Chancellor Kent Syverud on Tuesday will update the Syracuse University community on several major initiatives during a speech in the Life Sciences Complex.

Syverud’s speech, scheduled to start at 3:45 p.m. in the complex’s Milton Atrium, will essentially serve as a ‘State of the University’ update. Former Chancellor Kenneth “Buzz” Shaw gave that address annually.

James Franco, president of SU’s Student Association, will also speak Tuesday. An informal reception will be held after Syverud’s speech.

The chancellor gave a similar address last January. At the time, Syverud announced plans that would support priorities of the university’s Academic Strategic Plan, a governing document first introduced as a draft to the Board of Trustees in 2015. Syverud detailed the development of an ASP funding strategy and a study of the university’s regional economic relationships, among other things.

In an interview with The Daily Orange at the end of the fall semester, Syverud said that in regard to the academic planning process, “a lot of stuff is coming together in a good way.”

“There’s been the school and unit strategic plans, which are all now almost complete, in draft,” the chancellor said. Those individual academic plans are required as part of the broader ASP.

A subgroup of the Board of Trustees will review the individual plans in a process that, in some ways, “will inform future fundraising goals,” Syverud said.

Those school and unit plans might come up in Syverud’s speech Tuesday. Other major topics the chancellor could discuss include Invest Syracuse, the reassessment of SU’s community investments and “cross-disciplinary initiatives.”

Invest Syracuse is a five-year, $100 million fundraising plan that aims to support the ASP by, in part, implementing a new $3,300 tuition premium. That premium takes effect next year for first-year and transfer students, charging the Class of 2022 more than $13,000 in additional tuition costs if it takes them four years to graduate.

The university is currently reassessing and considering a realignment of its direct investments in regional community organizations. That assessment is being spearheaded by Mike Haynie, vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation, and SU’s Vice President for Community Engagement Bea González.

Cross-disciplinary initiatives are also listed in the 2015 draft of the ASP as ways to promote the university’s “innovation,” a big section of the document.

“Those are being advanced with a team on each one under the provost,” Syverud said.

Published on January 15, 2018 at 5:57 pm

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