Syracuse University

Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Located in the city's University Hill neighborhood, east and southeast of Downtown Syracuse, the large campus features an eclectic mix of architecture, ranging from nineteenth-century Romanesque Revival to contemporary buildings.

Syracuse University is organized into 13 schools and colleges, with nationally recognized programs in architecture, public administration, journalism and communications, business administration, information studies, inclusive education, sport management, engineering, law, and the arts. The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". Alumni and affiliates include three Nobel Prize laureates, one Fields Medalist, 36 Olympic Medalists, 13 Pulitzer Prize recipients, numerous Academy Award winners, two Rhodes Scholars, five Marshall Scholars, the 46th president of the United States Joe Biden, and various governors and members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

Syracuse University athletic teams, known as the Orange, participate in 20 intercollegiate sports. SU is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, or ACC for all NCAA Division I athletics, except for the men's rowing and women's ice hockey teams. SU is also a member of the Eastern College Athletic Conference.

History

Founding

The institution's roots can be traced to the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary. The seminary was founded in 1831 by the Genesee annual conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Lima, New York, south of Rochester. In 1850, it was resolved to enlarge the institution from a seminary into a college, or to connect a college with the seminary, becoming Genesee College. However, the location was soon thought by many to be insufficiently central. Its difficulties were compounded by the next set of technological changes: the railroad that displaced the Erie Canal as the region's economic engine bypassed Lima completely. The trustees of the struggling college then decided to seek a locale whose economic and transportation advantages could provide a better base of support.

The college began looking for a new home at the same time Syracuse, ninety miles to the east, was engaged in a search to bring a university to the city, having failed to convince Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White to locate Cornell University there rather than in Ithaca. Syracuse resident White pressed that the new university should locate on the hill in Syracuse (the current location of Syracuse University) due to the city's attractive transportation hub, which would ease the recruitment of faculty, students, and other persons of note. However, as a young carpenter working in Syracuse, Cornell had been twice robbed of his wages, and thereafter considered Syracuse a Sodom and Gomorrah, insisting the university be in Ithaca on his large farm on East Hill, overlooking the town and Cayuga Lake.

Meanwhile, there were several years of dispute between the Methodist ministers, Lima, and contending cities across the state, over proposals to move Genesee College to Syracuse. At the time, the ministers wanted a share of the funds from the Morrill Land Grant Act for Genesee College. They agreed to a ''quid pro quo'' donation of $25,000 from Senator Cornell in exchange for their (Methodist) support for his bill. Cornell insisted the bargain be written into the bill and Cornell became New York State's Land Grant University in 1865. In 1869, Genesee College obtained New York State approval to move to Syracuse, but Lima got a court injunction to block the move, and Genesee stayed in Lima until it was dissolved in 1875. By that time, however, the court injunction had been made moot by the founding of a new university on March 24, 1870. On that date the State of New York granted the new Syracuse University its own charter, independent of Genesee College. An endowment of $400,000 was subscribed by the Methodist church and the City of Syracuse offered $100,000 to establish the school. Bishop Jesse Truesdell Peck had donated $25,000 to the proposed school and was elected the first president of the Board of Trustees.

Rev. Daniel Steele, a former Genesee College president, served as the first administrative leader of Syracuse until its Chancellor was appointed. The university opened in September 1871 in rented space downtown. Judge George F. Comstock, a member of the new university's board of trustees, had offered the school of farmland on a hillside to the southeast of the city center. Comstock intended Syracuse University and the hill to develop as an integrated whole; a contemporary account described the latter as "a beautiful town ... springing up on the hillside and a community of refined and cultivated membership ... established near the spot which will soon be the center of a great and beneficent educational institution."

The university was founded as coeducational - "''open to men and women, white and black''". President Peck stated at the opening ceremonies, "The conditions of admission shall be equal to all persons... there shall be no invidious discrimination here against woman.... brains and heart shall have a fair chance... " Syracuse implemented this policy with a high proportion of women students. In the College of Liberal Arts, the ratio between male and female students during the 19th century was approximately even. The College of Fine Arts was predominantly female, and a low ratio of women enrolled in the College of Medicine and the College of Law. Men and women were taught together in the same courses, and many extra-curricular activities were coeducational as well. Syracuse also developed "women-only" organizations and clubs.

