Chancellor Shaw announces retirement plansApril 23, 2003Sandi Mulconrysandi@groupmcom.com
At this morning’s meeting of the executive committee of the Syracuse University Board of Trustees, Chancellor Kenneth A. Shaw announced his intent to retire as Chancellor effective Aug. 1, 2004, when he will have completed 13 years as Chancellor of Syracuse and 27 years as a campus CEO.
After that date, Shaw will take a year’s leave of absence and then return to teaching and assume other responsibilities as assigned by the new Chancellor and the Board. Board Chair Joseph O. Lampe will chair the national search for his successor.
By mid-May, Lampe will appoint a search consultant and a search committee, consisting of seven members of the Board of Trustees, seven faculty members, two undergraduate students, one graduate student, one dean, one member of the Chancellor’s Cabinet, one staff member and an executive secretary. Recommendations for faculty and student representatives will come from the University Senate’s Agenda Committee. The search committee’s first meeting will take place in June.
In a letter Shaw sent today to members of the SU community, he said: “Over the next 15 months, I expect to intensify my efforts on behalf of the University. My focus will be on the Academic Plan, space planning and increased fund-raising-the keys to our future. While much has been accomplished, much remains to be done.”
Lampe notes that Shaw will be sorely missed and difficult to replace. “Chancellor Shaw led by example in restructuring the University during difficult times,” says Lampe. “His vision of SU becoming the nation’s leading student-centered research university is well on its way to becoming reality. Buzz is an outstanding leader-one who combines a keen business sense with a strong academic background.”
Shaw provided the leadership that allowed Syracuse University to come through the early nineties having withstood budget cuts of more than $60 million and the loss of some 600 jobs while simultaneously implementing initiatives that would improve every facet of campus life. Today SU enjoys the fruits of these efforts-the learning environment has been transformed, facilities and technology improvements abound, services to students are more responsive, and the University has a greater national presence than ever before.
And there have been additional measures of success: In the decade between 1991 and 2001, the market value of SU’s endowment increased by about 350 percent. Fund-raising increased from $29.7 million in 1990-91 to $61 million in 2001. The freshman yield rate on acceptances was 24.2 percent in 1990, 31.1 percent in 2002. In 1990, 23 percent of entering freshmen were in the top 10 percent of their high school class; this year, that figure was 41 percent.
Shaw’s accomplishments have won the admiration of colleagues throughout higher education. During his tenure, Syracuse received the Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for Faculty Development to Enhance Undergraduate Learning. Earlier this year, Shaw was honored by CASE (the Council for Advancement and Support of Education) District II with its Chief Executive Leadership Award.
“Buzz Shaw exemplifies the very best in academic leadership,” says Stan Ikenberry, former president of the American Council on Education, now Regent Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “He is leaving a lasting mark on the academic enterprise through his focus on academic quality, giving freely to students and colleagues, and doing so with integrity.”
“I have worked with the majority of college presidents in the country, and no one can match him. He is absolutely exceptional,” says Jim Fisher, president emeritus of CASE, whom Shaw served as assistant to the president at Illinois State and as dean and vice president at Towson State. “He can bring change to a group without tearing it apart.”
Since joining Syracuse in 1991, Shaw has assumed an active leadership role with the NCAA, chairing the Basketball Issues Committee and the Division I board of directors. He also chairs the Commissioner’s Advisory Council on Higher Education for the New York State Education Department; serves on the boards of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU); and is a member of the Council on Competitiveness and the TIAA-CREF Hesburgh Award jury.
In 1999 he wrote “The Successful President: ‘Buzzwords’ on Leadership,” which has become a top seller in the American Council on Education/Oryx Press Series on Higher Education.
Locally, Shaw serves as vice president of the board of the Metropolitan Development Association and as chair of the MDA’s Health Care and Educational Services Committee. He also serves on the boards of the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce, Unity Mutual Life Insurance Co., the University Hill Corp., the Museum of Science and Technology and the Policy Council of Success by Six, and is a member of the executive committee of Syracuse 20/20.
Prior to becoming Syracuse’s 10th Chancellor, Shaw was president of the University of Wisconsin System (1986-91). He also has served as chancellor of the Southern Illinois University System (1979-86), president of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (1977-79), and vice president and dean of Towson State University (1969-77).
