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Syracuse University will implement a university-wide strategic plan for diversity and inclusion this semester, Chancellor Kent Syverud announced in his 2021 winter message.

The plan will entail a review of current infrastructure, including former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s external review of the Department of Public Safety and other projects. The plan will address discrimination and accessibility for students and employees with disabilities, Syverud said. 

“Our country continues its reckoning with anti-Black racism, and we are experiencing a new wave of anti-Semitism,” Syverud said. “When members of our community suffer, it is on all of us to respond.”

Syverud gave his annual message from the K.G. Tan Auditorium in the National Veterans Resource Center, which opened in April. The address is usually given in front of a large audience of SU community members but was sent to the campus community via email due to COVID-19 restrictions. Though the auditorium was nearly empty during this year’s message, the space will host future ROTC commissioning, convocations, lectures and other events in the future, Syverud said. 

The pandemic forced students, faculty and staff to find a new way of doing everyday things during the fall semester, Syverud said. 

“I believe it was the hardest semester our university has faced in a lifetime,” he said. “There was more collective stress on our entire university this past summer and fall than any other in our memory.”

Aside from acknowledging the challenges students and employees have faced this year, the chancellor also highlighted the inauguration of President Joe Biden, an SU College of Law graduate, as an achievement for the university this year.

“A Syracuse University law graduate is in the White House,” Syverud said. “I am proud of that. We can all be proud that all of our Syracuse University schools and colleges produce individuals who rise to the highest levels.”

The university completed two “ambitious” projects — the renovations to the Schine Student Center and the first phase of construction on the Carrier Dome roof — on time and on budget, Syverud said. The reopening of Schine, which was initially set for fall 2020, was delayed a semester.

Syverud encouraged students to use these spaces to improve their experience on campus. The university has said that it will use both Schine and the Dome for class and recreation during the winter as outdoor space is limited. 

The university is also actively looking to fill two open administrative positions, including senior vice president for the student experience and provost and chief academic officer, Syverud said.

The role of senior vice president for the student experience has been vacant since Amanda Nicholson, who served in the interim, retired on Sept. 2. The University Senate on Jan. 27 approved a slate of search committee members who will lead the university’s efforts to hire the provost. The position description was posted in early November, and the committee plans to conduct its first round of interviews in February, Syverud said. SU is on track to announce the appointment in early spring.

SU also plans on investing in 10 research clusters in fields such as quantum information, science, bio-inspired materials and living systems, and autonomous systems policy, Syverud said. 

“I am grateful, like so many of you, that we are able to welcome the vast majority of our community back to this campus for the spring semester,” Syverud said. “It has been a long road to get here. It is the determination of so many that is making this semester possible.”

Published on February 9, 2021 at 9:08 pm

Contact Sarah: scalessa@syr.edu | @sarahalessan