus.

An SU professor created the document early Tuesday morning, after the students were suspended. She wrote the University's actions were in retaliation of peaceful protests. Tom Perrealt, Department Head for Maxwell School's Geology Department, was one of the first 60 people to sign. In the fall, the protests centered around the racist incidents themselves, he said. Now they're more about the administration's retaliation, so professors feel the responsibility to step in and show their support.

"I think it's important for us to show that we are part of a broader context, social context," said Perreault. "We're not just in our offices, you know in our ivory tower with our research, but we're actually part of this broader community."

With the long holiday weekend, lots of campus tours have been going on this week, and prospective students have seen the protests firsthand. Perreault says everything going on could have an impact on admissions.

"It'll be I think difficult to make the case to a lot of students who have lots of options for their education to make a decision to come to Syracuse, if there's this kind of tension," he said.