Dear Orange Friends:
Syracuse University is enriched by many programs that bring the people of the City of Syracuse to our campus. I am particularly grateful for initiatives that provide opportunities to children from local neighborhoods.
2016-17
Honor Flight
Dear Orange Friends:
A few weeks ago, I had the great honor of escorting a group of Syracuse area veterans to Washington, D.C. The trip was sponsored by the Syracuse chapter of Honor Flight. Honor Flight is a national nonprofit that sends veterans, cost-free, to visit the national memorials honoring their service.
Magic
Dear Orange Friends:
Today, Ruth and I are hosting a reception honoring the leaders of new student organizations founded over the past year at Syracuse University. Each year, students breathe life into this campus through hundreds of clubs, teams, activities, and service organizations–and they constantly are creating new ones wherever there is a need or a niche. Each one has a wonderful story.
A Hard Professor
When I first became a dean in 1995, I was curious about how to find and hire transforming professors—the kind of inspiring, intense, caring and demanding teachers who had made such a difference in my own education. In interviews at the beginning of their careers, these folks do not obviously stand out among their peers. Years and decades later it becomes obvious that they are wonderfully different.
Separated
Dear Orange Friends:
Syracuse University has more than 1,000 students who are veterans or connected to the military. Each of our student veterans brings a life experience that enriches our campus, more so when we are able to hear and learn from their experiences. Continue Reading
Lessons from Lucky
Dear Orange Friends:
Lucky, our almost 18-year-old dog, passed away just before the holidays. She adopted my family after being abandoned in a parking lot in Hendersonville, Tennessee, in 1999. Many hundreds of Syracuse University students, faculty, staff, and friends have gotten to know her over the past three years in our house and in the neighborhood. She never met a person she did not like.
Happy Holidays
Dear Orange Friends:
Sometimes it takes moving away to fully appreciate what you’ve left behind. Certainly, that is true of Upstate New York and the holiday season.
Honoring Sacrifice
Dear Orange Friends:
Today is Veterans Day, which Syracuse University marks each year with more content, and more purpose, than any university in America.
Election Day
Dear Orange Friends:
In partnership with the Student Association, the University is working to ensure that students who are registered to vote locally know and understand where they can vote tomorrow. In addition, the Student Association is sponsoring buses to transport students from campus to their polling place and back.
True Citizenship
Dear Orange Friends:
Recently, I met with several editors from the Daily Orange to discuss a number of important issues facing our campus. Their last question asked for my thoughts on what was accurately described as one “wild” presidential election.