Students, faculty, and staff at Syracuse University will have the chance over the next few weeks to provide input to a special committee that new Chancellor J. Michael Haynie formed back in June.
It was also back in June when Haynie announced that SU had fallen short on its undergraduate enrollment target for this academic year and that he anticipated an operating deficit of about 1.5% for the academic year. In the same message, he described SU's overall financial position as "stable and structurally strong."
Haynie told the committee it needs to explore two questions: What is and what can be SU's contribution for its students and American higher education? And what must change and what must be preserved for the school to deliver on its promise to campus and overall community?
The committee will host a series of listening sessions this fall, and a community survey is also in development. The committee's report to Chancellor Haynie is expected by Nov. 15.
On June 30, Haynie updated the campus and included questions that high achieving students are asking -- Is college worth it, and more specifically, is Syracuse University worth it?
"The committee's recommendations must be ambitious enough to drive meaningful change and grounded enough to be implemented," Haynie wrote in the June 30 update.
Haynie, who has worked for Syracuse for about 20 years, started his work as chancellor earlier this year. SU held his investiture ceremony this past Friday, Sept. 18. In his remarks, Haynie told the gathering in the JMA Wireless Dome that in the years ahead, SU will have some things to think about.
"Choices about where we invest and grow and what we let diminish; about whom we welcome and how hard we work to keep them; about whether we have the courage to ask again and again whether we're doing enough and then do more," Haynie said
He went on to say, "I do not stand here with all the answers, but I do stand here with a promise: we will ask the right questions together with honesty and without fear; we will not mistake comfort for excellence; we will not mistake tradition for wisdom."
About Haynie
The SU board of trustees on March 3, 2026 appointed Haynie as the school's 13th chancellor and president. He had been serving as vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation and executive dean of the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.
Haynie has been a member of the Syracuse University community for more than two decades and a senior member of the school's leadership team for more than 10 years, per SU's March 3 announcement.
Haynie is the founder and executive director of the D'Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families, which SU describes as "the nation's first interdisciplinary academic institute chartered to advance the policy, economic and wellness concerns of America's veterans and military-connected families."
Before joining the SU faculty, Haynie served for 14 years as an officer in the U.S. Air Force.
In 2018, he was named University Professor, described as the most "senior and selective" academic distinction awarded to SU faculty. In 2021, the school awarded Haynie its highest honor, the Chancellor's Medal, for his leadership of SU's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He is a widely recognized scholar in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation and strategy, the school added.
