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Steven Bennett, Syracuse University’s senior vice president for academic operations, said the perspective of SU students is essential for the university to strive towards “distinctive excellence” at Monday night’s Student Engagement Forum in the Schine Student Center.

The forum was an opportunity for students to speak with faculty about potential improvements with current academic programs, the expansion of study abroad opportunities, budgeting for food and housing, and other on-campus concerns as part of the university’s Academic Strategic Plan, a roadmap for SU over the next five years.

Bennett said although it’s hard to get engagement from students, their feedback is critical to understanding where the university can improve.

“It’s important to see where we are already excellent, where we are this close to being excellent, and where we should be investing so we can be excellent in the future,” Bennett said.

Sinéad MacNamara, SU’s Associate Dean for Student Affairs, said the university is looking to hear feedback about budgeting for SU’s food and housing policies, student resources, and on-campus facilities.

The goal of the Academic Strategic Plan is to provide SU’s individual colleges with a guide to refresh their academic initiatives and better use resources efficiently, according to an SU news press release from August.

SU hosted 14 campus forums involving the different working groups, said Sarah McAndrews, the executive assistant to the vice chancellor and provost. McAndrews said that the campus forums have been a huge success in the university community, with over 1400 people attending Academic campus forums.

But attendance and participation in the forums has been lacking from students, said SU Chief Academic Officer, Vice Chancellor and Provost Gretchen Ritter.

“Quite honestly, the majority of people who have attended the forums have been faculty and staff,” said Ritter. “This is a process that will benefit from the voices and perspectives of all the members of our community.”

At the event, Ritter said the university is striving to create a coherent, understandable Academic Strategic Plan that everyone in the campus community can buy into. Despite the campus forums’ success, she said the university wants to have more perspectives from the SU student body.

Oliver Raycroft, an SU sophomore studying environmental engineering, was one student at the forum. He talked with several members of the Research, Sustainability and Budgeting working group.

“I feel like there aren’t a lot of good ways to express your voice on-campus,” he said. “This type of event allows people to show up.”

David Bruen, a senior and president of SU’s Student Association, said the forum is an opportunity for students to share their voice.

“(The Academic Strategic Plan) will determine whether the value of our degree goes up or down,” said Bruen. “It’s really important that we make this university how we want to see it.”

Bruen said the university should work towards improving sustainability, disability inclusion, and accessibility on-campus.

A rough draft of the Academic Strategic Plan will be finished and posted to the Academic Affairs website by Jan. 2023, according to an SU news press release. The final version of the Academic Strategic Plan will be fully drafted by March 2o23, with SU colleges and universities able to begin implementing changes to their individual programs.

Bennett said he hopes more students will voice their opinion to the university.

“It’s important for students to understand what the fuss is about, and why we are spending so much time and energy on a planning exercise,” said Bennett. “This is about the long-term position of the university and the vision of the university.”

Published on November 8, 2022 at 1:50 am

Contact Dominic: dcchiapp@syr.edu | @DominicChiappo2