Syracuse University formally inaugurates Mike Haynie as 13th chancellor
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The Syracuse University community officially welcomed Chancellor Mike Haynie at his formal inauguration in the JMA Wireless Dome on Friday.
In his remarks, Haynie praised SU’s faculty and staff for their dedication to students and urged them to treat colleagues’ differences with grace and civility. He encouraged students to challenge their assumptions, explore new things and uphold SU’s standards.
“You are inheriting a world that’s harder than it should be…it would neither be honest nor kind for me to pretend otherwise, but I see you,” Haynie said, speaking to students directly.
The ceremony included words from members of the university, musical performances and a video detailing Haynie’s journey at SU. Along with hundreds of SU community members, those in attendance also included former Chancellor Kent Syverud, Dr. Ruth Chen, Rep. John Mannion and Syracuse Mayor Sharon Owens.
Vice Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer Lois Agnew led the event’s welcome, praising Haynie for his commitment to the university and passion for creating new opportunities for students.
“Chancellor Haynie does not just talk about the work, he does the work. He does not just say he supports you, he shows you through action,” Agnew said. “He does not just identify the barriers his leadership team encounters. He works beside them to tear those barriers down. He does not just say our students are our north star. He lives that mantra every day.”
Haynie was selected as chancellor-elect in March and was expected to take over the role on July 1, succeeding Syverud. However, he stepped into the role of acting chancellor early when Syverud announced he had been diagnosed with a form of brain cancer in April.
SU’s Student Government Association President Emily Castillo-Melean took to the stage to voice her support for Haynie’s leadership.
“Chancellor Haynie, on behalf of the students of Syracuse University, we welcome you,” Castillo-Melean said. “We are ready to write this next chapter alongside you, with curiosity, courage, innovation and an unwavering belief in what this university can become.”
Representing SU faculty for the greetings was Director of Graduate Studies Jennifer Karas Montez, co-chair of Haynie’s committee designed to address SU’s low enrollment and budget deficit. Montez asked Haynie to “protect the conditions” that allow students to succeed and ensure SU lives up to its promises.
Chief Facilities Officer Pete Sala, representing the staff, followed Montez and shared his experience working with Haynie to build the National Veterans Resource Center. He highlighted Haynie’s leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, praising him for his ability to manage “a mind-boggling set of logistics” in a high-stakes time.
“He’s ready to roll up his sleeves and work with me and my team to get the job done to make this university a better place, and he’s been doing that across this campus in every corner of this university for over 20 years,” Sala said. “That’s why I can’t imagine anyone more capable or more prepared to become our next leader.”
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The co-chairs of the Chancellor Search Committee, Lisa Fontenelli and Shelly Fisher, thanked members of the SU community who helped them make their decision to nominate Haynie. The pair said they searched for a candidate who could lead SU through “the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead,” and found that in Haynie.
After the greetings, sophomore OlaRose Ndubuisi read an original poem titled “A Leader for Our Future,” followed by a performance of “America the Beautiful” by the Hendricks Chapel Choir.
Dean Emeritus of SU’s Whitman School of Management, Melvin Stith, spoke on Haynie’s start at Whitman and shared that when he interviewed Haynie, he wanted an offer letter prepared that same afternoon. Stith described Haynie as “a Phillies guy,” and presented him with a box of TastyKakes, a classic Philadelphian snack.
Stith went on to tell the audience about one of Haynie’s first initiatives at SU, the Entrepreneurial Bootcamp for Veterans. Haynie, a veteran himself, wanted to teach veterans with disabilities how to become entrepreneurs. The program started with 17 veterans and now has over eight other universities participating, Stith said.
In his remarks, Haynie praised SU’s faculty, encouraged students and thanked everyone who helped him along his career journey. Avery Magee | Development Editor
“Chancellor Haynie, I am proud of the young professor who walked onto our campus 20 years ago and could not be proud of the leader before us today,” Stith said. “This university is in very good hands.”
A video encapsulating Haynie’s history at SU played just before Chairman of SU’s Board of Trustees Jeffery Scruggs gave the charge of office and presented Haynie with the official Chancellor’s Medallion.
After receiving the medal and being officially installed as SU’s 13th Chancellor and President, Haynie took to the stage. In his remarks, he thanked everyone who helped him along his career journey, including his family, Stith and SU’s Board of Trustees.
Haynie shared that he often listens to a YouTube playlist of “consequential speeches” delivered by important historical figures. He referenced a famous speech delivered by former Senator Robert Kennedy, saying the speech was given “in a country divided by the brutal walls and injustice of apartheid.”
“The walls we face today are not only walls of injustice, though those endure. But today we also confront a world divided by something no less urgent and no less demanding of our moral attention,” Haynie said. “That is a world transformed and changing so rapidly, so fundamentally, that the ground beneath our assumptions about the future shifts routinely and in ways that are unsettling.”
Haynie said SU can rise to meet the challenges the world currently faces and emphasized his commitment to preparing students for what he said historians may one day refer to as the “age of acceleration.”
“Together, we must commit to be a place where our students understand the uncertainty of the world, and more than that, a university that empowers our graduates, our graduates to navigate that world with the tools and the knowledge and the rigor and the conviction that they build here,” Haynie said.
Disclaimer: OlaRose Ndubuisi is a columnist for The Daily Orange. Ndubuisi did not influence the editorial content of this article.
