<p>In a recent, long article published in the Chronicle of Higher Education,( Chancellor Focuses on the 'Public Good,' Syracuse's Reputation Slides"), there has been a lot of controversy about Syracuse University. The chancellor, Nancy Cantor, has placed enormous emphasis over the years on political correctness. For example, she has spend millions purchasing and renovating buildings in downtown Syracuse in order to benefit the city. She has reduced merit aid scholarships in order to increase need based aid and attract a much more diverse student body and to attract more underprivileged and minority students. Affirmative action wasn't just a word but a real mandate that was implemented at all levels in all ways, according to the article. </p>
<p>The problem noted in the article is that these goals , while laudable, have been criticized by faculty because it has caused a decline in the rankings of Syracuse University from in the low 40's to 62. Even graduate school rankings have plummeted. Faculty members have noted that although they found what the Chancellor has done as praiseworthy, they felt that Syracuse didn't have enough of an endowment to achieve these goals and maintain or even increase the status of the university. </p>
<p>The article also goes on to say that many alumni, although not all alumni, felt that their degree has been watered down as a result of all this.</p>
<p>My point is that I predicted this five years ago! If you read my review of Syracuse Universaity that is currently found at the top of the Syracuse University Forum and entitled, "Overview of my visit to Syracuse University," you will see that I felt that they had misplaced priorities,which will come home to bite them eventually. This is exactly what seems to be happening. What surprises me is that no one at Syracuse seemed to realize it. This is a good example of the saying, "no good deed goes unpunished."</p>
<p>This may be the strongest argument yet that rankings, in addition to being useless, are actively dangerous. It sounds to me like the university is doing exactly what it should be doing. Yet people are running around crying that the sky is falling because a defunct newsmagazine doesn’t approve. Kudos to Syracuse University.</p>
<p>It seems to me that any time a school chooses to eliminate merit aid and doesn’t have a tippy top name to merit doing so, they will attract less “top” kids and their ranking will slide.</p>
<p>The way I see it, merit aid is the equivalent of an athletic scholarship for academics. Students who are at the top of the top in their field (academics) have a choice of where they want to go (more or less). Very few will pick to go to College A and get “nothing” when they could go to “College B” and get a decent offer for their stats. In this economy, it doesn’t make sense to go to College A even if one can afford to pay it unless one has a lot of extra $$ and something about College A is too attractive to pass up (prestige, location, or whatever).</p>
<p>Top stat kids have earned the right to be recruited with scholarships just as their fellow athletes have. They bring a lot to the college they attend (not just in rankings, but in potential ability). While a handful of colleges are deemed “worth it” to enough applicants to not make merit scholarships necessary, Syracuse is hardly in that category.</p>
<p>We, personally, eliminated Franklin & Marshall for the same reason. About a week ago I was talking with an alumni of F&M. She was appalled to hear they had dropped all merit aid and knew it would lead to a drop in top applicants/attendees - leading to a lower ranked place. Such is life. Private colleges can do as they please and students can choose to go where they please.</p>
<p>FWIW, renovating buildings in Syracuse is certainly a plus! It might be worth it to have their rankings slip. They’ll still have their niche as a college. It just won’t be the same niche.</p>
<p>The decline in merit aid in this country is in my opinion a bad policy.</p>
<p>Many kids cannot go to the university they are qualified to get into, because they don’t have the money, while their parents’ tax money goes to send someone else’s kid to school !!!</p>
<p>I hate it too when my tax money goes to help someone else. I take the bus to work, if I see one more bit of new road construction work to benefit those car drivers, I’m going to take my complaint to President Bachman.</p>
<p>Hmm… I disagree with the basic notion that “better” students only come in the form of “higher gpa” students. How can a university reasonably assume that only A+/ 2000SAT students are “worth” the investment? And if they want to extend their money to students who don’t fit a highly narrow definition of “good prospect”, isn’t that good for everyone? I hear a lot of complaining on CC about how rigorous and difficult and agonizing course loads are; how difficult and arduous all those ivy league apps are, but few students up there in the top tier seems overly willing to abandon the idea that they are better people simply because they have better grades. Out in the real world, your merit is based on your ability to contribute, your sense of community, your empathy and compassion, and a million other indefinable and unmeasurable traits. Good for Syracuse for casting a wide net.</p>
<p>^Thanks, haystack, you’ve sent me off to work on an upper - even though I’ll be feeling guilty about driving over those roads you and your bus-riding ilk have so kindly provided for me.</p>
<p>As a native of Syracuse (from age 13) with a Masters from Maxwell (DH, too,) imo, this is what Syracuse should be doing. It has always been a “B” school for undergrads (with the exception of Newhouse) - with parents happily spending $$$$ to send there B students there.</p>
<p>I can’t even begin to post what I am thinking right now; gotta get to work…</p>
<p>I am mortified to even imagine that there are those “bashing” what Syracuse is trying to achieve…and I have a graduating senior there this year…</p>
<p>Personally, and after our oldest has spent almost 4 years there with a large merit scholarship, our family could care less about rankings in 2008 and we could care less now. </p>
<p>I have always respected your opinion on CC, taxguy, but I am truly surprised at this thread and your gloating.</p>
<p>I am not surprised. We visited Syracuse 2x during my D’s search - each time we visited a different academic department. Alot of people in the NE love Syracuse so we went to find out why…and then when we didn’t like it, we went back to see if maybe we just got a bad first impression. We met with two separate academic departments and both times came away with the same impressions - the faculty in both depts are either overwhelmed or just checked out. They were just going through the motions and were not very welcoming as compared to other schools. We traveled 6+ hours for a 5 minute “interview” that was frankly a waste of time. The dorm on our tour should have been condemned - it was in total disrepair. So we left thinking why should we pay $50K to attend a highly ranked school where the facilites were average to below average, location is awful, the city is depressed and the faculty can’t be bothered? Kudos to the Chancellor but she also needs to repair the discontent among the faculty because all of these new buildings and initiatives are not going to help unless she fixes the issues with the faculty - because it is clearly impacting full pay and merit buyers. Higher education is a business whether we like it or not and we are customers. I am not surprised by the slide.</p>
<p>Maybe those disgruntled faculty members will leave, and the University can save money by hiring younger faculty members who are on board with the new goals of the school.</p>
<p>I can see both sides of this–it is a difficult balancing act, and Syracuse might have gone too far too fast.</p>
<p>Maybe now middle class parents of B students will be able to afford SU as their kids will be eligible for need based aid. Not every university be be HYPSM.</p>
<p>“The article also goes on to say that many alumni, although not all alumni, felt that their degree has been watered down as a result of all this.”</p>
<p>What a bunch of hooey. Syracuse has NEVER been a top school so how could their degrees become watered down? </p>
<p>The faculty probably seems checked out because at big schools like SU - research and how much you publish is the only thing that matters and that is stressful.</p>
<p>^Hanna, I agree. My niece attends University of Akron as a speech pathology major and I don’t understand why it isn’t even ranked. It is a good school in my opinion and I know many graduates who are doing great and have good jobs.</p>
<p>Articles like this will further doom SU. Most people are not ready to support a self-appointed social service institution rather than a college trying to get better at its core mission. HUGE mistake. The lack of growth in research during a period where many schools doubled funding means far less overhead money for the overall university. Dumb move.</p>
<p>Gosh! When my D was looking at schools 3 years ago, Syracuse was among her top choices. She received great merit aid and was embraced by the faculty. The only downside was the physical facility for her department which was undergoing renovation at the time. (It was one of those ‘downtown renovations’ that were mentioned above.) Otherwise she would have been there - great school!</p>