Walking through Syracuse University’s Slutzker Center for International Services, the elegant furniture, classic decor and a baby grand piano are immediately noticeable.

The office has been at its current location since the mid-1980s, but at that time it was equipped with metaled furniture, old chairs from a cafeteria on campus that had closed down, old dining hall tables and couches from residence life.

“It was really a mish mash,” said Pat Burak, director of the Slutzker Center.

Lillian Slutzker, the namesake of the center, remodeled the center years later, even bringing in her own decorator to decide the furniture, the color of the upholstery, curtains and drapes, Burak said. Slutzker died at the age of 98 on Aug. 18.

In remodeling the center, Slutzker wanted to give students a place they could call their “home away from home,” Burak said.

Slutzker was originally involved with the Syracuse community when she and her husband, Emanuel, owned and operated Manny’s, an athletic apparel store on Marshall Street, until 1995. Beginning in 1997, she began giving money to the university to establish the Lillian and Emanuel Slutzker Endowed Men’s Lacrosse Scholarships.

Slutzker became connected to the center in 1998. She wanted to get involved because she was an immigrant who moved to the United States and, after losing most of her family in the Holocaust, she knew it could be hard to be alone in a new country.

Over the course of 18 years, Slutzker donated money periodically for special projects such as the baby grand piano, computer systems and a large TV to broadcast BBC news and major sporting events.

Aside from her monetary contributions, Slutzker was a major participant in the center. She volunteered as an English conversation group leader, allowing her to interact with students directly and develop personal relationships with them, Burak said.

Additionally, Slutzker attended all of the office’s undergraduate orientation welcomes every year.

“We would end that two-day intensive with a lovely reception at the Goldstein Auditorium … She would sit like a queen and all the students would come to her,” Burak said.

Burak described Slutzker’s relationship with the students as grandmotherly, loving, interested and caring.

“I mean, she adopted some as almost daughters,” Burak said.

Ipek Akkin, one of Slutzker’s former English conversation students, wrote a eulogy for Slutzker, which Burak read in excerpts at her funeral.

“She is very much a friend as much as she is a mother,” Akkn said in the eulogy. “Thank you Lillian for bringing out the best of me, and touching my life in ways that only a true friend, and loving family member could.”

Starting in the late 2000s, the Slutzker Center began hosting concerts twice a year — on Valentine’s Day and in October, with the piano Slutzker donated. Students were encouraged to perform songs and play other instruments, including those from their native countries.

Burak, who keeps a photo album of the 2015 concert, flipped through the pages and recalled fond memories.

“(Slutzker) was a wonderful, caring, loving person,” Burak said. “She wanted the students to be successful here. That was one of her main goals, that’s one of the reasons why she so much enjoyed the programming that we did because success comes in different ways.”

Published on August 28, 2016 at 7:40 pm

Contact Stacy: sfern100@syr.edu | @StacyFernandezB