Expansion

Coeducation at Syracuse traced its roots to the early days of Genesee College where educators and students like Frances Willard and Belva Lockwood were heavily influenced by the Women's movement in nearby Seneca Falls, NY. However, the progressive "co-ed" policies practiced at Genesee would soon find controversy at the new university in Syracuse. Colleges and universities admitted few women students in the 1870s. Administrators and faculty argued women had inferior minds and could not master mathematics and the classics. Dr. Erastus Otis Haven, Syracuse University chancellor and former president of the University of Michigan and Northwestern University, maintained that women should receive the advantages of higher education. He enrolled his daughter Frances at Syracuse, where she joined the other newly admitted female students in founding the Gamma Phi Beta sorority. The inclusion of women in the early days of the university led to the proliferation of various women's clubs and societies. In fact, it was a Syracuse professor who coined the term "sorority" specifically for Gamma Phi Beta.

In the late 1880s, the university engaged in a rapid building spree. Holden Observatory (1887) was followed by two Romanesque Revival buildings – von Ranke Library (1889), now Tolley Humanities Building, and Crouse College (1889). Together with the Hall of Languages, these first buildings formed the basis for the "Old Row," a grouping which, along with its companion Lawn, established one of Syracuse's most enduring images. The emphatically linear organization of these buildings along the brow of the hill follows a tradition of American campus planning which dates to the construction of the "Yale Row" in the 1790s. At Syracuse, "The Old Row" continued to provide the framework for growth well into the twentieth century.

From its founding until through the early 1920s, the university grew rapidly. It offered programs in the physical sciences and modern languages, and in 1873, Syracuse added one of the first architecture programs in the U.S. It was also the first institution to grant a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in the United States. In 1874, Syracuse created the nation's first bachelor of fine arts degree. In 1876, the school offered its first post-graduate courses in the College of Arts and Sciences. SU created its first doctoral program in 1911. In 1919, Syracuse added its business school which contains multiple MBA programs. SU's school of journalism, now the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, was established at Syracuse in 1934.

The growth of Syracuse University from a small liberal arts college into a major comprehensive university was due to the efforts of two men, Chancellor James Roscoe Day and John Dustin Archbold. James Roscoe Day was serving the Calvary Church in New York City, where he befriended Archbold. Together, the two dynamic figures would oversee the first of two great periods of campus renewal in Syracuse's history.

John Dustin Archbold was a capitalist, philanthropist, and President of the Board of Trustees at Syracuse University. He was known as John D. Rockefeller's right-hand man and successor at the Standard Oil Company. He was a close friend of Syracuse University Chancellor James R. Day and gave almost $6 million to the University over his lifetime. Said a journalist in 1917:

Mr. Archbold's ... is the president of the board of trustees of Syracuse University, an institution which has prospered so remarkably since his connection with it that its student roll has increased from hundreds to over 4,000, including 1,500 young women, placing it in the ranks of the foremost institutions of learning in the United States.

In 1905 Rev. Dr. James D. Phelps secured a donation of $150,000 from Andrew Carnegie for a new university library provided the University raised an equal sum as an endowment for the library. The University raised the required endowment in a little over a month, with the largest share being contributed by Archbold. On September 11, 1907, the transfer of the Von Ranke collection from the old library building marking the opening of the new Carnegie library with a collection of over 71,000 volumes.

In addition to keeping the University financially solvent during its early years, Archbold also contributed funds for eight buildings, including the full cost of Archbold Stadium (opened 1907, demolished 1978), Sims Hall (men's dormitory, 1907), the Archbold Gymnasium (1909, nearly destroyed by fire in 1947, but still in use), and the oval athletic field.

Modern

After World War II, Syracuse University transformed into a major research institution. Enrollment increased in the four years after the war due to the G.I. Bill, which paid tuition, room, board, and a small allowance for veterans returning from World War II. In 1946, the University admitted 9,464 freshmen, nearly four times greater than the previous incoming class. Branch campuses were established in Endicott, New York, and Utica, New York, which became Binghamton University and Utica University respectively.

The velocity with which the University sped through its change into a major research institution was astounding. By the end of the 1950s, Syracuse ranked twelfth nationally in terms of the amount of its sponsored research, and it had over four hundred professors and graduate students engaging in that investigation.

From the early 1950s through the 1960s, Syracuse University added programs and staff that continued the transformation of the school into a research university. In 1954, Arthur Phillips was recruited from MIT and started the first pathogen-free animal research laboratory. The lab focused on studying medical problems using animal models. The School of Social Work, which eventually merged into the College of Human Ecology, was founded in 1956. Syracuse's College of Engineering also founded the nation's second-oldest computer engineering and bioengineering programs. In 1962, Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr. donated $15 million to begin construction of a school of communications, eventually known as the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. In 1966, Syracuse University was admitted to the Association of American Universities, an organization of leading research universities devoted to maintaining a robust system of academic research and education.

