How much longer will Kent be Chancellor?

[SUFan44]

I spent time with him and his wife in San Diego. No real insight, but one conversation we had made me think he may be getting closer to retirement. I'm not really going to comment any further.

If that’s the case, then go now. Need someone invested and willing to take chances with the new higher education landscape. SU is in no way in trouble, as much as any other big private schools… but they need to get their act together and move forward.

 

[FrancoPizza]

JB

Reminds me pf that Seinfeld episode where they kept promoting that old guy because they were too scared to can him.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Almost everyone agrees that rankings are flawed, but it's myopic to ignore multiyear (downward) directional trends as compared to peer schools. One could argue that this administration has prioritized fundraising and real estate development, among other things, over sustaining SU's academic reputation. And the current Chancellor did note when he assumed office that a USN&WR ranking of 53 was too low and that he would take steps to address that.

While the campus resources portion of the calculus of these ratings may be manipulated by the institutions, it seems to me that the bigger part of the rankings is the average test scores of admitted students, and the selectivity of the school compared to the number of applications it receives.

That's basically the market speaking.

 

[pattycuse]

Have heard some murmurs they may look internal when Kent goes.

Have heard the same.

 

[shu 49]

Who else other than Pete Sala could handle that job.

 

[CuseCactus]

A great leader can move mountains for a university. It’s stunning to see how ASU has been transformed under Michael Crow’s leadership. In one generation - the school has gone from being a national joke to an ascendant university.

Hopefully our board of regents are talented. The next hire is really important. As Syracuse is faaaaaaaaading.

 

[oldpinepoint]

Based on how education is trending Syracuse needs to nail its next hire.

 

[richmondcuse03]

While the campus resources portion of the calculus of these ratings may be manipulated by the institutions, it seems to me that the bigger part of the rankings is the average test scores of admitted students, and the selectivity of the school compared to the number of applications it receives.

That's basically the market speaking.

Lots of factors but schools that gamed the rankings, like Northeastern, used the numbers effectively. You manipulate acceptance and yield rates and you can move up. Combine that now with other factors that favor public schools that are cheaper and you have a bad combo for Syracuse. The rise in students applying to lots of schools hurts Syracuse too.

But the reality is the schools acceptance rate is very high (in part because they know they’re not always the first choice for students) and it costs a lot. So it’s going to be hard to move that needle without being more selective and given the growth the school has had, I’m not sure it’s an easy fix. I wish it was. Alums hate the slump in rankings. It’s sad and does have an impact on perception.

There’s also a big difference in selectivity of Newhouse and school of architecture and even the IT/engineering programs vs general arts and sciences.

The funny part about all of this is as our class sizes have grown, the school has found out that big sports experiences is crucial to the kids who are coming and willing to pay full freight. So maintaining big time college football and basketball is critical. The school has this data and knows it. And it’s why they say they’re fully supporting revenue sharing and are committed to spending in athletics. It matters to the academic bottom line more than it ever has. The chancellor knows it.

 

[AZOrange]

A great leader can move mountains for a university. It’s stunning to see how ASU has been transformed under Michael Crow’s leadership. In one generation - the school has gone from being a national joke to an ascendant university.

Hopefully our board of regents are talented. The next hire is really important. As Syracuse is faaaaaaaaading.

Other than the fact that he blew up the PAC 10?

 

[hoopsupstate]

Are you implying that Red could be named Chancellor?

Probably JB. He already has experience running the university

 

[Willy75]

Have heard the same.

At the law school I believe SU dispensed with an external search firm for the new dean.

 

[dan7800]

A great leader can move mountains for a university. It’s stunning to see how ASU has been transformed under Michael Crow’s leadership. In one generation - the school has gone from being a national joke to an ascendant university.

Hopefully our board of regents are talented. The next hire is really important. As Syracuse is faaaaaaaaading.

Not disagreeing with you, but how much of this stems from the state's support?

NYS is making it harder for private schools (NYU, Cornell and Columbia are probably outliers from this).

 

[dan7800]

At the law school I believe SU dispensed with an external search firm for the new dean.

Schools often use external search firms. Frequently, this leads to an internal candidate.

 

[AZOrange]

At the law school I believe SU dispensed with an external search firm for the new dean.

Who is the Dean?

 

[Cusefan0307]

Lots of factors but schools that gamed the rankings, like Northeastern, used the numbers effectively. You manipulate acceptance and yield rates and you can move up. Combine that now with other factors that favor public schools that are cheaper and you have a bad combo for Syracuse. The rise in students applying to lots of schools hurts Syracuse too.

But the reality is the schools acceptance rate is very high (in part because they know they’re not always the first choice for students) and it costs a lot. So it’s going to be hard to move that needle without being more selective and given the growth the school has had, I’m not sure it’s an easy fix. I wish it was. Alums hate the slump in rankings. It’s sad and does have an impact on perception.

There’s also a big difference in selectivity of Newhouse and school of architecture and even the IT/engineering programs vs general arts and sciences.

