UPDATED: Nov. 18 at 1:23 a.m.

Chancellor-designate Kent Syverud plans to also serve as a professor at Syracuse University after he arrives on campus.

Syverud revealed that he will be both the university’s chancellor and a faculty member in the College of Law during Campbell Conversations, a radio show hosted every Sunday night by Grant Reeher, the director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute at SU.

Syverud said he is looking to teach classes in various schools at SU so he can understand the students and their needs, including the School of Education.

“I’ve found for my whole career that teaching students across a semester is the best way to really know what’s working and not working in the institution,” he said on the radio show.

He said he isn’t certain when he’ll start teaching and doubts that he will teach in his first semester at SU, but he added that he has “never gone more than 12 weeks without teaching” in his entire career.

Currently, Syverud teaches about negotiation at the law school at Washington University in St. Louis, where he also serves as dean.

He discussed SU’s national ranking, and said he hoped to improve the College of Law as a faculty member.

“I haven’t, again, studied Syracuse law school’s rankings, but there’s some real strengths in that law school and I’m really excited to help them get even better,” he said.

Syverud also discussed other topics on the radio show, including SU’s undergraduate population size. He said he would look at whether the university had the proper infrastructure to provide a “great education” to a student body of SU’s size. He said the best way for him to understand that would be to familiarize himself with what faculty and students experience on a day-to-day basis.

He also talked about the transition process, and said he has been visiting SU every month to learn about Syracuse and begin developing his vision for the university.

He added that the timing of the transition made it particularly difficult because most transitions occur during the summer. But he said he felt it was better he would be taking the position in January because it would already give him a presence on campus as soon as possible after being named chancellor-designate.

Said Syverud: “It’s hard starting in the middle of an academic year, but what would be even worse would be a very long interregnum, because during that period of time, you have all the responsibilities of the chancellor and none of the authority.”

Published on November 17, 2013 at 6:57 pm

Contact Alfred: alng@syr.edu

@alfredwkng