Dear Orange Friends:
I often get asked by my friends elsewhere to explain what is different about Syracuse. I try to explain why the people are wonderful. I have an even better answer now: Watch this video of the student presenters at the Fast Forward competition.
Dear Orange Friends:
My identical twin brother and I are both, in some sense, from Syracuse. We grew up down the way; he had part of his schooling in Syracuse; and I have settled here. But after our youth together, time and tides carried us far away from each other. His visit this week will bring us together here for the first time in many years.
Dear Orange Friends:
Matthew Kellar and Michael Kennedy are two University locksmiths. Between them they have spent more than 60 years at the University changing keys, fixing locks, installing locks, and helping a few thousand of us out when we are stranded at our office and front doors.
Dear Orange Friends:
Ruth and I moved into the Chancellor’s house on Comstock this week. The move, originally intended for January, was delayed because of a need for remediation of some environmental issues, and for some significant deferred maintenance. We intend to work hard to invite the campus and community into the house for various events and occasions. The first will be next week, when we are hosting each of the folks (and their guests) who worked on the house to come see it and be thanked.
Dear Orange Friends:
Syracuse University rededicated our Carnegie Library Reading Room this past week. I am including in this message a link to two pictures, one that captures how the place looked when it first opened in 1907, and the other showing the results of the painstaking restoration effort.
Dear Orange Friends:
Having been in Los Angeles this past week, I learned how to be a comedy straight man for Jeff Garlin of the sitcom The Goldbergs. Jeff is a professional and acutely funny comedian; he and the cast of The Goldbergs, together with their producer Doug Robinson, Syracuse Class of 1985, provided one funny highlight to a packed week of activities for Syracuse students in Los Angeles.
Dear Orange Friends:
It is spring break in Syracuse, so the campus is relatively quiet. I just returned from Greensboro and the ACC President’s Meeting (and the Women’s ACC basketball tournament), which was quite disrupted by ice and snow—it was sunny and beautiful in Syracuse! It is good to be home after a week on the road (in New York, Philadelphia, Charlottesville, and Greensboro), but I will be spending much of this week away as well. I will be in California, in part to visit our students and programs in Los Angeles.
Dear Orange Friends:
I have recently seen a great network of alumni and supporters who help out our students. First, I attended the dedication of the Einhorn 21st Century Studio in Slocum Hall. It is a new instructional space in the School of Architecture that was generously supported by alumni Steven and Sherry Einhorn. This is incredibly flexible teaching space with the kind of technologies that spark excellence and collaboration. I suspect scholars in every discipline would learn a lot from teaching there.
Dear Orange Friends:
I have been trying to get an extended tour of every school and college this semester, and I still have half a dozen to go. I recently toured both Newhouse and the iSchool. Each has a distinct mission, culture, and vibe, and each is wonderful. Newhouse is currently renovating and expanding its broadcast studios, while the iSchool has embraced entrepreneurship in virtually every aspect of the school.
Dear Orange Friends:
There has been a lot to be proud of at Syracuse University this last week, including mostly quiet things. The quietest thing of all was the arena in Pittsburgh when, with 44 tenths of seconds left, a 35-foot shot was heard around the world. Congratulations and many thanks to all on our team!
