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Syracuse University’s Renée Crown University Honors Program began the 2025-26 academic year with an almost entirely different office staff than it had just a year prior.

The program currently has six staff members, five of whom were added to staff within the past year. Honors Associate Director Allie Heppner, who has been with Honors the longest, only joined its team as an advisor in 2023. Over half of its core faculty joined this year.

The program is currently undergoing a “time of transition,” Provost Lois Agnew said during the University Senate’s Sept. 17 meeting. Some faculty members involved with the program said this era of honors has been characterized by uncertainty, confusion and change.

Its former director, Danielle Taana Smith — who served for over seven years — didn’t return to the position for the fall semester. She is continuing her role as a professor within the African American Studies department, according to a July 16 email sent to honors students.

The message also said former advisor Robin Berkowitz-Smith had retired after around 40 years at SU.

“Many of us started having concerns about what’s going to happen? What is the future?” said Margaret Susan Thompson, a professor in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

As SU embarks on its search for a new director and efforts to rework the honors curriculum, an anonymous faculty member, who has advised multiple honors students’ theses, said they hope the university improves transparency in its efforts and takes faculty input into account.

The faculty member said the program appears to be in “complete disarray.” They cited high staff turnover in recent years and a lack of faculty input in decisions related to curriculum and the director search.

“Recent leadership and staffing changes … reflect a thoughtful, consultative process informed by faculty input and a committee report outlining recommendations for the program’s future,” an SU spokesperson wrote in a Wednesday statement to The Daily Orange.

Some leadership changes within honors are related to a report from “last year,” Agnew said in the USen meeting. The report, drafted by a committee formed by College of Arts and Sciences Dean Behzad Mortazavi, included recommendations for the program’s future.

The university had also conducted an external review of the program in 2016, Agnew said.

The anonymous faculty member first noticed changes to the honors program in 2023, around the time of Mortazavi’s appointment as dean, they said. Honors office staff went from seven people in 2023 to four in 2024 after departures and retirements, The D.O. found using the WayBack Machine — an internet archive.

On Aug. 29, SU announced Laura Machia as the honors interim director. The university’s announcement said that a newly-formed working group, with Machia at its head, was expected to complete a “comprehensive review” of the program and its curriculum.

Machia also serves as the associate dean for academic initiatives and curriculum in Arts and Sciences, which oversees the honors program.

Machia’s faculty profile, which lists courses from 2020 to 2025, doesn’t mention any honors courses. According to the Wayback Machine, she hasn’t served on the Honors’ core faculty — the group of professors, one from each college, who act as liaisons between their schools and honors.

The faculty member said they wished SU had picked someone with “some sense of history” in honors to lead the program in the interim.

When SU announced the working group on Sept. 10, the faculty member said they were surprised to see that a majority of the members didn’t appear to have extensive honors experience.

The group’s co-chairs are Elisa Dekaney, associate provost for strategic initiatives, and Jamie Winders, vice provost for faculty affairs. Only four members of the 13-person working group are current core faculty — Dekaney was a member from 2014 to 2020.
SU didn’t respond to a question about whether all nine core faculty members were asked to be part of the working group.

“Of the faculty members I know who are in that community, though they’re very good at what they do, most of them have not had extensive involvement in the Honors program,” Thompson said.

The anonymous faculty member said they were concerned that honors faculty input wasn’t adequately included, presenting “an issue of shared governance.”

“Everybody is completely tearing their hair out. Faculty are extremely frustrated,” they said.

The university spokesperson said the decision to appoint Machia resulted from “faculty input and a committee report outlining recommendations for the program’s future.”

Similar concerns have emerged more broadly in Arts and Sciences; last week, several professors said they felt “blindsided” after the college informed department and program chairs on Sept. 15 that it had paused admission to 20 majors.

Molly Hunker, a member of both the core faculty and its working group, said she’s optimistic about the Honors Program transition, seeing the shift as a chance to make honors requirements clearer and more accessible to students.

“It’s a really great opportunity and a kind of great moment right now to look at, ‘What does (Honors) look like as our students change, as higher education is facing the challenges that it’s facing?’” Hunker said.

Hunker noted that turnover last year did create “problems” for students with advising.

The director search process has also confused some faculty members, who said they were unsure who they should report to between Smith’s departure and Machia’s appointment.

While preparing her honors classes for the fall semester, Thompson said she was uncertain about whom to contact to ensure everything was set and approved. She recalled thinking, “Are my things still in place? Is there anything I should be concerned about?”

She ended up reaching out to Heppner, the honors program’s associate director, who was helping lead before Machia’s appointment. Though no issues ended up emerging with her coursework, Thompson said she wished Honors would’ve communicated to faculty what resources would still be available to them in the transition.

There was also confusion surrounding Smith’s departure. The anonymous faculty member believed the university removed her without warning. Thompson remembered the former director possibly announcing it at a convocation. Hunker recalled Smith telling of her departure during a core faculty meeting. The spokesperson said Smith had completed her contract.

“Professor Danielle Smith’s contract was completed as this evaluation process commenced, providing a natural opportunity for the institution to consider new directions for the program,” the spokesperson wrote. “We sincerely appreciate Professor Smith’s leadership and contributions to the program and the University.”

Thompson, Hunker and the anonymous faculty member all said they were hopeful that the new chapter of Honors could bring positive change. However, they want the transition to bring increased clarity and transparency between administrators, the Honors program, faculty who teach Honors courses and students, they said.

The SU spokesperson said the working group’s report would include recommendations surrounding “shared ownership” and “governance,” among other charges.

“My biggest hope is that SU is more transparent. I understand that we’re under a bunch of legal pressure and pressure from the federal government, but faculty are not bad people,” the faculty member said. “We want to treat our students well.”

In the September USen meeting, Agnew said the working group is tasked with conducting a review of honors curriculum and thesis requirements. They will also suggest a new governance structure and ways to get outside faculty involved with the program. The working group is expected to complete its report “later this semester,” Agnew said.

The working group is expected to deliver its final report to Agnew later this semester, she said at the meeting. Hunker said the group hasn’t started its process yet, but is still working toward that deadline.

“I don’t know exactly what our work will involve. We haven’t embarked on that yet,” Hunker said. “But there is a real interest from Honors in ensuring there’s increased clarity, increased sort of transparency, both for faculty and students.”

DISCLAIMER: Julia Boehning is a member of Syracuse University’s Renée Crown University Honors Program. Her involvement did not affect the editorial content of this article.

Published on September 25, 2025 at 1:50 am
Contact Julia: jmboehni@syr.edu