Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

For over 50 years, Syracuse University professor Bill Coplin taught students to “do well and do good” — Coplin’s mantra to prepare students for the “real world.”

Since he started at SU in 1969 and retired in January, Coplin’s guided students through a skills-based education. Today, numerous alumni and current students cite the power of Coplin and his teaching methods, continuing to practice his lessons in their daily lives.

“Through his connections and leveraging his alumni network, I have met like-minded individuals who do well and do good in their everyday life,” Hunter Tryloff, Coplin’s former student and current president of the Skills Win Coaching Organization Coplin created, said.

It was a passion Coplin discovered in high school, where, as a student, he ran a tutoring program to help others with course material.

Then, in the early 1960s, Coplin pursued higher education at several prestigious universities — obtaining his bachelor’s degree in social sciences at Johns Hopkins University, and later his master’s and Ph.D. in international relations at American University.

However, Coplin said the “traditional” curriculum he was taught did not connect to his interests.

“I wasn’t satisfied with elementary or middle school or even high school, and well, and college,” Coplin said. “I think that most of the people aren’t. They’re forced into it, because that’s the path you have to take.”

Coplin carried this philosophy to SU, when he began teaching in 1969. He emphasized the importance of real-world experience and skills that translate to careers aligned with students’ interests, rather than a “traditional” college education.

He integrated this into SU’s curriculum by creating the policy studies program in 1977 within the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. The program combines insight into policymaking and political factors with more practical, skill-based components, including volunteer work, research projects and fieldwork.

“My purpose wasn’t to create more academics because, which is very apparent today, college doesn’t work. It makes no sense,” Coplin said. “It should prepare people to study what they want to study.”

Coplin said he developed an educational approach rooted in skill development, rather than traditional subject-based classes, which he said allowed him to succeed.

Peter Wilcoxen, the current director of Maxwell’s undergraduate policy studies program, who took over after Coplin’s retirement, emphasized the program’s unique focus on skill-development — particularly pioneered in Coplin’s teaching strategy that prioritized connecting with students through the program’s use of undergraduate course assistance. Fellow undergraduate students who previously took the course are assigned as undergraduate course assistants and given small groups within the classes to work with for the semester.

Kalina Weber, a dual policy studies and environment, sustainability and policy major, served as Coplin’s undergraduate course assistant for the honors section of PST 101: Introduction to the Analysis of Public Policy, after taking the class her sophomore fall semester.

After working with Coplin in the classroom and seeing him interact with his students, Weber said she sees how he makes guiding students a priority.

“I’ve just seen him be very dedicated to the students he develops relationships with, whether that’s finding them connections, finding them people to talk to, offering them positions,” Weber said.

Tori Perez Shires, a 2004 SU policy studies graduate and former student and teaching assistant for Coplin, explained how Coplin’s guidance ultimately changed her career path. Shires originally planned to attend law school but pivoted to a career in sales after Coplin strongly encouraged her to do so.

This moment served as an awakening, and Shires embarked on a marketing internship that led to a successful career in sales, and eventually led her back to SU as the senior director of development at Maxwell.

“He had an innate ability and a knack for understanding his students and where their strengths are, and really encouraging them to follow their strengths,” Shires said.

Wilcoxen also said Coplin’s dedication to students is apparent through the undergraduate course assistant opportunities that give them “real responsibilities” and “real challenges” outside the classroom.

Weber also expressed her appreciation for Coplin’s skill-based approach to education in preparing students for the future. When Coplin told her that many traditional classes fail to prepare students for successful futures, she said it was “enlightening.”

In the 1980s, Coplin created a community service course at SU that allowed students to work for clients and organizations in Syracuse rather than sit in a classroom. The one-credit course offered opportunities like spending 20 to 30 hours a semester at the Boys and Girls Club.

He also created Skills Win, a student-run body that recruits volunteers and teaches skills to high school students in the Syracuse City School District.

Coplin created this program as a form of “job preparation,” which he aimed to help high schoolers who are more skill-oriented and feel underprioritized in traditional public schools. He said the program teaches high schoolers the skills necessary to succeed in their career and lives, from typing to technology skills such as Excel to email etiquette.

Weber, a former homeschool student, worked with Coplin to share her perspective on Skills Win and the real-world skills she gained from her background.

“Especially in Syracuse, where there are a lot of children in school struggling, I think it’s important to build those skills with them,” Weber said.

Morgan DiPerna, a former PST 101 student and current vice president of the Skills Win program, shared one of her favorite volunteering experiences. She outlined how they played a jeopardy game with the high school students to teach real-world skills in an interactive way.

“They made teams that were so competitive, and they were actually learning these interview skills and these people skills,” DiPerna said.

The policy studies program was integrated into the Public Administration and International Affairs department at Maxwell several years ago.

The transition from a stand-alone program into a larger department created availability for more faculty to offer policy studies program courses, resulting in a vast expansion of the number of electives students took.

Despite the changes, Wilcoxen said the original structure’s experiential learning and use of undergraduate course assistants remain strong, continuing Coplin’s legacy even after his retirement.

“The last thing we want to do is to change the major into another interchangeable, theory oriented social science major,” Wilcoxen said. “We want it to be different. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, but that’s ok.”

Published on March 26, 2026 at 12:20 am