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Even though he didn’t attend Syracuse University, Jeffrey Scruggs said he considers SU family.

He remembers attending the first sporting event in the Dome when it opened and going to basketball games at Manley Field House as a season ticket holder. He has deeply-rooted memories of hanging around his father’s office as a child in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

The Syracuse native will now lead SU’s Board of Trustees as its chair beginning in May 2023 after having previously served as a trustee on the board and a member of the Maxwell Advisory Board.

“I can’t emphasize how much I appreciate the fact that (the board) entrusted me with this position, knowing that I do have a long history at university. I didn’t go here, but I’m truly dedicated to this,” he said. “I feel a long-term sense of obligation and commitment here.”

Scruggs’ humility and organization, as well as his big-picture perspective and ability to listen to all sides, made him the unanimous pick to lead the Board of Trustees, said Kathleen Walters, the board’s current chair.

“He is a wonderful man and thinks about things from all sides,” she said. “That’s really important when you’re going to be chair of the board, because you’re not there to impose your opinion. You’re there to help the chancellor and his mission and strategy.”

Those who have worked with Scruggs said his personality, financial knowledge and understanding of the SU community have prepared him to help SU progress. Scruggs said if he can leave the university in a better position than it started in, he will have had a successful term as chair.

“I would hope (SU) continues to be a more and more inviting place for more and more people,” Scruggs said. “It’s a special place. It’s a special, special university.”

Scruggs, who received his bachelor’s degree and MBA from Harvard University, first became involved with SU’s boards when Maxwell Dean David Van Slyke nominated him to serve on the Maxwell Advisory Board in 2016.

Scruggs garnered Van Slyke’s attention while setting up a scholarship and lecture series in memory of Scruggs’ father, Otey Scruggs, a former professor of history during his more than 25 years at Maxwell, according to an SU news release.

“He is so committed to the academic enterprise at the university,” Van Slyke said, “and I could not be more delighted by the intellectual leadership that he’s going to bring and the emotional fortitude to make some very hard choices that will make Syracuse University not just a good university, but a great university.”

Scruggs said his priorities for the board include the student experience as well as diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility initiatives.

The mission of a university is to further and advance education in all of its forms in an environment where everyone feels welcome, Scruggs said, and therefore the student experience should be a guiding factor in its decisions. He added that the primary way the board hears about the student experience is through its student representatives.

SU’s Student Association President David Bruen, one of the undergraduate student representatives to the board, said many of the initiatives it pushes for come from students via the student representatives.

“A lot of the things in our report, when we talk about mental health, issues on campus or transportation issues, the board knows about them now. It’s on their radar,” Bruen said. “And (the board is) like, ‘What’s going on with this? … How can we fix these issues?’”

In the fall of 2019, students’ demands that the university support students of color led to the creation of the #NotAgainSU movement. Scruggs was one of the co-chairs of the board’s Special Committee on University Climate, Diversity and Inclusion — which first met in December 2019 as a response to #NotAgainSU — and was chosen as a co-chair of the permanent version of the same committee in April 2021, now called the Advisory Committee on University Climate, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility.

Scruggs said from the time of the committee’s formation, the university has put a lot of work into DEIA initiatives and seen significant accomplishments. But this doesn’t mean the work is over, Scruggs said.

“Diversity takes many forms. It takes racial, gender, orientation, ethnicity, neurodiversity. You can go down the list and there’s always going to be some issue or some issues that we need to continue progressing on,” he said.

Once he takes office in May, Scruggs will be the first person of color to lead SU’s Board of Trustees as chair, which he said means a lot to himself and his family. Walters, who is the first woman to hold the role, said it’s important for different people to be able to see themselves in leadership roles.

“You just need to be able to see different kinds of people running things. Otherwise you can’t think of who you could be,” she said.

Van Slyke said that within the university community, Scruggs has already been a role model to those around him. From the time he first invited Scruggs to serve on the Maxwell Advisory Board, Van Slyke said Scruggs’ characteristics of being authentic, analytical, engaged, passionate and intelligent have developed and will contribute to him being a great chair.

Van Slyke said Scruggs brings all of the wisdom in their conversations.

“I am the beneficiary of every conversation from Jeff,” Van Slyke said. “I have benefited from Jeff in such significant ways that I can’t help but hold him with just such great respect and admiration.”

Others shared the same high regard for Scruggs. Walters recounted the process of nominating candidates to the position, when she and other members of the board looked through lists of people, all of whom were sensible choices to lead the board. While they discussed, she said, they “all of a sudden … just knew who it’s going to be.”

Walters began her speech to the entire board to announce the nomination for her successor. Typically, when announcing to the board the nomination for their successor, the chair would share the name of the candidate, then the board would discuss and vote to accept or deny the nomination, she said.

But Walters said she couldn’t even get to the part of her speech where she took the vote, because once she said Scruggs’s name, the board stood up and erupted into applause.

“Everyone agreed,” Walters said. “It was a very wonderful experience, to see the board unite around one person.”

Published on November 27, 2022 at 11:55 pm

Contact Emily: emilyrosesteinberger@gmail.com | @madlehead