Syracuse University Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina will be stepping down at the end of 2014, the university announced Friday morning.

Spina, who has served as vice chancellor and provost since 2006, will return as an SU faculty member as a newly appointed Trustee Professor and will pursue his goal of obtaining a top leadership position in higher education, according to a Friday press release. The appointment as a Trustee Professor was confirmed by vote of the Board of Trustees’ Executive Committee yesterday, according to the release.

“Serving Syracuse University as Vice Chancellor and Provost under two exceptional chancellors for eight years has truly been a privilege and an honor,” Spina said in the release.

Spina spent almost 20 years at SU in teaching, research and administration at SU. He had been the Douglas D. Danforth Dean of the L. C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science prior to his role as vice chancellor.

“Eric has devoted more than 25 years of his life to Syracuse, as a teacher, as a dean, as vice chancellor and provost, and the University is a better place because of it,” Chancellor Kent Syverud said in the release.

Syverud has appointed Liz Liddy, the current dean the School of Information Studies, as interim vice chancellor and provost effective Jan. 1, 2015, according to the release.

Liddy came to SU in 1988 and was named the founding director of the iSchool’s Center for Natural Language Processing in 1999. Liddy received the Outstanding Alumni Award from SU in 2000.

“Liz is a most talented and respected dean. I am so pleased she has agreed to step into this critical role,” Syverud said in the release.

Published on December 5, 2014 at 9:51 am

Contact Justin: jmatting@syr.edu | @jmattingly306