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Syracuse is often touted as a college town, which is a fair claim to make. A quick walk to Marshall Street offers a great deal for students to indulge in, whether this be tasty food spots, overflowing clothing stores or lively bars. Streets such as Euclid offer off-campus housing, making student living convenient while still promoting campus engagement.

All of these elements surrounding the university may be independently operated, but they all seem to come together as part of one big campus. This creates the illusion that all of the city resembles a lively college town, omitting the fact that Syracuse has a personality of its own beyond the Hill.

We need to look past places like Marshall, which is essentially a part of the SU campus due to its proximity to dorms and classrooms, to recognize all the city has to offer.

Students who fail to explore outside of campus find themselves trapped in a “bubble.” Although this enclosed type of environment isn’t exclusive to SU, this doesn’t make the issue any less alarming.

I’d heard about this disconnect before starting my time at SU, but didn’t get to see it firsthand until more recently. Apart from a few occasions, I stayed mostly within the campus perimeter my freshman year. As I’ve begun to venture more off campus during my sophomore year, the reality of the city-campus divide has taken me aback.

There’s a major disconnect between the city of Syracuse and our university. To alleviate that disconnect, SU needs to better provide and advertise to its students more opportunities to become acclimated with the city which it calls home. In conjunction, students must take more initiative to get involved.

The programs that SU currently has in place to encourage students’ exploration of the surrounding city fall short. The most notable of these programs is Citrus in the City – a welcome week excursion which allows new students to take in the sights of downtown Syracuse while sampling from local restaurants.

This is one of the opportunities that I had to step off campus my freshman year. I came away from the event intrigued, but found myself dissatisfied in the long term. While the event did successfully introduce me to downtown Syracuse, there was no real follow-up to keep me immersed.

SU could alter First-Year Seminar curricula as a vehicle to mend this. FYS classes are filled almost entirely with freshmen, meaning many students in these classes aren’t familiar at all with the city of Syracuse. FYS classes could incorporate multiple off-campus meetings spread out over the semester to get students off campus and educate them on the resources to make continuous excursions accessible.

This would be a great way to familiarize students with the city early in their time at SU. By incorporating this outing into its teachings, FYS classes could be a great way for students to explore all Syracuse has to offer, while still providing some guidance so students don’t feel lost.

This isn’t to say the university doesn’t provide tools to get off campus. Students have access to buses running often from College Place to downtown. The Barnes Center also holds “adventure trips” that shuttle students to and from off-campus activities such as hiking or climbing.

These are great opportunities for students looking to engage with the greater Syracuse area. But to me, they aren’t advertised well enough to be effective. Many students would make good use of these resources, especially those without cars on campus, if they were aware of their existence.

If students are aware of these resources or can get off campus on their own, they should aim to engage with the city in ways that make a difference in the community. SU provides service opportunities for students to do just this, such as their partnership with the La Casita Cultural Center.

There’s more than SU’s suggestions in the community. Rosamond Gifford Zoo and Habitat for Humanity are just two organizations consistently seeking volunteers just a few miles off campus.

We should aim to find a cause we’re passionate about, and take the initiative involved with it. Doing this will help us create real impact, beyond just what you can do in a classroom. It’s a way to give back to the city we’ve benefited so much from.

It’s on us to take the step into Syracuse to educate ourselves and make a difference within the city. But, with all that can be found on our campus and its surrounding streets, students may not feel all that inclined to venture out past Marshall.

SU needs to rethink how it encourages students to step off campus long-term, and students must meet this change with effort toward genuine engagement. With this collaborative effort, we can change the relationship between the campus and city for good.

Will Chadwick is a sophomore magazine, news and digital journalism major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at wchadwic@syr.edu.

Published on October 19, 2025 at 8:28 pm