Dear Orange Friends:
On campus we are in the midst of Orange Central, a kaleidoscope of reunions, activities, performances, and competitions that brings thousands of Syracuse University alumni and friends to campus.
Dear Orange Friends:
One thing you can’t help notice when you spend time on this campus is that a lot of our students work. I don’t mean work on their studies and extracurricular activities and teams and schools—they do that in abundance, of course. I mean that they have part-time jobs, work-study jobs, and community service activities in which they volunteer, and they have businesses.
Dear Orange Friends:
This weekend an incident occurred on campus in which a Syracuse University student made offensive and hurtful comments toward another student. These comments, focused on race and sexual orientation, were recorded and a video of the remarks was shared via social media.
Dear Orange Friends:
Two weeks ago, we welcomed several thousand new students to Syracuse University in a moving academic convocation. Many faculty, staff, and students (including orientation leaders, RAs, graduate assistants, and others) helped make the event special for our incoming students and their families.
Dear Orange Friends:
The Chancellor’s house has a library with a lot of empty shelves. I have been filling them up with books written by our faculty, and reading the books late at night. This reading gives you a sense of the breadth and depth of faculty expertise and interest (and you can access all these books free through our library). I know writing these books can be grueling and lonely at times, but from what I have read, the results are really worth it.
Dear Orange Friends:
I have been reading a lot of books by our faculty lately, and learning a lot. Next week I’ll alert you to a couple of them that are representative of the extraordinary work Syracuse aspires to.
Dear Orange Friends:
Yesterday, The Princeton Review, a for-profit corporation with no connection to Princeton University, designated Syracuse University as the top “party school” in the nation for 2014, replacing the University of Iowa, which was selected last year. The methodology for earning this year’s label is unclear, but based in large part on a survey of a small sample of our students in 2012.
Dear Orange Friends:
Ruth and I stopped by Walnut Park on Saturday for the family picnic to welcome faculty and staff of color, sponsored by the University’s Faculty and Staff of Color Connection initiative. There was great music, races for the kids and delicious barbecue from BoDean’s Chicken & Ribs, prepared by the owner, Cedric Bolton. It was nice talking to so many faculty and staff and realizing how much they look forward to the beginning of the fall semester and the return of so many students and colleagues.
Dear Orange Friends:
I have been scrambling to walk through every floor of every building on our campus this summer. I just want to get a sense of the spaces and the people working in them. I know many of you have been here for decades and know every nook and cranny. But for a newcomer a good way to learn is to systematically explore and to talk with the people I meet.
Dear Orange Friends:
I am finishing up 10 days in the woods in a cabin near the Straits of Mackinac. It has been a time for kayaking and family and especially for reading.