1988 crash of Pan Am Flight 103

On December 21, 1988, 35 Syracuse University students were killed in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The students were returning from a study-abroad program in Europe. That evening, Syracuse University went on with a basketball game just hours after the attack, for which the university was severely criticized and the university's chancellor subsequently apologized. The bombing of Flight 103 was the deadliest terrorist attack against the United States prior to the attacks on September 11, 2001.

In April 1990, Syracuse University dedicated a memorial wall to the students killed on Flight 103, constructed at the entrance to the main campus in front of the Hall of Languages. Every year the university holds "Remembrance Week" during the fall semester to commemorate the students. The university also maintains a link to the tragedy with the "Remembrance Scholars" program, when 35 senior students receive scholarships during their final year at the university. With the "Lockerbie Scholars" program, two graduating students from Lockerbie Academy study at Syracuse for one year.

Controversies

Racist incidents

In 2018, the university's Theta Tau fraternity was expelled after a video showing a mock initiation ritual featuring racist, anti-Semitic, ableist, and homophobic language.

In 2019, over ten instances of racist graffiti, swastikas, and other bigoted language were found around campus. That same week, the university suspended the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity after the university determined that four of its members yelled a racial epithet at a black student on campus. All social activities at fraternities were suspended for the rest of the semester as a result of these racist and anti-Semitic incidents, but officials of the university were criticized for not doing enough.

Days later, a white supremacist manifesto was allegedly sent to several students studying in the library using Apple's AirDrop service and was also posted on a website about Greek Life at Syracuse University—the same manifesto that had been cited prior to the Christchurch mosque shootings. However, the Syracuse Police Department and the university's Department of Public Safety could not find anyone who directly received the manifesto to verify these claims. In response, Syracuse University denied that there was any "credible threat", and the chancellor said that the alleged circulation of the manifesto "was probably a hoax" in an address to the University Senate.

Facilitated communication controversy

, the university had supported faculty member Douglas Biklen and his discredited pseudoscientific practice of facilitated communication for nearly 30 years. The university's Institute on Communication and Inclusion, founded by Biklen, (formerly called the "Facilitated Communication Institute"), has offered workshops with the intent of "giving a voice and a means to communicate to people with disabilities". However, in a 2016 article, the editorial board of the independent student newspaper The Daily Orange, condemned the university's support for this practice. "It is inexcusable and equal-parts embarrassing for Syracuse University as a research institution to stand behind facilitated communication (FC) despite it being a potentially life-destroying practice that has been empirically debunked."

Campuses

The university is set on a campus that features an eclectic mix of buildings, ranging from nineteenth-century Romanesque Revival structures to contemporary buildings designed by renowned architects such as I.M. Pei. The center of campus, with its grass quadrangle, landscaped walkways, and outdoor sculptures, offers students the amenities of a traditional college experience. The university overlooks downtown Syracuse, a medium-sized city (140,600 residents in 2008).

The school also owns an on-campus Sheraton Hotel, Marshall Square Mall, the Drumlins Country Club – a nearby, 36-hole golf course to the east of South Campus, the Marshall – a 287-bed, student housing complex, the Fisher Center and Joseph I. Lubin House in New York City, the Paul Greenberg House in Washington, D.C., the Minnowbrook Conference Center – a 28-acre (121,000 m²) retreat in the Adirondack mountains of Upstate New York, and various properties surrounding its University Hill campus.

Main campus

Academic buildings and residence halls

Also called "North Campus," the Main Campus contains nearly all academic buildings and residence halls. Its centerpiece is The Kenneth A. Shaw Quadrangle, more affectionately known as "The Quad", which is surrounded by academic and administrative buildings, including Hendricks Chapel. The North Campus represents a large portion of the University Hill neighborhood. Buses run to South Campus, as well as downtown Syracuse and other locations in the city.

About 70 percent of students live in university housing. First- and second-year students are required to live on campus. All 22 residence halls are coeducational, and each contains a lounge, laundry facility, and various social/study spaces. Residence halls are secured with a card access system. Residence halls are located on both Main Campus and South Campus, the latter of which is a five-minute ride via bus. Learning communities and interest housing options are also available. Food facilities include six residential dining centers, two food courts, and several cafes. A few blocks walk from Main Campus on East Genesee street, the Syracuse Stage building includes two proscenium theatres. ''The Storch'' is used primarily by the Drama Department and ''The Archbold'' is used primarily by Syracuse Stage, a professional regional theatre.

