Syracuse University spent only $10,000 on federal lobbying in 2018, records show. It was the lowest amount of money the university has spent on lobbying in 20 years.

The drop follows a trend in SU’s spending on federal lobbying in recent years. The university spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in 2015, but that spending fell below $100,000 for the first time in 2017.

The university’s lobbying expenditures dropped 75 percent in just one year, from $40,000 to $10,000, records show. And over the last 10 years, those expenditures dropped more than 96 percent, down from $270,000 in 2008.

SU spent less than $5,000 for the first three quarters of 2018, and declared $10,000 in spending for the fourth quarter, according to records in a United States Senate database and a U.S. House of Representatives database.

Peer institutions

Compared to its peer institutions, SU spent the least on lobbying in 2018 — excluding Brandeis University and The George Washington University, which spent nothing on lobbying last year.

Northwestern University spent the most in 2018, totaling more than $660,000 in federal lobbying expenditures. Wake Forest University followed close behind, with $600,000 in spending for 2018, federal records show.

Peer institutions’ median lobbying spending was roughly $270,000 in 2018, excluding Brandeis and George Washington. That is more than 26 times the amount SU spent last year.

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Title IX

SU most recently spent $10,000 in the fourth quarter of its calendar year, lobbying Congress on “proposed regulations related to Title IX and accreditation,” records show. Chancellor Kent Syverud recently condemned proposed changes to Title IX that would change the way colleges and universities handle disciplinary proceedings in sexual assault cases.

The proposed changes would entitle legal representation to parties involved in disciplinary proceedings, and the university would have to provide a legal adviser to a student if they did not have one. Legal representatives would be allowed to cross-examine students and witnesses in a live hearing, under the proposed changes.

“Syracuse University strongly believes that the adjudication procedures in the (proposed rules) would harm students and deter the filing of sexual assault and harassment complaints,” Syverud said in the letter.

Tim Drumm, who on behalf of SU lobbied the Title IX issue at the end of 2018, was made SU’s main lobbyist mid-way through 2017.

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Other activities

The university also lobbied on issues of taxes, education and veterans in 2018, including for the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

The Higher Education Act, first enacted in 1965, was created to offer financial assistance to colleges and universities. It was last reauthorized in 2008.

Veterans-related programming and legislation were also areas of interest for SU in 2018. SU was named the best private school for veterans on a 2019 list by The Military Times.

The university hosts the Institute for Veterans and Military families, a resource center for veterans and their families. The IVMF works with local governments to provide resources through its AmericaServes program. It also has career training and entrepreneurship programs, among other things.

A state and local lobbying report from New York’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics, detailing January 2018 to June 2018, showed no lobbying expenses from SU. The report from July 2018 to December 2018 is still processing, records show, so it’s currently not publicly known how much the university spent at the state and local level, in that time.

Local lobbying reports dating back to 2011 show a drop in lobbying expenses from SU, from more than $8,000 spent in 2011 to just $2,234 in 2017.

Published on February 18, 2019 at 12:48 am

Contact Kennedy: krose100@syr.edu | @KennedyRose001