Chancellor Syverud updates the university’s Senate via budget and response to changes to the Federal Administration – Syracuse University News

I would like to show you the National Championship Women’s Ice Hockey Club team (show photo) that won the Aau championship last week. We are proud of them. And we have some good news to start this report.

I also wanted to thank the members of the ESFAO members (Employee Services, Fiscal Affairs and Operations Committee) and Doug (Yung) for their work. We met with you in detail shortly before the spring break and will meet you again before we present the budget for financial year 26 to the board of trustees for the final approval. The reason for this is that it is a more intensive process this year than in recent years.

I would like to emphasize some of the points that Doug did. We carried out a balanced budget in the GJ24 that ended nine months ago. We run a balanced budget in financial year 25 that will end in three months. It’s pretty late in the year, so it’s pretty easy to see that we will be fine. We will propose a balanced budget for fiscal year 26, and I’m not worried about it. In August I was concerned about why I told the Senate in August and what I said about the management team of the university and the deans, because of some of the foreseeable powers that Doug illustrated in his report. If we hadn’t done anything since last August, we would be exposed to 3% with a budget deficit. Incidentally, 3% leads to millions of dollars. However, if we cannot deal with a budget deficit of 3% as a manager and as a community, we are thinking we are not a very effective financial community, I think.

In fact, we have been planning how to deal with it for months. Obviously there were additional wrenches in the work of what happened to the federal government in the past 60 days. These were remarkable wrenches for almost all of our colleagues. For this reason, you can see these sharp announcements by John’s Hopkins, the thousands of employees, the attitude of faculty settings, freeze freezer. Really, I think you will see more of you, as many academic institutions like to behave in a herd and think that it is the safe thing to behave in a herd. I think you will see many institutions, including most Aau (Association of American Universities) that will do such things in the next few weeks.

My point for the Esfao Committee and for all of them is that we are in a different position, since we are in the sense that we do not have an academic medical center, not dependent on federal grants and the other agencies of the federal government that deal closely at the universities. We are lucky that I would never have thought that our grants and contracts are moved significantly compared to our colleagues from NIH (National Institutes of Health) and NSF (National Science Foundation), which have so far been strongest.

This has brought us into a stronger position, but we are also in a stronger position because we have been planning this for a long time. In fact, we have been financially responsible for a long time, and that means that I only have to say it again that we won’t do some of the things you see elsewhere. We will not have any large -scale layoffs. We will not set freezing points in general. We will not have deep budget cuts or other drastic measures in gradual programs. This does not mean that we do not have to be responsible because we did a balanced budget all year round. Basically, we have been asking every unit, school and college to identify efficiency since August and to realign its resources in a way that makes really useful. This does not mean that there will be no changes, but you will agree with the changes that we do every year at Syracuse University when landing the aircraft or at least recently.

I think that asks people to have a little confidence. We will return to Esfao with more concreteness, as the plane will end up shortly before landing in the next few weeks. The most important moment is of course the presentation before the curatories of the board of trustees that go to the May board meetings. Basically, it is a boring heading for the daily orange and everyone else, but we will propose a balanced budget for the GJ 26. It will be both reasonable and human, and there will be opportunities to talk about it before it is complete. So it is basically, and I feel pretty blessed to be in this situation.

What I do not feel blessed is 60 days in this series of changes that enter into the Federal Government’s guidelines. I don’t want to communicate complacency with what I have already said. Especially since we got to know each other for the last time, the Ministry of Education has lost half of its workforce and initiated studies in connection with anti -Semitism and racism in dozens of university facilities. It is not the only part of the federal government that does this, but the most important. Syracuse University is not one of the examined institutions, but our colleagues, and we are watching these other institutions. We observe what is going on in Columbia with special attention and concern, because it is not only the extent of what is required in Colombia, but also the substance, including the academic substance that Columbia has applied for to benefit from federal financing. So we pay attention to it.

On March 6, the faculty, the students and employees received communication from (provost) Lois (Agnew) and me and others about the new guidance of the office for civil rights of the Ministry of Education. On the whole, these guidelines took the position that discriminates against the breed in one aspect of academic or life on campus and is a violation of title XI, the Civil Rights Act from 1964. This new policy came into force on February 28 two weeks after the first message. This broad interpretation is questioned before the courts, and we follow that exactly.

I just want to emphasize two things. Syracuse University will comply with the law in the development of the law, but we firmly believe that all of our university programs do not discriminate against a group. We firmly believe that none of our university programs discriminates against a group. That means we have to react carefully and thoughtfully. We work in our Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Mary Grace Almandrez in a university efforts to determine our way according to the new instructions. Instead of a kind of knee jerk answer, how we have to do Columbia, this includes a process through which we actually with faculties, employees and students whose work has contributed to holding this place together as a university as a university that can be made up in recent years. This will lead our long -term strategy.

It is nothing I can do in a week. We have time to look closely. We look closely at it. We consult appropriately, but we do it again against the conviction that we are a university that welcomes everyone in our core and in our best, where we were not always. How we had to do this at all times and in every administration had to be experienced and had to be wise. We are in a situation in which we have to find out how we can continue. I think this community really wants us to do it right, and that’s what we feel about.

I expect again that there will be more changes from Washington in the next 40 days. It is 53 days to start. I expect we will see more in the next 40 days.

Dean Chandler-Olcott referred to “these fury accrediters”. I think we will respect and have to defend our fury accreditors before the next 40 days are no longer. I say that as someone who led an accredit area and was also in the Middle States Commission. As fur cells they are, they are mostly driven by our colleagues who look closely at what it takes to offer our students and every student, not just a preferred group, a great training. I think there will be more changes.

I think we have to contact the Senate meeting of the Senate about progress both about the household and the reaction to federal questions. I am very grateful for a really wide range of people with a variety of views that have helped us in the past two months. And I hope you keep hanging there. Thank you very much.