Message From Chancellor Cantor

Monday, August 23, 2010, By News Staff

Dear Faculty and Staff,

As we are just days away from our first-year students arriving on campus, I thought you would like to receive an overview of this year’s admissions and enrollment picture. 

During the past several years of economic uncertainty, we have taken steps to attract strong incoming classes, build on the ongoing unprecedented interest in Syracuse, and stay true to the long SU history of being a place of access and opportunity. As a result, we have had a record number of applications and more interest from a wider geographic footprint for Syracuse than ever before. This has led to high-quality incoming classes that are as diverse as ever along socioeconomic, racial/ethnic, and geographic dimensions.  

In 2010, we received close to 23,000 applications–the largest amount ever and a nearly 40 percent increase over 2005. After a real team effort led by Admissions and including faculty and staff from across the University, we achieved our enrollment goal and, as a result of yield higher than projected, we will have an entering class 150 larger than our target of 3,300. Importantly, measures of quality and diversity were maintained and even somewhat improved over last year: average GPA and SAT scores both grew slightly, and measures of geographic and socio-economic diversity increased.

Key to this result was maintaining a strong financial aid program to ensure that students and families across the income spectrum can continue to choose Syracuse.  Importantly, we accomplished all of this in the context of maintaining a well-balanced budget that has enabled us to: continue hiring faculty (160 in the past two years); provide merit salary increases to faculty and staff; and move forward with critical building/facility enhancements such as the biomaterials center at Bowne Hall, the Green Data Center, and Ernie Davis Hall. 

This overall success is very welcome news in what has been an extraordinary period of uncertainty and tumult for all of higher education, and an indication that Syracuse remains a very attractive choice for students and families. There is no question that the tremendous efforts of you–our faculty and staff–are why students come to Syracuse and graduate ready to take on the world.

Cordially,

Nancy Cantor