The Comstock Tract Buildings, a historic district of older buildings on the campus, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Three buildings on campus—the Crouse Memorial College and the Hall of Languages, and the Pi Chapter House of Psi Upsilon Fraternity—are individually listed on the National Register.

In 2017, the university released a campus framework report detailing plans to align campus physical landscape, buildings, and infrastructure over the next 20 years.

Libraries

Syracuse University's main library is the Ernest S. Bird Library, which opened in 1972. Its seven levels contain 2.3 million books, 11,500 periodicals, of manuscripts and rare books, 3.6 million microforms, and a café. It remains one of the hundred largest libraries in the country. There are also several departmental libraries on campus. Many of the landmarks in the history of recorded communication between people are in the university's Special Collections Research Center, from cuneiform tablets and papyri to several codices dating from the 11th century to the invention of printing. The collection also includes works by Galileo, Luther, John Calvin, Voltaire, Isaac Newton, Descartes, Francis Bacon, Samuel Johnson, Thomas Hobbes, Goethe, and others. Other collections of note include Rudyard Kipling first editions and an original second leaf of the Gutenberg Bible.

In addition, the collection includes the personal library of Leopold Von Ranke. Making sensational headlines in 1887, the university outbid the Prussian government for all 19 tons of Von Ranke's prized personal library.

Bird Library is also home to the largest collection of national archives of Kenya and Tanzania. Syracuse University is the first library to permanently preserve print collections of historical government publications produced by the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO). In July 2008, Syracuse University became the owner of the second largest collection of 78 rpm records in the United States after the Library of Congress after a donation of more than 200,000 records. The donation, valued at $1 million, more than doubled the university's collection of 78 rpm records to about 400,000. It also has a special Harriet Tubman Research Collection and an Environmental Justice and Gender collection housed in the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. The MLK library holds over 15,000 acquisitions in African, African-American, Afro-Latino, and Caribbean studies.

The university is also home to the Belfer Audio Laboratory and Archive, whose holdings total approximately 540,000 recordings in all formats, primarily cylinders, discs, and magnetic tapes. Some of the voices to be found include Thomas Edison, Amelia Earhart, Albert Einstein, and Oscar Wilde.

South campus

Student apartments and residence halls

After World War II, a large, undeveloped hill owned by the university was used to house returning veterans in military-style campus housing. During the 1970s, this housing was replaced by permanent two-level townhouses equipped with kitchen, bathroom, and private bedrooms for two or three undergraduate students each or graduate families. There are also three small residence halls that feature open doubles. More than 2,000 students live on the South Campus, which is one mile away from the Main Campus and connected by frequent shuttle bus service.

Administrative, athletic, and recreational facilities

South Campus is home to the Institute for Sensory Research, Tennity Ice Skating Pavilion, Comstock Art Facility, Skytop Softball Stadium, Skytop Track, Goldstein Student Center, Outdoor Education Center, Skytop Office Building, and the InnComplete Pub, a graduate student bar.

Just north is the headquarters of SU Athletics, the John A. Lally Athletics Complex, formerly known as Manley Field House. Named after alumnus John Lally, the academic and athletics village is home to 20 Syracuse University athletics teams. The complex is surrounded by other athletic facilities, including the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center, J.S. Coyne Stadium, Ensley Athletic Center, and SU Soccer Stadium.

Downtown Syracuse

In December 2004, the university announced that it had purchased or leased twelve buildings in downtown Syracuse. Five design programs—Communication, Advertising, Environmental and Interior Design, Industrial and Interactive Design, and Fashion—reside permanently in the newly renovated facilities, fittingly called The Warehouse, which was renovated by Gluckman Mayner Architects. Both programs were chosen to be located in the downtown area because of their history of working on projects directly with the community. The Warehouse also houses a contemporary art space that commissions, exhibits, and promotes the work of local and international artists in a variety of media. Hundreds of students and faculty have also been affected by the temporary move of the School of Architecture downtown for the $12 million renovation of its campus facility, Slocum Hall.

Since 2009, the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems, led by Syracuse University in partnership with Clarkson University and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, creates innovations in environmental and energy technologies that improve human health and productivity, security, and sustainability in urban and built environments. The Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company and the Community Folk Art Center will also be located downtown. On March 31, 2006, the university and the city announced an initiative to connect the main campus of the university with the arts and culture areas of downtown Syracuse and The Warehouse. Using natural gas, the Green Data Center generates its electricity on-site, providing cooling for servers and for a neighboring building.

