Dear Orange Friends:
Since I last wrote, Syracuse has experienced unusually cold weather, compounded by a power failure on Thursday night that for three-and-a-half hours plunged parts of the North and South campuses into darkness. The power failure, which was caused by damage to a National Grid transformer located about a mile from campus, also cut power to 7,000 customers in Syracuse neighborhoods. I witnessed a wide array of staff and support units pull together to respond in so many ways that showed concern for our students. Goldstein Student Center on South Campus offered warmth and shelter to students whose residence halls had lost power. Ernie Davis Hall, Kimmel Hall, Bird Library, and Schine Student Center did the same for students on North Campus. Food Services extended its hours in some locations, and members of DPS stood ready for all emergency needs. Also last week, Carrier Dome staff opened its doors to Otto’s Army, an encampment of students braving the temperatures to be in line for this weekend’s SU-Duke match-up. Thank you to all of you who helped.
It is important for all of us who bleed Orange to know that our immediate response to the cold and dark is not the end of the story. Our attitude to every challenge at Syracuse University is not and cannot be “Oh, well, these things happen.” Instead, it has to be “What can we learn from this experience so that next time we are even better prepared, and our response is even better?” To that end, you should know that many folks here are engaged in a debriefing exercise to identify how we can have even better plans in place for extreme weather and power disruptions. I know that one thing we can do even better is to effectively and systematically communicate to all concerned about what is happening (and what happened) and how we are responding. We will do that.
Last Wednesday night, I attended Don Giovanni at the Setnor Auditorium. This was the first full rehearsal with orchestra and performers of what I think is Mozart’s greatest opera. It was a four-hour demonstration of the best active learning. I watched two teachers, director Eric Johnson and musical director James Tapia, walk the student orchestra and singers through an innovative and funny and truly delightful performance. I have seen Don Giovanni performed at Covent Garden in London and at the Metropolitan Opera. I have never seen it taught so effectively, or performed so endearingly, by students who so clearly will be stars and even more clearly are enjoying what they are learning. That performance, by both teachers and students, made me love this University.
This weekend is a big one for our campus. Duke finally arrives at the Dome. I hope all of us do this University proud in showing the world the quality of this school on and off the court. In particular, I hope we show our student-athletes the same impressive and moving support that I have noted at every game I have attended in every sport.
This weekend also marks the Lunar New Year and the beginning of the Year of the Horse. For many of our students and campus community members, this weekend is in some ways the equivalent of Christmas, Rosh Hashanah, or Eid al-Fitr. For those students who are far from home, this is a time when normally at all costs they would be home with their families. Instead, often for the first time in their lives, they are here among us. Please join me in supporting our students in celebrating the Lunar New Year and in reaching out in any way you can to include all our students in our family.
Sincerely,
Chancellor Kent Syverud