Syracuse University

Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private research university in Syracuse, New York. The university was established in 1870, independent of Genesee College. Since 1920, the university has identified itself as nonsectarian. The campus is in the University Hill neighborhood of Syracuse, east and southeast of downtown, on one of the larger hills.

About Syracuse University in brief

Summary Syracuse UniversitySyracuse University is a private research university in Syracuse, New York. The university was established in 1870, independent of Genesee College. Since 1920, the university has identified itself as nonsectarian, although it maintains a relationship with The United Methodist Church. The campus is in the University Hill neighborhood of Syracuse, east and southeast of downtown, on one of the larger hills. Alumni and affiliates include 3 Nobel Prize laureates, 1 Fields Medalist, 33 Olympic Medalists, numerous Pulitzer Prize recipients, Academy Award winners, Rhodes Scholars, Marshall Scholars, a President-elect of the United States, and various governors and members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Syracuse University athletic teams, known as the Orange, participate in 20 intercollegiate sports. SU is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, or ACC for all NCAA Division I athletics, except for the men’s rowing and women’s ice hockey teams. The college began looking for a new home at the same time Syracuse, ninety miles to the east, was engaged in a search to bring a university to the city. Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White tried to convince Cornell to locate Cornell University there rather than in Ithaca. Syracuse resident White pressed that the new university should locate on the hill in Syracuse due to the City’s attractive transportation hub, which would ease the recruitment of faculty, students, and other persons of note.

An endowment of USD 400,000 was subscribed by the Methodist and the City of Syracuse to establish the school. Jesse Truesdell Peck had donated USD 25,000 to the proposed school. Judge F. F. Comstock had offered the school 50 acres of farmland on a hillside to the south of the city center to develop a community center. The first president of Syracuse University was Rev. Daniel Steele, who served as the first administrative leader of the university until its chancellor was appointed in September 1871. The current chancellor is Dr. Michael J. O’Connell, who was appointed as chancellor in September 2013. The school’s first president was the Rev. Michael O’Neill, who became chancellor in April 2013. It was founded in 1831 by the Geneseesee Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Lima, New. York, south of Rochester. In 1850, it was resolved to enlarge the institution from a seminary into a college, or to connect a college with the seminary. In 1869, the college obtained New York State approval to move to Syracuse, but Lima got a court injunction to block the move. By that time, however, the court injunction had been made moot by the founding of a new university on March 24, 1870. By the time the college moved to Syracuse in 1875, the move had been approved by the State of New York, and the move was approved by a New York court. The move was completed in 1874. It is the only college in the state to have been granted its own charter.