Syracuse University to Invest $100 Million in Academic Programs, Student Experience

 Syracuse University today announced Invest Syracuse: Advancing Academic Excellence and the Student Experience, a $100 million initiative to provide all students with a distinctive, world-class learning experience to prepare them for professional and personal success.

“Invest Syracuse is the engine for advancing the University’s academic programs and the student experience,” says Chancellor Kent Syverud. “It will elevate our academic excellence, provide an unrivaled student experience and solidify Syracuse University’s standing as a distinctive, preeminent, global research institution.”

Invest Syracuse follows the University’s comprehensive academic strategic planning process, during which students, faculty, staff and alumni helped define a shared vision for the University and identify clear priorities to achieve those aspirations.

As part of Invest Syracuse, over the next five years, Syracuse University will invest $100 million to implement several of those priorities including:

• Redefining the student experience at Syracuse, beyond Syracuse and after Syracuse by:
  • Providing comprehensive and integrated academic and career guidance and support so every student has a personalized path to future success;
  • Supporting students through tailored plans to better address mental health, physical well-being and spiritual needs;
  • Ensuring every student has at least one global learning experience while at Syracuse; and
  • Fostering a cross-campus collaborative that includes Alumni Engagement, Academic and Career Advising, and the advancement offices in the schools and colleges to formalize a networking community that connects students and young alumni to internship and career opportunities.
• Advancing discovery and innovation by:
  • Recruiting and hiring 100 additional faculty scholars over the next five years and allocating resources to retain outstanding faculty;
  • Building a more robust Office of Research to offer tangible support to all faculty pursuing scholarship, research and creative work; and
  • Launching a Faculty Innovation and Discovery Fund to incentivize faculty to pursue interdisciplinary scholarship, research and creative work outside the core mission of their academic department.
• Expanding opportunity for students of promise and talent from across the socioeconomic spectrum by:
  • Launching the Invest Syracuse Initiative, a $40 million fundraising campaign focused exclusively on supporting need-based undergraduate scholarships and financial aid;
  • Creating a new named scholarship program focused specifically on valedictorians and salutatorians at high schools from across the country; and
  • Rebalancing student grants and loans so Syracuse students graduate with significantly less debt.

“Invest Syracuse will allow us to accelerate learning, fuel discovery and cultivate and drive intellectual curiosity,” says Michele G. Wheatly, vice chancellor and provost. “It will further position our students, faculty and staff for success as they identify solutions for our most pressing global challenges.”

Syracuse University has made significant operational improvements in recent years and recently achieved a genuinely balanced budget. Moving forward with an investment of this magnitude requires generating new resources. Invest Syracuse resources will be generated from three sources:

• Administrative cost savings and efficiencies: Reducing administrative spending by $30 million and identifying additional efficiencies.
• Fundraising and philanthropy: Raising an additional $40 million to support high-achieving prospective students interested in pursuing a Syracuse University education.
• Rebasing tuition: Establishing a new tuition base for the 2018-2019 academic year. For first-year and transfer students entering in the fall of 2018, there will be a $3,300 Invest Syracuse premium added to the tuition base, in addition to the 3.9 percent tuition increase (pending board approval). No current students or first-year and transfer students entering in the fall of 2017 will be impacted by the premium.

“This $100 million investment in our academic and student programs is significant,” says Cathryn Newton, special advisor to the Chancellor and Provost for faculty engagement. “When in place, it will bring far stronger support for our students and will intensify our commitment to both new and continuing faculty.”

To learn more about Invest Syracuse: Advancing Academic Excellence and the Student Experience, visit http://InvestSyracuse.syr.edu. There, visitors can provide their feedback, offer suggestions about funding priorities and submit their questions. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more details on how to participate in engagement sessions about the implementation of the Invest Syracuse.