Syracuse University’s Vice Chancellor and Provost Michele Wheatly gave updates on SU’s new Center for Undergraduate Research and the first round of the Cluster Hire Initiative at Wednesday’s University Senate meeting.

The center will work across colleges and schools to foster undergraduate participation in faculty-guided scholar research and help students pursue internal and external research opportunities. Student Association, the Senate’s Research Committee and the Renée Crown University Honors program contributed to the center’s development.

Wheatly said the center will receive $1 million annually from Invest Syracuse, the university’s $100 million initiative to improve academics and the student experience.

Cathryn Newton, a professor of earth sciences and dean emerita of the College of Arts and Sciences, was involved in the creation of the research center. She will oversee the implementation of the center until it is completely staffed, Wheatly said.

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The university will fund the hiring of 53 people as part of its Signature Hires Initiative. The program was announced in 2017, and the university detailed the cluster hires last June. It’s part of the university’s Academic Strategic Plan.

Each hire will be part of one of seven themed clusters, Wheatly said. The decided hires and clusters were narrowed down from 19 cluster proposals and 71 possible new positions, she added.

Wheatly said another round of discussion will be held to propose new hires and cluster ideas.

Jackie Orr, an associate professor of sociology on the Senate’s research committee, said many of the hires are in the STEM field, and not social sciences or humanities.

“All of these clusters have interdisciplinary representation, including the social sciences and the humanities in some cases,” Wheatley said.

She added that the main goal of the hires was to expand SU’s research programs and ensure its position as an R1 research institution.

Karin Ruhlandt, dean of Arts of Sciences, and David Van Slyke, dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, will also be working to create a recommendation for a new first-year experience, Wheatly said. They will submit their recommendations to Wheatley by March 1, 2019, and the university is hoping to implement the new experience by fall 2020, she said.

Diane Lyden Murphy, dean of the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, said she was concerned that there are 11 deans of schools and colleges but only two working on the recommendations. Ruhlandt and Van Slyke will seek the input of other deans and involve them in the process, Wheatley said.

Mary Graham and Anne Mosher, members of the Senate’s Ad Hoc Committee on Shared Competencies, presented changes made to the university’s shared competencies. The competencies are designed to ensure that all undergraduate students graduate with a defined set of reasoning skills and abilities.

The changes were based on a survey given last month that had 402 responses, including one-third of the Senate, according to the presentation.

The Middle States Commission on Higher Education requires that schools have either a common general education program across all schools and colleges or a shared competencies approach. The Ad Hoc Committee on Shared Competencies will make a motion to approve the shared competencies at the next Senate meeting on Dec. 12.

Other business

• A committee of about 15 people has been created to find a replacement for School of Information Studies Dean Liz Liddy, whose retirement was announced in September. Dean of Libraries David Seaman will chair the committee.
• A committee was created to help develop a policy on how to define, support and govern centers and institutes at SU. It will be chaired by Lu Xiao, an associate professor in the iSchool.

Published on November 14, 2018 at 10:13 pm

Contact India: irmiragl@syr.edu