The Connective Corridor project, supported by of public and private funds, will be a strip of cultural development that will connect the main campus of the university to downtown Syracuse, NY. In 2008, an engineering firm is studying traffic patterns and lighting to commence the project. A design competition was held to determine the best design for the project.

Metropolitan satellite locations

SU has established an admissions presence in Los Angeles, California, that will enhance the university's visibility on the West Coast and will join the university's West Coast offices of alumni relations, institutional advancement, and the LA semester program in the same location. Syracuse University has also established an admissions presence in New York City, Atlanta, Georgia, Chicago, Illinois, and Boston, Massachusetts. Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs maintains their Washington D.C. operations in collaboration with Center for Strategic and International Studies. Also in Washington, D.C. is the newly launched Center for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship, a research center jointly run by the Newhouse School and Maxwell School.

Art on campus and permanent collections

Syracuse University Art Museum

Syracuse is home to the Syracuse University Art Museum whose mission is to be a place of rigorous interdisciplinary research, creative thinking, and mindfulness. The main gallery space is located in the Shaffer Art Building on the main campus.

The Warehouse Gallery

The Warehouse Gallery is a new contemporary art space exhibiting that is operated under the umbrella of the SU Art Museum. Housed in a former furniture warehouse off-campus, the Warehouse Gallery features works from international artists in a variety of media. Its mission is to engage the community in a dialogue regarding the role the arts can play in illuminating the critical issues of our times.

Louise and Bernard Palitz Gallery

The Louise and Bernard Palitz Gallery is located on the second floor of the Lubin House in New York City. It has a rotation of exhibitions, including two annual public shows, local and regional artists, featured items from the university's art collection, and professional artists.

Other venues

There are many other venues for student work at Syracuse University, including the Lowe Art Gallery in Shaffer Art Building, the Robert B Menschel Photography Gallery that features work from professional photographers as well as students and local artists, and the White Cube Gallery in Schine Student Center that showcases work for the student body outside of the school of art and design.

SU has a permanent art collection of over 45,000 objects from artists including Picasso, Rembrandt, Hopper, Tiffany and Wyeth. More than 100 important paintings, sculptures, and murals are displayed in public places around campus. Notable sculptures on campus include Sol LeWitt's ''Six Curved Walls'', Anna Hyatt Huntington's ''Diana'', Jean-Antoine Houdon's ''George Washington'', Antoine Bourdelle's ''Herakles'', James Earle Fraser's '' Lincoln'', Malvina Hoffman's ''The Struggle of Elemental Man,'' and Ivan Meštrović's ''Moses'', ''Job'' and ''Supplicant Persephone''.

Students can also research primary sources through the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC), which is composed of rare books, manuscripts, works of architecture and design, and popular culture (cartoons, science fiction, and pulp literature), photography, the history of recorded sound, and more.

Academics

Syracuse is a comprehensive, highly residential research university. The majority of enrollments are in the full-time, four-year undergraduate program that balances arts & sciences and professions. There is a high graduate coexistence with the comprehensive graduate program and a
very high level of research activity. It is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

The most popular majors at Syracuse University include: Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs; Social Sciences; Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services; Visual and Performing Arts; and Engineering. The average freshman retention rate, an indicator of student satisfaction, is 91 percent. The student-faculty ratio at Syracuse University is 15:1, and the school has 58.5 percent of its classes with fewer than 20 students.

Organization

Syracuse is governed by a 70-member Board of Trustees, with 64 trustees elected by the board to four-year terms, and six elected by the alumni to four-year terms. Of the 64 Board elected Trustees, three must represent specified conferences of the United Methodist Church. In addition, the Chancellor and the President of the Syracuse Alumni Association serve as ex officio voting Trustees. Two students and one faculty member serve as non-voting representatives to the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees selects, and sets the salary of, the chancellor. The Syracuse University Bylaws also establish a University Senate with "general supervision over all educational matters concerning the University as a whole". The Senate consists of administrators, faculty, students and staff.

Syracuse University is organized into 13 schools and colleges.

Admissions

Syracuse's admissions process is "more selective" according to the Carnegie Classification. For the Class of 2020, there were 39,342 applicants for 3,350 seats in the Freshman class. Average SAT score of admitted student was 1271.

In 2018, 26% of the incoming students were students of color; 18% were first-generation college students; 21% were federal Pell grant eligible (an indicator for low-income students), and 75% received some financial aid. Students came from 48 states, along with Washington, D.C., Guam and Puerto Rico. Nearly 600 international undergraduate students from 59 countries were also admitted.

In Fall 2019, Syracuse University had a total acceptance rate of 44%.

