Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud at Wednesday’s University Senate meeting for the first time disclosed the cost of the University Place promenade. It totaled to $6 million, he said.

The previously planned maintenance project having to do with water mains underneath the promenade cost about $2 million, Syverud said, and the construction of the promenade itself cost about $4 million. Syverud said half the latter cost was paid for with donations to the university.

The announcement highlighted a meeting that again centered around the topic of transparency. And if September’s University Senate meeting was a charge from senators for university leaders to be transparent, October’s meeting was an assurance from leaders that they would be.

Without prompting or questions from senators regarding transparency — which has of late been a hot-button topic in the senate — two of the university’s foremost leaders, Syverud and Vice Chancellor and Provost Michele Wheatly, both addressed Wednesday the need for the administration to be transparent and communicative with the rest of the university community.

Syverud and Wheatly discussed separate issues that have been pinpointed by faculty as being clouded over by the administration, including the cost of the promenade, the university’s budget and the U.S. Department of Education’s Title IX investigation into SU.

“It is a month of challenges nationally in dialogue and civility,” Syverud said in his concluding remarks to the senate, referencing the state of the presidential election. “… I’m grateful to be participating in a body that I have experienced as a civil body of its best, and a frank and transparent body is best, so I hope to model that this year.”

Syverud’s disclosing of the cost of the promenade came after Sam Gorovitz, a philosophy professor at SU, asked directly at the first senate meeting on Sept. 14 for the cost to be revealed. Syverud missed that meeting due to a scheduling conflict.

Another topic of concern to the senate has been the university’s budget, which Syverud said he expects to discuss in his report at the senate’s next meeting on Nov. 9. Wheatly also addressed the budget in her report, saying she hopes to ensure transparency about the budget with the senate.

The main focus of transparency in Wheatly’s report was in regard to SU’s handling of a student’s Title IX complaint for a sexual assault that was reported in May 2015. The complaint alleges that SU failed to “respond promptly or equitably” to the report of the assault.

Wheatly described Title IX and the process of reporting sexual assaults to the senate to ensure that senators were on the same level of understanding about sexual assault.

“As we move through this together, it’s on us to try to better educate ourselves on how this process works,” Wheatly said, referencing the national It’s On Us movement against sexual assault on college campuses.

Wheatly also indirectly acknowledged the concern among faculty that the Chancellor’s Task Force on Sexual and Relationship Violence was not made aware of the Title IX investigation.
She said she will work to develop a better methodology to communicating about the investigation given that it deals with an “extremely sensitive” topic and given that SU is limited in what it is allowed to disclose about the investigation.

Also in her report, Wheatly addressed the leadership transition of the Martin J. Whitman School of Management following the removal of former Dean Kenneth Kavajecz, who was arrested in mid-September on the charge of patronizing a person for prostitution in the third degree.

Wheatly said she has garnered feedback from Whitman faculty anonymously and through in-person meetings to determine the skillset needed for an interim leader of Whitman. The interim dean will be announced this week, Wheatly said.

Other business discussed at the senate meeting:

• The senate endorsed a revised version of the Academic Integrity Policy, which awaits approval by Wheatly. The new policy establishes uniform standards for academic integrity across all of SU’s schools and colleges; creates a three-level violation system; and allows for three “avenues of disposition,” which include expediting the disciplinary process, conducting a written review into the academic violation and holding a formal hearing regarding the violation.

• The Senate Committee on Student Life urged SU to “make a strong stand against” sexual assault and “commit to the students and their health and safety” in regard to alcohol consumption in a report the committee submitted.

• The Senate Committee on Honorary Degrees called for all students, faculty, staff and alumni to nominate candidates to receive honorary degrees at the 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 commencement ceremonies. The deadline for all nominations is Nov. 18, 2016.

Published on October 12, 2016 at 9:45 pm

Contact Alexa: atorrens@syr.edu