Made Me Think Essay 1

Made Me Think Essay

Kedron Taylor
Kent State University

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Robin Wilsons (2011) article, Syracuses Slide: A Chancellor Focuses on the Public
Good, Syracuses Reputation Slides, which was written about Syracuse Universitys
Chancellor, Nancy Cantor, and how her transformation of the university from an ivory tower to
a public good through community involvement initiatives sparked resentment from faculty,
made me think about the negative implications of the situation from both a faculty and student
perspective (Wilson, 2011). Before reading Wilsons article, my previous experience in higher
education indicated to me that any kind of community involvement was always a good idea
because a solid relationship between the institution and community was crucial for a successful
university. However, I had only considered the situation at Syracuse University from my limited
perspective as an alumna of a university who valued community on a wholly different level than
Nancy Cantor. I never took into account how faculty and students might be affected if the
university began to cater more to the community instead of the academics. After reading the
article, I began to think about how I might react to Nancy Cantors actions if I were a faculty
member as well as a student at Syracuse University.
I believe this article stuck out to me in such a way because of my undergraduate
experience at Ohio University. OU is located in Athens, Ohio which is a very small town in the
southern part of the state where majority of the population is made up of students, faculty, and
staff from the university. In fact, many of the universitys students and staff were Athens or
neighboring Meigs County and Albany residents, so naturally Ohio University demonstrated
close ties to the community. My own personal experience with the Athens community came from
volunteer work through Alpha Phi Omega, the national service fraternity I was a member of for
three years. Most of the Greek Life organizations on campus were responsible for community
philanthropy throughout the academic year where they were able to raise funds for the Athens

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community as well as advocate for various local businesses and events which in turn began to
see increases in attendance. Due to this positive experience with my undergraduate institution
and its solid relationship with the Athens community, I feel as if I was conditioned to believe that
good ties to the community is what makes a university successful.
However, I am now beginning to look back at my community involvement experiences at
Ohio University and note that the university itself encouraged student organizations to take part
in community involvement initiatives which did not, to my knowledge, threaten the academic
integrity of the institution. By doing so Ohio University managed to implement a strong sense of
community between students and Athens residents without betraying the universitys academic
mission. By making that realization after reading Wilsons article, I was able to see that Nancy
Cantors actions at Syracuse University were not similar to the community involvement
initiatives that I actively took part in during my time at Ohio University. I acknowledge that no
single university is the same as another, but it cannot be denied that the voices of faculty and
students need to be heard in order to ensure the success of a university, and that a good
relationship with the community only makes up a portion of the equation.
Another portion of that same equation is good ties to university faculty. Wilsons (2011)
article is a perfect example of a universitys deteriorating relationship with its faculty, primarily
due to Nancy Cantors push for Syracuse University to be more of a public good, and less of
an ivory tower, which has left faculty less than thrilled with the academic state of the
university. According to Wilson, some professors here say she has spent too little time and
money on what goes on inside the universitys classrooms, laboratories, and libraries where
traditional education and scholarship take place (Wilson, 2011). What Nancy Cantor was trying
to accomplish for Syracuse University was admirable, without a doubt, but that does not mean

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that it was the correct strategy to use to better the university. One of the largest qualms faculty
members seem to have with Cantors plans for the university is the fact that the universitys
rankings are steadily falling as a result of her emphasis on student and community opportunities.
Wilson explains, Syracuse is fading on the national stage, falling in the U.S. News & World
Report rankings of national universities and dropping out before it could be forced out of the
prestigious Association of American Universities, whose members are considered the nations
top research universities (Wilson, 2011). With this in mind, no wonder the faculty members at
Syracuse University are up in arms over the drastic changes that have occurred during Nancy
Cantors reign as chancellor. Not only is the reputation of the university in jeopardy, but so are
the reputations of its faculty members. As a result of such drastic ranking declines, it could
become increasingly harder for Syracuse to find reputable faculty members to work at the
institution as well as keep the reputable faculty members it already has in employment.
The hardest part of reading this section of Wilsons article is that I immediately want to
defend Cantor because even though Syracuse University rankings are dropping, at least she is
beginning to make a positive difference within the community and students who would have
otherwise not been given the opportunity to attend an institution like Syracuse. I feel that need to
defend her actions because of my own background in community involvement, and how much
positive change was able to happen as a result in the Athens community, but in my own
experience faculty members were never directly affected, and that is not the case at Syracuse.
Robert Van Gulick, a philosophy professor at Syracuse University, says that the community
efforts led by Ms. Cantor are valuable, but that the university has a relatively small endowment
and limited resources (Wilson, 2011). Based on this statement, one might assume that some
faculty members acknowledge that Cantors heart is in the right place when making these

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community efforts, but that does not legitimize her misspending of the universitys already
limited resources. If anything, Wilsons article opened up my eyes to how many different
constituents can be negatively affected when it comes to university decision-making even if the
original intentions were good.
Another university constituent that was negatively affected by Nancy Cantors
community efforts was the student population. At first glance, it would seem that the student
body was benefiting tremendously from Cantors efforts. For instance, she nearly doubled the
applicant pool and increased undergraduate enrollment by about 20 percent to 13,878 students
this fall (Wilson, 2011). She also has pushed to increase the number of low-income students
who attend Syracuse University, as well as giving free tuition to local high-school graduates
(Wilson, 2011). All of those efforts seem to be for the greater good of the university, but are
they? The universitys reputation not only affects faculty members, but also students who choose
to obtain their education from Syracuse University. The fact is that Syracuse University is still a
private research university that parents pay top dollar to send their students to in hopes of giving
them a better education and more job opportunities after graduation. Why then, should parents
continue to pay for their students to attend a university whose reputation is compromised due to a
chancellor who would rather invest her time and university funds into the community as opposed
to university academics? Not only are the universitys rankings low, but so are the students
standardized test scores. According to Wilson, the average SAT scores of Syracuses students
are lower than those at the public flagship universities in the state (Wilson, 2011). This is just
not acceptable when taking into account the significantly higher tuition rate students who attend
Syracuse University have to pay in comparison to the tuition rate of public flagship universities
in the state. Professors at Syracuse blame this problem on the fact that as the undergraduate

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population has grown by twenty percent, the tuition money has not been directed toward
academics (Wilson, 2011). After reading this particular section of the article my attitude to
Cantors efforts completely changed as I began to realize the academic toll they were beginning
to take on the students. Trying to find ways for the university to help its surrounding community
is great, and definitely something every university should strive to do, but not if the students
academics are going to be put at risk.
Ultimately, Syracuse University students were suffering as a result of Cantors poor
allocation of university funding. Originally, I firmly believed Cantor was doing the right thing
for the university, but after careful consideration I began to think of the situation from a faculty
and student perspective, and realized that the community was benefiting more from Cantors
efforts than the university, and when you are a chancellor the universitys well-being must be a
priority. This article really made me think from new perspectives in regards to university
decision making; not all decisions are right for every university, nor are all initiatives. Ohio
University emphasized community efforts without sacrificing its reputation or faculty and
student relations, but unfortunately Syracuse University was unable to do the same. Although
Nancy Cantors heart was in the right place, she was simply not at the right kind of institution
nor financial situation to be utilizing so many university resources to better the Syracuse
community.

Works Cited

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Wilson, Robin. (2011, October 2) Syracuses slide: as chancellor focuses on the 'public good,'
syracuse's reputation slides. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from
http://chronicle.com/article/Sycuses-Slide/129238/