Syracuse University is planning to leave the Association of American Universities, according to an email sent to faculty and staff by SU Chancellor Nancy Cantor Monday morning.

SU has already told the AAU it plans to leave within the next several months, said Kevin Quinn, senior vice president for public affairs, in an email.

‘We believe that our positive momentum will continue uninterrupted and this decision won’t change the fact that every day faculty and students on this campus are undertaking really meaningful and important research, scholarship and engagement,’ Quinn said.

The AAU is a nonprofit association of 62 private and public institutions in the United States and Canada, with slightly more public institutions than private ones, said Barry Toiv, vice president for public affairs at the association. The association was founded in 1900 and focuses on important issues for research-intensive universities, including funding for research and education policy, according to the AAU website. SU joined the association in 1966, Toiv said.

The AAU Membership Committee uses indicators — divided into two phases — to review current and potential members of the association, according to the AAU membership policy. Phase one indicators are the primary indicators of quality in research and education, and phase two indicators help calibrate research and education programs, according to the policy. There are five phase one indicators and four phase two indicators.

These indicators favor institutions with large medical complexes and schools with proportionately larger science and engineering faculties because there is a lot of federal funding in those areas, said SU Chancellor Cantor in an email.

Cantor said she respects the science and medical accomplishments but that disciplines such as architecture, public affairs, information studies and public communications are also contributors to pressing issues in the world.

Last year, the AAU Membership Committee decided to begin comparing member institutions to nonmember institutions when reviewing membership, Toiv said. Toiv also said there is no longer a presumption that universities will retain their membership. He said there was no change in the criteria the association looks at when reviewing membership.

‘The membership committee concluded that this was an appropriate way to change the process to make it as effective and fair as possible,’ he said.

Toiv could not give specific names of nonmember institutions that were used in comparisons, but he said leading research institutions not currently in the AAU would be the ones used in the comparison.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln was the third university to leave the association, and it withdrew last week, Toiv said. Two other universities — Clark University and the Catholic University of America — have withdrawn from the association in the past, Toiv said.

As opposed to withdrawing voluntarily, UNL was the first university to force members of the association to vote on whether the school would remain affiliated with the group, according to a May 2 article published on Inside Higher Education’s website.

medelane@syr.edu

 

Published on May 2, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Meghin: medelane@syr.edu | @meghinwithani