Chancellor Syverud Provides Updates to University Senate on Shared Governance Related to Honorary Degrees, Benefits, Sustainability and Athletics

Thank you, Professor Reed. Can we all clap for the professor?

Twenty-five days to Commencement. It’s hard to believe and package it. Today I’m going to be very brief. I do want to note with great sorrow the passing last week of two of our Life Trustees, Mike Falcone and Bernie Kossar, and the passing in the line of duty of two local law enforcement officers. They were Onondaga County Sheriff’s Deputy Lt. Michael Hoosock and Syracuse Police Officer Michael Jensen. They’re both graduates of our sister school, Le Moyne College.

I’m just going to provide quick updates on four shared governance issues.

The first is honorary degrees. I have confirmed honorary degree recipients for the May 12 Commencement, all from the list approved by the Senate. The awarding and revocation of honorary degrees, like all degrees, is solely by the Board of Trustees and solely upon the recommendation of the Senate.

At the March 20 Senate meeting, the Senate voted to recommend the University revoke an honorary degree. In doing so, the Senate filed a new procedure approved a little more than a year ago by both the Board and the Senate. In accordance with that procedure, I referred the Senate’s recommendation to the Board of Trustees for consideration at their May meetings.

The second issue is staff and faculty benefits. In September at the University Senate meeting, I shared with you that, at the recommendation of a faculty and staff working group, I’d be creating a new employee Benefits Assessment Council. That group includes University Senators. The new council began meeting this year as a new experiment in furtherance of shared governance. It includes faculty and staff recommended by the Senate. Professor Tom Dennison chaired the council, and Professor Eric Kingson also helped a lot.

The council met all year. It worked well. In particular, they received a crash course on University benefits and plans, and they reviewed and approved recommendations for a more equitable and transparent payment of retirement plan fees that TIAA charges the faculty and staff plan.

I think the experiment has been a success. I, therefore, ask that the council in the future continue to work and provide updates to and through the Senate Committee on Employee Services, Fiscal Affairs and Operations. That’s one of the new Senate committees, and one of the issues that we left hanging was exactly how it would integrate with the Senate. That seems like the right committee to do that for next year.

I want to say that the only major issue I currently foresee in employee benefits is our dental plans, which have challenges and need to be reevaluated and I expect to be reevaluated in part by a survey of faculty and staff. And that is one of the issues that will go to this council.

The third issue of the shared governance is sustainability, pursuant to recommendations of the Student Association and the Graduate Student Organization. After briefing the full Senate, I last year appointed a Sustainability Oversight Council and, again following the recommendations, set the goal of Syracuse University reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2032.

Earlier this month, after review and approval by the council, the University released an updated Climate Action Plan. It can be founded on SU News among other places. I am happy to send the full report to anybody who emails me. The plan has two main goals:

1. To say precisely how we’re going to get to net zero emissions by 2032; and how we’re going to measure metrics and progress each year; and also
2. To dramatically reducing single-use plastics by the 2027-28 academic year through a phased approach.

The revised plan provides a phase structure and specific projects that are going to get us to these goals. I’m really grateful to the Sustainability Oversight Council. It is small. It’s one trustee, one faculty member, one student and me. The council is going to continue to work with the Sustainability Management staff on new ways to reduce emissions, and we’re going to be reporting to the Senate and the University each year. While 2032 may not sound ambitious, it’s considerably more ambitious than most other universities I’m aware of. So keeping track of being on track each year is pretty important for shared governance.

The last shared governance area this year is athletics. I think you all know that it’s been sweeping and turbulent change for the last three years in intercollegiate athletics. I hope you all realize that much more dramatic changes are coming fast at us. I’m part of a working group, which includes some university presidents and leaders in sports working on new solutions, some of which have been featured recently in The New York Times and The Athletic. I believe colleges and universities must work together fast to create sustainable models that ensure the future success of collegiate athletics and especially includes preserving women’s sports and Olympic sports. I’ve been vocal on this issue because Syracuse’s strong athletic tradition is so important to our students and our alumni, to our brand, and to Central New York.

So far there has been little shared governance involvement in planning for the changes coming at us. This has to be different next academic year. I’ve reached out to the Senate Agenda Committee, to AAUP leadership, and to the academic deans to discuss over the summer how we approach these issues in the next year. I’m sure they will involve consultation and counsel with and from the Senate Committee on Athletic Policy. I think there’s going to be more action in that committee for the coming year as well.

So those are my updates. Thanks to everybody for the hard work all year.