Chancellor Nancy Cantor and the Syracuse University Board of Trustees’ decision to leave the Big East conference smells of hypocrisy of the worst kind and convinces me the time has come for our university to look for a new chancellor and a fresh slate of trustees.  

Let me explain: Under the tab ‘About Chancellor Cantor’ on the SU website, one learns that Cantor’s vision for SU is ‘Scholarship in Action,’ defined as ‘a view of the university not as a traditional ‘ivory tower,’ but as a public good, an anchor institution that collaborates with partners from all sectors of the economy to more effectively serve the needs of society.’  

The chancellor’s lofty words now ring hollow to thousands of us. The decision to withdraw from the Big East conference was made by Cantor and select others in the very ivory tower she once disdained, notwithstanding the solid opposition of alumni, students, employees, faculty, other conference members and, most importantly, the Syracuse community at large. One searched in vain to find open debate and an honest exchange of ideas; instead, an ill-conceived and poorly deliberated decision to toss aside a 30-year legacy for cash on the barrel was presented as a fait accompli. The statement by the Public Affairs Office, which touted the Atlantic Coast Conference’s ‘excellent national research universities with very strong academic quality,’ did little to answer the underlying issues of trust and accountability precipitated by the chancellor’s actions. Moreover, a comparison of Big East to ACC schools is unavailing. Give me a Duke University, and I will show you a Georgetown. I’ll see your University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and will raise you University of Notre Dame or Villanova University. No less a light than Jim Boeheim said the decision was based on money and football — or in real spiritual terms, greed.

The departure of SU and the University of Pittsburgh shows a lack of institutional trust among its members. As explained just last week by Penn State journalism professor Malcolm Moran, ‘It’s not that everybody is getting along and holding hands all the time, but there’s a foundation of decades-long relationships between institutions. There is a way to work it out without turning your back on your peers and walking away in a huff.’

As Syracuse is a founding member of the Big East conference, why did Cantor allow a lack of trust among members to fester? Didn’t her vision of what SU should be compel her to work toward promoting a greater understanding of each other and a commitment to the greater community? Why was this decision made by a few and not circulated in the marketplace of our collective community, given that we all must bear the consequences of such a decision? The answer seems obvious. Our leader’s deeds do not match her words. The time has come for the chancellor and the trustees to move on. Let us find a new chancellor whose preachments about the dangers of ivory towers are not spoken while she still lives in one.  

James ‘Jay’ R. McKee

Bachelor’s, Class of ’88; Juris Doctor, Class of ‘91

[email protected]

 

Published on October 15, 2011 at 12:00 pm