Degrees

The university offers undergraduate degrees in over 200 majors in the nine undergraduate schools and colleges. Bachelor's degrees are offered through the Syracuse University School of Architecture, the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Education, the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the School of Information Studies, Martin J. Whitman School of Management, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, and the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Also offered are Master's and doctoral degrees online and in person from the Graduate School and from specialized programs in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, College of Law, among others. Additionally, SU offers Certificates of Advanced Study Programs for specialized programs for education, counseling, and other academic areas.

The university has offered multiple international study programs since 1911. SU Abroad, formerly known as the Division of International Programs Abroad (DIPA), currently offers joint programs with universities in over 40 countries. The university operates eight international centers, called SU Abroad Centers, that offer structured programs in a variety of academic disciplines. The centers are located at Beijing, Istanbul, Florence, Hong Kong, London, Madrid, Strasbourg, and Santiago.

Rankings and reputation

In its 2021 ranking of U.S. colleges, '' U.S. News & World Report'' ranked Syracuse tied for 58th among undergraduate national universities. A 2019 survey in the Academic Ranking of World Universities places Syracuse University in the top 100 world universities in social sciences. In 2019, Syracuse University was ranked 22nd in New York State by average professor salaries. Syracuse was ranked 1st in ''The Princeton Reviews 2015 and 2019 list of top party schools. SU was named as one of top Fulbright Award producing institutions for 2020-21.

The School of Architecture Bachelor of Architecture program was ranked 5th nationally in both the ''most Hired from'' and ''most admired'' categories by the journal ''Design Intelligence'' in its 2019-20 rankings.

The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications is one of the university's most notable schools. Ranked as one of the top schools in the country for journalism, it provides the school's most visible alumni. The school has around 2,000 undergraduates and is considered one of the most selective on campus.

The School of Information Studies offers information management and technology courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels at Syracuse University. Within the School of Information Studies, ''U.S. News & World Report'' has ranked the graduate program as the 6th best Library and Information Studies graduate school in the United States for 2022, with the graduate program in School Library Media ranked 3rd, the graduate program in Digital Librarianship ranked 4th, and the graduate Information Systems program tied at No. 5.

The School of Management was renamed the Martin J. Whitman School of Management in 2003, in honor of Syracuse alumnus and benefactor Martin J. Whitman. The school is home to about 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The graduate program is ranked tied at No. 84 among business schools nationwide by ''U.S. News & World Report'' for 2022. Also, the Joseph I. Lubin School of Accounting was named No. 10 in the nation by ''The Chronicle of Higher Education''.

The College of Law is ranked tied for 102nd nationally by ''U.S. News & World Report'' for 2022. It is an emerging leader in the relatively novel field of National Security Law. In 2007, the law school started the Cold Case Justice Initiative, investigating cold cases from the civil rights era in the South. Its professors and students have identified 196 cases, of which more than 100 are in Georgia, and will give information to the US Department of Justice to have cases prosecuted. The FBI has identified 122 cold cases that it is trying to resolve. President Joe Biden is a graduate of the College of Law.

The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs combines social sciences with public administration and international relations. It is ranked as the No. 1 graduate school for public affairs in the U.S. by ''U.S. News & World Report'' for 2022.

''Military Times'' ranks Syracuse University the top "Private School for Vets" and 5th overall in the "Best for Vets" in 2020. Syracuse University is ranked tied for 30th in "Best Colleges for Veterans" by ''U.S. News & World Report'' for 2022. To position Syracuse University as the center of veteran life on the school's campus, in the local community, across Central New York; and the nation's hub of research and programming connected to the veteran and military sectors, the school completed the $63 million state-of-the-art National Veterans Resource Center (NVRC) in 2020, the first-of-its kind facility in the United States.

The graduate program of the College of Visual and Performing Art (VPA) is considered one of the top 50 programs in the US. VPA ranked No. 14 in multimedia/visual communications, a specialty that includes disciplines found in the college's Department of Transmedia, which offers M.F.A. programs in art photography, art video, computer art, and film. VPA also ranked No. 16 in ceramics, No. 19 in printmaking, and No. 20 in sculpture, which are M.F.A. programs based in the Department of Art. Project Advance (or SUPA) is a nationally recognized concurrent enrollment program honored by the American Association for Higher Education, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the National Commission on Excellence in Education, and the National Institute of Education.

Civil liberties organization FIRE gave Syracuse its 2021 "Lifetime Censorship Award", " r its unashamed assault on expressive freedoms".

