Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community

Reception April 29 to Honor Chancellor’s Respect For Haudenosaunee

Thursday, April 26, 2018, By News Staff
Share
Chancellor Kent Syverud

Skä·noñh: Great Law of Peace Center and the Onondaga Nation will honor Chancellor Kent Syverud for his commitment to enhancing the University’s relationship with the Haudenosaunee with a reception on Sunday, April 29.

Chancellor Kent D. Syverud

Chancellor Kent D. Syverud

Since his inauguration in April 2014, Syverud has initiated several measures that honor the Haudenousanee. They include the University’s policy of opening public events with an acknowledgement of the Onondaga Nation and flying the Haudenosaunee flag in prominent campus locations. He also has continued support for the Haudenosaunee Promise, a scholarship for Haudenosaunee students established in 2006 in appreciation for the historical, political and cultural legacies of the Haudenosaunee.

During a visit to Chancellor Kent Syverud’s office, Native American scholar Philip Arnold noticed a lacrosse stick in the corner. The Chancellor picked up the stick and said, ‘It’s one of my prized possessions,’ Arnold recalls. It was a gift from Alf Jacques, renowned lacrosse stick maker and a member of the Onondaga Nation, the indigenous peoples upon whose ancestral land the University now stands.

“He has a real emotional connection to the Haudenosaunee that’s unique,” says Arnold, Department of Religion chair in the College of Arts and Sciences and founding director of Skä·noñh: Great Law of Peace Center.

Syverud has visited the longhouse several times and was instrumental in holding the World Indoor Lacrosse Championship games at the Dome. At the December University Senate meeting, he honored the memory of Onondaga Chief Irving Powless Jr. H’09, who died at age 88 the previous week. “I ask that the minutes of the Senate show our University’s collective respect for Chief Irving Powless Jr., one who embodied the wisdom of the land, a historian, ambassador, actor, musician, veteran, defender of the environment and champion of justice,” the chancellor said at the meeting.

“He’s been very supportive,” says Freida Jacques ’80, an Onondaga Nation clan mother who will speak at the reception.

The Haudenosaunee flag flies alongside the SU Flag on the Quad.

The Haudenosaunee flag flies alongside the SU Flag on the Quad.

Jacques is especially pleased that Syverud implemented acknowledgement of the Onondaga Nation events. “It’s something we wanted for a long time,” she says. “This is right up front at graduation and events. We’re not hidden away like we were for many years. It feels respectful.”

The Skä·noñh: Great Law of Peace Center tells the story of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and their founding at Onondaga Lake more than 1,000 years ago through the lens of the Onondaga Nation, the “Central Fire” of Six Nation Confederacy. The center is overseen by the Onondaga Nation, in collaboration with Onondaga County, Syracuse University and neighboring educational institutions, and is managed by the Onondaga Historical Association. “Skä•noñh” is an Onondaga greeting that means “peace and wellness.”

The chancellor’s recognition and honor for the Haudenosaunee “are important in creating an atmosphere of respect for the Onondaga Nation,” Arnold says. “I’ve always thought students should know something about the significance of this place. The Chancellor and Provost think this is an important attribute of what it means to be Orange. This is a great opportunity to acknowledge the Chancellor’s leadership in this area.”

The reception will be held on Sunday, April 29, from 5-8 p.m., at the center, 6680 Onondaga Lake Parkway in Liverpool.  The reception will include non-alcoholic drinks and traditional Native American food. Tickets are $100 and can be purchased online. Proceeds will support the center’s educational programming and the restoration and stabilization of a three-panel ceramic work by Mohawk artist Tammy Tarbell.

For more information on the event or to buy tickets, contact Nicole Abrams, director of the Skä·noñh: Great Law of Peace Center, at nicole.abrams@cnyhistory.org, or 315.453.6769.

  • Author

News Staff

  • Recent
  • Bandier Students Explore Latin America’s Music Industry
    Thursday, July 17, 2025, By Keith Kobland
  • Architecture Students’ Project Selected for Royal Academy Exhibition
    Thursday, July 17, 2025, By Julie Sharkey
  • NSF I-Corps Semiconductor and Microelectronics Free Virtual Course Being Offered
    Wednesday, July 16, 2025, By Cristina Hatem
  • Jianshun ‘Jensen’ Zhang Named Interim Department Chair of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
    Wednesday, July 16, 2025, By Emma Ertinger
  • Traugott Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Bing Dong to Present at Prestigious AI Conference
    Wednesday, July 16, 2025, By Emma Ertinger

More In Campus & Community

Bandier Students Explore Latin America’s Music Industry

Thirteen students from the Bandier Program in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications recently returned from a three-week journey through Latin America, where they explored the region’s dynamic and rapidly evolving music industry. The immersive trip, led by Bandier…

Maxwell’s Robert Rubinstein Honored With 2025 Wasserstrom Prize for Graduate Teaching

Robert Rubinstein, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and professor of international relations in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, is the recipient of the 2025 Wasserstrom Prize for Graduate Teaching. The prize is awarded annually to a faculty member…

National Ice Cream Day: We Tried Every Special at ’Cuse Scoops So You Don’t Have To

National Ice Cream Day is coming up on Sunday, July 20, and what better way to celebrate than with a brain freeze and a sugar rush? Armed with spoons and an unshakable sense of duty, members of the Syracuse University…

Message From Chief Student Experience Officer Allen W. Groves

Dear Members of the Orange Community: It is with profound sadness that I write to remember two members of our Syracuse University community, whose lives were cut short last Thursday when they were struck by a vehicle at the intersection…

Haowei Wang Named Maxwell School Scholar in U.S.-China/Asia Relations

Haowei Wang, assistant professor of sociology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, has been named the Yang Ni and Xiaoqing Li Scholar in U.S.-China/Asia Relations for the 2025-26 academic year. Wang’s one-year appointment began on July 1….

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.