Cantor’s annual address calls for education reform
Nearly one month after President Obama delivered his State of the Union address, Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor delivered her annual address to the university community, intentionally striking many of the same tones as the president.
Cantor gave her annual speech, titled ‘Remaking America: Universities as Anchor Institutions – the Syracuse Example,’ at 4 p.m. Thursday in Hendricks Chapel to a crowd of approximately 150 people.
Cantor echoed President Obama’s call to action in education. Citing student and university initiatives, Cantor said it is this intellectual capital that the university should and has expanded upon.
‘We will transform our schools and colleges and university to meet the demands of a new age,’ she said, reciting part of President Obama’s Inaugural address. ‘All of this we can do, and all of this we will do … that’s what remaking America, or remaking Syracuse is.’
Cantor made mention of many university initiatives as examples of how SU serves as an example to other institutions. She discussed the Connective Corridor and the Warehouse. The College of Visual and Performing Arts’ Collaboration Laboratory, the South Side Innovation Center, Electronic Village and the Say Yes to Education initiative were all programs Cantor said represent SU’s call to action.
Before Cantor delivered her yearly address, Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina, announced a nearly $2 million combination of grants and awards.
These included a $500,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a $1 million grant from the John and Maureen Hendricks Foundation and an anonymous donation, that Cantor combined to award to ‘faculty-led projects that exemplify Scholarship in Action,’ or the Chancellor’s Leadership Projects.
The 19 Chancellor’s Leadership Projects – new and existing faculty-led initiatives involving students and several colleges within the university, focus anywhere from entrepreneurship to local education initiatives to the creative arts within the SU community and abroad.
‘These are the types of big projects that will evolve over time, will have long life spans and will make big differences,’ Cantor said.
Spina ran down a list of the 19 projects awarded grant money from a booklet also passed out to audience members, then asked project leaders and teams to rise for acknowledgement.
After an introduction from Spina, Cantor discussed the need for collaboration between the university and the outside community to make things happen.
‘(Scholarship in Action) requires that we collaborate very so often across sections, that we break down the silence on our campus and between our campus and the world,’ Cantor said. ‘And by doing that, that we engage beyond our boundaries but also bring back that experience to our campus. And that we first and foremost pay attention to the future, pay attention to who we’re remaking America for.’
She pointed out the difference a year has made since her last address. The nation is in a deepening economic turmoil. SU’s endowment fell from $946 million to $672 million since June 2008. The university slashed $8 million from its operating budget this year, with an expected increase to $12 million next year. Forty-eight SU employees were laid off in January.
‘We all need to come together, because we have very challenging issues,’ Cantor said. ‘We need to turn around our families and schools. We need to bring together the opportunity for prosperity that we represent as an institution. All of us on the hill need the opportunity for the heart of our community to really come forth, and we have a great legacy to build on in this area.’
Lou Marcoccia, SU’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said he thinks Cantor’s plans for the university and the community will position SU for a better future. He added that the projects she discussed are taking the university away from just existing on the hill and having students think inwardly. Instead, they’re about thinking globally, he said.
‘The university should be an institution that’s constantly improving,’ Marcoccia said. ‘I think that’s part of what she’s doing that makes Syracuse appealing. People see the energy and the purpose with what she thinks is the proper role of the university in the community. She understands that a strong university and a strong community working together make for a strong result.’
Marcoccia said no project in particular would benefit students or the community more than others, but that it was the combination of them that link to the core values of the chancellor and her vision.
‘From time to time, people will say, ‘Well, does this project or that project really relate to what SU needs to do?’ And I think what she talked about showed they do.’
Scholarship in Action has served as Cantor’s mark of distinction since 2004. She has focused many previous years’ speeches on the university’s need to engage in initiatives beyond the hill to the community, as well as worldwide.
‘Now you might think that this is a vision affecting those of us in the community, and not reaching out from the community sufficiently. And I tell you, you are wrong. Because everything that we are doing locally in Syracuse brings us directly in touch with what is happening around the world.’
-Asst. News Editor Steve Doane contributed reporting to this article.
Published on March 19, 2009 at 12:00 pm
