Almost a month after The Chronicle of Higher Education published an article criticizing Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor’s leadership, the article still sparks discussion within the campus and higher education communities.

The Oct. 2 article, ‘Syracuse’s Slide: As Chancellor Focuses on the ‘Public Good,’ Syracuse’s Reputation Slides,’ details the philanthropic endeavors Cantor has enacted during her time here, but also states that some SU professors say Cantor ‘has spent too little time and money on what goes on inside the university’s classrooms, laboratories, and libraries where traditional education and scholarship take place.’

For many institutions of higher education, community involvement is a priority, but Syracuse is seen as ‘pushing the envelope,’ said Robin Wilson, author of the article.

Wilson’s article, along with a subsequent piece published by The Chronicle, ‘Syracuse, Selectivity, and ‘Old Measures,” and a letter from Cantor were published in the Syracuse Post-Standard on Sunday, further keeping the item in the news.

Cantor did not want to discuss her thoughts on Wilson’s article, but she said she felt there were aspects of it not fully conveyed. Cantor and Wilson spent between two and three hours together when the journalist visited campus in September.

Since the article’s publication, both The Chronicle and Cantor have received a number of reaction letters. Cantor said those she has received are congratulatory and supportive.

Although the articles are now accessible to Chronicle subscribers, more than 90 comments have been posted — some pointing out SU’s flaws, some offering support to the university. Wilson said this is the largest number of responses she has seen from an article in 26 years.

‘It seems like the issues at stake in what’s happening at Syracuse are just really deeply felt by many people and in some ways divide faculty and the administration,’ Wilson said, adding that not all in the campus community feel this divide.

There has also been the suggestion that the comments and published letters are an orchestrated response from the administration. Cantor denied this.

A complaint is that the article was biased and did not feature enough voices. The article included 11 sources, one anonymous.

Wilson said she interviewed more than 50 people, but she was surprised at the difficulty she had getting those at SU to interview with her. She writes about crime in higher education and said finding sources to talk to about the university on the record was, at times, more difficult than getting people to talk about illegal activity.

Other debates center around the work SU does in the community, sources used in the article and recent changes affecting SU’s image, such as the university leaving the AAU or dropping in US News and World Report Rankings. Some of those who commented said the article did not fully delve into concerns faculty and staff have for the university.

Samuel Gorovitz, a philosophy professor, said he has seen the issues raised in the article ‘hotly debated’ among both newer and older faculty members.

‘They believe lots of what is true and important is not being revealed,’ Gorovitz said in regards to why the article has drawn continued discussion. He said some of these questions on campus are whether the university was expanding too quickly and if the money being spent on the chancellor’s initiatives is justifiable.

That money is being spent on community engagement rather than students is a ‘red herring,’ Cantor said, as much of the funding for the community programs come from outside grants.

Jan Cohen-Cruz, director of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, a national organization hosted by SU, said she felt the article discredited community engagement, which is complementary — not contradictory — to education.

‘We, the faculty and students, benefit from applying our scholarship in the real world, and the geographic area around us benefits from having us here,’ Cohen-Cruz said.

But if more attention is being spent elsewhere it is only natural to question whether SU can keep up with itself as it takes on more initiatives and more students, said Robert Van Gulick, a philosophy professor who was interviewed for the Chronicle article.

‘If you are putting a lot of focus on X, you’re probably going to put a little less focus on Y,’ he said. ‘Doesn’t mean you ignore Y completely, doesn’t mean you can’t do X and Y. It’s just a question of balance and where you set the balance.’

Although he found the article ‘sensationalistic,’ Van Gulick said he is concerned with whether SU has grown too much and if instruction and educational quality can keep up with the needs of students.

Between the 2001-02 academic year and 2011-12, full-time undergraduate growth rose 21.6 percent.

Van Gulick, at SU for 27 years, has experienced the leadership of three different chancellors. He compared the increase to dropping the entire Le Moyne College campus population on SU. He said he, along with other faculty members, were unaware what assessments of quality were taking place and what the results of such assessments were.

Cantor said the university is constantly evaluating its performance and noted full-time faculty have also increased during the same time by 17 percent, up 158 members. There is a University Senate ad hoc committee examining enrollment and some indicators of its effect, such as class size. Mary Lovely, a professor of economics and chair of the committee, said the committee will report to the senate in January.

Although Kendall Phillips, associate dean of research and graduate studies at the College of Visual and Performing Arts, supports community involvement, he said he could understand why some on campus would be concerned about SU’s move away from the traditional university environment. He said professors should remember community involvement is part of a larger learning experience.

‘We don’t want to just be doing nice things for people,’ he said. ‘It’s not just about charity or community service.’

dkmcbrid@syr.edu

Published on October 24, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Dara: dkmcbrid@syr.edu | @daramcbride