Among individuals and organizations that prize inclusiveness and diversity in higher education, Syracuse University chancellor and president Dr. Nancy Cantor is a champion. Earlier this month, the American Council on Education (ACE) honored her with the 2011 Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award. On her own campus; however, she’s faced criticism that her efforts to make the university more inclusive has somehow compromised its reputation as a leading academic institution.
Last week, the University Senate met and intensely discussed the subject. The senate committee for diversity put forth a motion stating that the senate endorses the university’s pursuit of inclusiveness in its admission practices. It also recommends that the university continue its policy of inclusion and agrees that the goals of academic excellence and diversity are complementary rather than contradictory.
“It was such a heated debate. I’ve never seen anything like this,” says Dr. Micere Githae Mugo, Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence and a faculty member in the department of African-American Studies, who presented the motion.
The motion passed, but only after extensive evidence was presented in support of it.
On the opposing side are faculty members, students and alumni who have asserted that outreach efforts for inclusiveness has compromised selectivity—particularly pointing to an increase in Syracuse’s admission rate of more than 10 percent in the past two years. Editorials and letters to the editor have appeared in The Daily Orange on both sides of the discussion.
Mugo says the committee for diversity presented evidence that selectivity has not been diminished at all.
“We have a population that has increased in diversity from 16 percent in 2002 to 29 percent in 2010,” Mugo says. “The SAT scores have remained the same, which we understand is a common factor nationally, but the GPA of the students we are admitting has risen from 3.49 to 3.6.