Faculty

Syracuse University has 1013 full-time instructional faculty, 96 part-time faculty, and 454 adjunct faculty. Approximately 86% of the full-time faculty have earned PhDs or professional degrees. The current faculty includes scholars such as United States National Academy of Sciences member Jozef J. Zwislocki, Professor of Psychology, who developed mathematical models on the mechanics of the inner and middle ear; MacArthur Fellow Don Mitchell, Professor of Geography, who has developed studies in cultural geography; Bruce Kingma, Associate Provost and Kauffman Professor of Entrepreneurship, a pioneer in the field of information economics and online learning; Catherine Bertini, Professor of Practice in Public Administration, who has worked on the role of women in food distribution; Frederick C. Beiser, Professor of Philosophy, one of leading scholars of German idealism; Mary Karr, the Jesse Truesdell Peck Professor of Literature, who has received a Guggenheim Fellowship in poetry; John Caputo, the Thomas J. Watson Professor of Humanities, who founded weak theology; Sean O'Keefe, former chairman of Airbus Group, Inc. and former Secretary of the Navy; and political theorist Elizabeth F. Cohen.

Research

Syracuse is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity". According to the National Science Foundation, Syracuse spent $154.3 million on research and development in FY 2019, ranking it 136th in the nation. Through the university's Office of Research, which promotes research, technology transfer, and scholarship, and its Office of Sponsored Programs, which assists faculty in seeking and obtaining external research support, SU supports research in the fields of management and business, sciences, engineering, education, information studies, energy, environment, communications, computer science, public and international affairs, and other specialized areas. Syracuse became a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU) in 1966, an organization of leading research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of research and education. In 2011, however, the university's board of trustees voted to pull out of the research consortium due to dispute over the counting of non-Federal research dollars.

SU has established 29 research centers and institutes that focuses research, often across disciplines, in a variety of areas. The Burton Blatt Institute advances research in economic and social issues for individuals with disabilities, and it has international projects in the field. The Martin J Whitman School of Management supports the largest number of research centers, including The Ballentine Investment Institute, the George E. Bennett Center for Accounting and Tax Research, the Robert H. Brethen Operations Management Institute, Michael J. Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship, The H. H. Franklin Center for Supply Chain Management, Olivia and Walter Kiebach Center for International Business Studies, and the Earl V. Snyder Innovation Management Program. In 2010, the university launche
SURFACE
an online, open-access institutional repository for research, which is run by the Syracuse University Library System.

Other research programs include The Syracuse Biomaterials Institute, the Alan K. Campbell Public Affairs Institute through the Maxwell School, and the Center for the Study of Popular Television through the Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Syracuse University also has collaborations with CERN and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, among other institutes. Syracuse also has a comparatively large number of collaborators on the LIGO Scientific project, which researches the gravitational waves.

In June 2022, Syracuse University announced the launch of the Center for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship, a collaborative initiative between the Newhouse School and Maxwell School, in Washington D.C. The center aims to address the loss of trust in journalism and democracy, political polarization, and the deterioration of civil discourse. It will host prominent speakers at public events, sponsor scholarly and applied research, and provide students with an opportunity to spend a semester in Washington D.C.

Syracuse University Press

Syracuse University Press is a university press that is part of Syracuse University. The areas of focus for the Press include Middle East studies, Native American studies, peace and conflict resolution, Irish studies and Jewish studies, New York State, television and popular culture, sports and entertainment. The Press was founded on August 2, 1943, by Chancellor William Pearson Tolley and benefactor Thomas J. Watson. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses.

University lectures

Every year as a tradition, the university invites speakers from around the world, leading thinkers and practitioners in sustainability, advertising, redevelopment, human rights, journalism, and the environment. The lecturers are selected for their academic and public service excellence. The university lectures are supported by the university trustees, alumni, and friends. Previous university lecturers have included Ishmael Beah, author of '' A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier''; 45th vice president of the United States Al Gore; economist and Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus; author and columnist William Safire; environmental justice advocate Majora Carter; and environmental law attorney Robert Kennedy Jr.

Student life

Syracuse University has a diverse student population, representing all 50 US states and over 127 countries. In 2020, 52% of that class are women. Approximately 15 percent of students are from outside of the US, and are supported by the ''Center for International Services'' within the university's Division of Student Affairs.

Media

CitrusTV (formerly UUTV, HillTV and Synapse) is the university's entirely student-run television studio and one of the largest student-run TV studios in the country with over 300 active members. There are also multiple student-run magazines and other print publications, including: ''The Onondagan Yearbook (defunct), The Daily Orange, Student Voice, Perception, Jerk Magazine, What the Health, 360, Baked Magazine, The Out Crowd'', and ''Equal Time.'' The Daily Orange, a fully independent student newspaper published since 1903, is free and published daily during the Syracuse University academic year. It is often ranked amongst the best student newspapers in the United States.