The funny part about all of this is as our class sizes have grown, the school has found out that big sports experiences is crucial to the kids who are coming and willing to pay full freight. So maintaining big time college football and basketball is critical. The school has this data and knows it. And it’s why they say they’re fully supporting revenue sharing and are committed to spending in athletics. It matters to the academic bottom line more than it ever has. The chancellor knows it.

There are pockets of schools that are esteemed nationally like Maxwell, Whitman, Architecture and Newhouse. I do think the center for advanced semiconductor manufacturing will help, but the law school continues to lag and I thought that is where Kent would have made the largest improvement. We've also increased enrollment by 1000 over the last decade so we are not getting more selective.

 

[SUFan44]

Lots of factors but schools that gamed the rankings, like Northeastern, used the numbers effectively. You manipulate acceptance and yield rates and you can move up. Combine that now with other factors that favor public schools that are cheaper and you have a bad combo for Syracuse. The rise in students applying to lots of schools hurts Syracuse too.

But the reality is the schools acceptance rate is very high (in part because they know they’re not always the first choice for students) and it costs a lot. So it’s going to be hard to move that needle without being more selective and given the growth the school has had, I’m not sure it’s an easy fix. I wish it was. Alums hate the slump in rankings. It’s sad and does have an impact on perception.

There’s also a big difference in selectivity of Newhouse and school of architecture and even the IT/engineering programs vs general arts and sciences.

The funny part about all of this is as our class sizes have grown, the school has found out that big sports experiences is crucial to the kids who are coming and willing to pay full freight. So maintaining big time college football and basketball is critical. The school has this data and knows it. And it’s why they say they’re fully supporting revenue sharing and are committed to spending in athletics. It matters to the academic bottom line more than it ever has. The chancellor knows it.

Want to comment on this last part.

A lot of other schools are coming out and giving exact figures and information. SU has not done that yet.

I believe there is a deadline in February where schools must decide A) if they're in or out in terms of revenue sharing and B) what the breakdown will be in terms of revenue for sports (football gets 75%, men's basketball gets 15%, etc.).

I would like for there to be transparency with SU's plan. How much of the maximum $20.5M revenue will they share (it better be all of it, to stay competitive). And where will it be allocated.

 

[Newhouser]

Have heard the same.

Cheaper?

 

[Newhouser]

Who else other than Pete Sala could handle that job.

Mike Haney.

 

[GoSU96]

SU is fighting an uphill battle. It’s northeastern private urban university. It’s expensive. If you are looking at schools with a similar profile what’s more attractive if you are looking nationally, BC, Miami, SMU, or ND? Throw Trinity in Dublin as well.

If you are looking regionally, UB, Geneseo, Binghamton, Albany, Stonybrook are all much more affordable. If you are looking for Engineering, RPI, RIT have a big head start.

SU is in a tough spot. Times have changed.

 

[All4SU]

So basically we just need tens of thousands of kids to apply to SU so the university can deny admissions and the selectivity rate will go up.

 

[MSOrange]

So basically we just need tens of thousands of kids to apply to SU so the university can deny admissions and the selectivity rate will go up.

If only I was college age, I'd be happy to apply and take one for the team.

 

[Bayside44]

So basically we just need tens of thousands of kids to apply to SU so the university can deny admissions and the selectivity rate will go up.

SU claimed at orientation they had 40K plus applications. Like someone said here, kids apply to a lot of schools.

 

[Cusefan95]

Makes me wonder…

Why wouldn’t any/every university juke their stats to game the rankings as favorably as possible?

Especially the cadre of expensive private schools competing (or trying to compete) in the tier below Ivy.

The mission of the school can have an impact. The mission at DePaul has been to provide a college education to historically underserved groups. The result is they accept a lot of marginal students, have a very high acceptance rate - and don't do great on rankings (they are in the mid-100s I think). Most of the things they would do to improve their ranking would either detract from their main goal or divert attention away from it. And realistically, people aren't going to select DePaul based on its ranking anyway.

 

[Cusefan95]

We were named a “Public Ivy” by Forbes last year!

Binghamton ranked as top ’Public Ivy’ school by Forbes - Binghamton News

Binghamton is ranked among the ’New Ivies’ for ’producing smart, driven graduates craved by employers of all types.’

www.binghamton.edu

I wasn’t happy about it at the time, but I went to Binghamton instead of U of R because of the cost. In hindsight, I’m very happy I made that choice.

When my brother graduated from Binghamton, he found that it was extremely well regarded at the start of his career in NYC. When he was looking to move to Alabama to be close to his wife's family in Pensacola, nobody had any idea what this "Binghamton University" was. I'm not sure if that says something about the limited reach of Binghamton's reputation, the state education in Alabama, or both.

 

[richmondcuse03]

SU claimed at orientation they had 40K plus applications. Like someone said here, kids apply to a lot of schools.

Right. The problem isn't how many people apply, it's how many we accept. We've had to accept a lot because we're competing with a lot of other schools for the same kids and for a number of years, we were too many kids' backup choice.

We apparently did a much better job this year with early decision applications this year, which help with the numbers. We have a few individual colleges that really help here. Seems like we're doing a good job improving on the engineering/computer science side, which should help more. Business school matters a lot, too.