CORRECTION: In a previous version of this article, Chancellor Nancy Cantor’s plans after leaving Syracuse University were misstated. Cantor was not planning to look for another presidency after departing from SU. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Much like Syracuse University, Rutgers University-Newark is an institution surrounded by a city working to revitalize itself.

The desire to continue that revival is one of the reasons Nancy Cantor said she accepted an offer to become one of its leaders — as chancellor.

“It’s really a very good fit with the things that I believe in, in terms of the role of higher education in serving the public good,” she said.

Rutgers University President Robert Barchi announced June 20 that Cantor would become the campus’ next chancellor, effective Jan. 1 — roughly six months earlier than her initial departure date from SU. She announced in October that she would be leaving Syracuse when her contract expired at the end of the spring 2014 semester.

Though Cantor initially intended to finish out the 2013-14 academic year, Rutgers-Newark needed to fill its empty chancellor position sooner, she said. Rutgers-Newark officials were willing to hire an interim chancellor for the first six months of this coming year, but couldn’t wait a full year.

After seeing the success of SU’s chancellor search, Cantor said she discussed her early departure with Board of Trustees Chairman Richard Thompson. They both agreed her exit would not leave SU scrambling to replace her.

Cantor said she thinks SU officials will chose an interim chancellor to take her place for the last months of the 2014 spring semester, though it won’t be discussed until this fall. Currently, there are no candidates for the interim position, she said.

Cantor said she was not planning to look for another presidency when Rutgers-Newark officials approached her with the $385,000-a-year job. The school’s engagement in the city and diverse student body helped were attractive characteristics.

“When they came to me, this was a place that was so much, to use an expression, ‘in my wheelhouse,’ that I was really attracted to it.”

SU and Rutgers-Newark share a lot of common ground, Cantor said. SU’s involvement in rebuilding the city of Syracuse — Cantor’s project, Scholarship in Action — is a good model for the current and future projects at Rutgers-Newark. Her work in creating partnerships and collaborations through city engagement will definitely translate there, she said.

“I think getting everybody engaged together is an important thing and it’s what we’ll be doing,” she said.

Student diversity was another reason Cantor chose to accept the position at Rutgers-Newark. The campus has been ranked the most diverse national university in the country multiple times by U.S. News & World Report.

Cantor said the school’s faculty members are not only committed to student diversity, but to also finding opportunities for their students.

Steven Brechin, Cantor’s husband and sociology professor at SU, is in talks with Rutgers-Newark to possibly teach there, she said.

However, she said no one else from her administration or staff will be leaving with her.

Before coming to Syracuse in 2004, Cantor was chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and provost at the University of Michigan. Before that, she was chair of the psychology department at Princeton University. Rutgers-Newark will be her third public university.

Published on June 29, 2013 at 12:47 pm

Contact Maddy: mjberner@syr.edu