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SYRACUSE As Built Julia Czerniak
1. For more on Chancellor Cantor’s vision of Scholarship in Action, see Carol L. Boll, “The Cantor Years,” Syracuse University Magazine 32, no. 1 (Spring 2015). 2. Ibid.
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One of the most powerful drivers of innovative and catalytic urban work in the City of Syracuse since 2004 has been “Scholarship in Action,” an almost decadelong initiative at Syracuse University led by former Chancellor, Nancy Cantor. The initiative expanded opportunities to forge “bold, imaginative, reciprocal, and sustained engagement” between the university and the city, the development community, and not-for-profits. Cantor invokes what sociologist Saskia Sassen calls “cityness” or the “intersection of differences” as the very foundation of urbanity.1 This intersection of traditionally separate entities is founded on Cantor’s view that “the work of the campus is the work of the world,” emphasizing the role of the university as a public good. By valuing engaged scholarship, Cantor elevated the work being done in the arts and humanities to the same level of importance as that being done in the sciences, thus enabling significant research that spans across a range of disciplines. This support for interdisciplinary research has attracted strong faculty to the university. Cantor also revised the assessment criteria for tenure to include engagement work, rewarding and validating those who engaged in this type of research.2 Tangible results of Syracuse University’s commitment to the city come in the form of numerous programs and projects that have changed the landscape of both “town” and “gown,” including built projects both large and small. Projects incorporated multiple approaches to commissioning public and private work that involved nationally recognized design firms working with the participation of students and faculty. Community engagement, as well as the political and financial support of local, regional, and federal governments were all critical to the process. This work has catalyzed the regeneration of Syracuse, New York—a 26-square-mile city, located near the southern shore of Lake Ontario and along the route of the old Erie Canal. Like many Rust Belt cities, Syracuse has been shrinking in population for decades—as evidenced by the loss of city fabric, the diminishment of social welfare networks, the erosion of public schools, the loss of industry, increasing amounts of tax-delinquent and vacant land, and crumbling infrastructure. The resulting environment is characterized by partially occupied remnant fabric and parking surfaces adjacent to a still-active downtown and an emerging visual and performing arts infrastructure in a mixture that is not all that promising for vibrant urban life. And although the city has lost much of its manufacturing and commercial base—it was once a regional center for salt production and its proximity to the lake and canal made it a crossroads of industry—it enjoys a healthy service sector and the benefits of significant healthcare and higher education institutions. In this context, two of the largest public initiatives were spearheaded by Cantor: the Syracuse Connective Corridor, a two mile multi-model urban landscape, linking the university with the downtown and the Near West Side Initiative (NWSI), a nonprofit-led effort to revitalize a long neglected inner-city neighborhood.
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