WAER, a radio station owned by the University, features jazz music, NPR, and Syracuse Orange play-by-play programming around the clock. It is best known for its sports staff, which has produced many prominent sportscasters. WJPZ-FM and WERW are independent student-run radio stations and feature Top 40 (CHR), underground rock music, world music, folk music, occasional news, and some political or public affairs programs.

Student government

Founded in 1957, the Student Association (SA) represents the undergraduate students of both SU and ESF. SA elects a President and Vice President (on a unified ticket) each academic year. They also each year elect a Comptroller, who, with the assembly, oversees the allocation and designation of the Student Activity Fee that was first collected in the 1968–69 school year. The goals of SA are to participate through a unified student voice in the formulation of Syracuse University rules and regulations. The SA-SGA Alumni Organization maintains the history and an organizational timeline on its website.

The graduate students at Syracuse University are represented by the Graduate Student Organization (GSO), while the law students at Syracuse University are represented by the Law Student Senate. Each of the three organizations elects students to serve in the Syracuse University Senate, which also includes faculty, staff, and administrators.

Fraternities and sororities

The Syracuse University fraternity and sorority system offers organizations that are members of the Panhellenic Council (NPC), the Interfraternity Council (IFC), the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations, the National Multicultural Greek Council, the Professional Fraternity Council (PFC), and the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC). In addition to SU students, ESF students are permitted to join the university's fraternity and sorority system.

The oldest fraternity at SU is Delta Kappa Epsilon, which established a chapter in 1871 soon after the founding of the university, followed by Psi Upsilon in 1875 and Phi Kappa Psi in 1884. Sororities were also a part of the early history of SU. Alpha Phi was founded at SU in 1872, followed by Gamma Phi Beta in 1874 (''first organization to use the term "sorority"''), and Alpha Gamma Delta in 1904. Alpha Phi Alpha established a chapter at SU in 1910 and was reorganized in 1949 and 1973. The first NPHC fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, was established at SU in 1922, and the first NPHC sorority, Delta Sigma Theta in 1973. Alpha Phi Delta, the only historically Italian-American heritage fraternity, was founded at SU in 1914. University policy prohibits fraternities and sororities from discriminating "on the basis of race, creed, color, gender, national origin, religion, marital status, age, disability, sexual orientation, or status as a disabled veteran or a veteran of the Vietnam era."

Syracuse University Ambulance

Syracuse University Ambulance, commonly referred to as SUA, is a SU Health Services-based student organization that responds to over 1,500 medical emergencies each year. Providing intermediate life support (ILS), rapid cardiac defibrillation, emergency and non-emergency transportation, and special event standby services, SUA operates two full-time transporting ambulances, a supervisor's fly car, and a MCI trailer for mass-casualty incidents. Additionally, SUA operates four transport vans for non-emergency transports. Advanced life support (ALS) mutual aid is provided by the City of Syracuse's private EMS provider, American Medical Response (AMR). SUA was formed in 1973 by a group of students out of a need for emergency medical services on campus. Starting with only a few members and meager equipment, the Syracuse University Medical Crisis Unit was formed. The organization has evolved greatly over time but, with 70+ volunteer students, remains a student-run organization to this day. SUA provides emergency and non-emergency services 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the academic school year, and is funded by a portion of the student health fee.

Programming Board

University Union (UU) is the official programming board of the university. It is entirely run by a team of dedicated students and is one of the largest registered student organizations at SU in terms of budget, membership, size, and frequency of events. University Union hosts large-scale concert events including the annual Juice Jam festival in September and Block Party in April. Additionally, UU keeps the campus entertained throughout the year with the smaller Bandersnatch Concert Series, weekly cinemas screenings, special advanced screenings, and events featuring popular comedians and speakers. UU has served as the primary source of large-scale entertainment on the Syracuse campus ever since its establishment in 1962.

Religious life

Hendricks Chapel is an interfaith chapel located on the Quad, and serves as the spiritual center of Syracuse University. The Chapel is home to ten chaplaincies, including Baptist, Buddhist, Evangelical Christian, Historically Black Churches, Islamic, Jewish, Lutheran, Pagan, Methodist, and Roman Catholic. In addition, there are a number of student religious groups, including groups associated with the chaplaincies as well as Adventist, Christian Science, Hindu, Mormon, Muslim, Orthodox Christian, Pentecostal

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