Here are some faculty responses included in the faculty advisory committee’s report to Chancellor Kent Syverud, obtained by The Daily Orange, which details faculty sentiment toward the proposed creation of a self-sustaining, veteran-focused medical school at Syracuse University:

1. “If this is determined to be a ‘win-win,’ especially for SU’s bottom line, it should be supported. However, I don’t know what crystal ball is being used, and if it can be relied upon.”

2. “SU should have a med school as a university of stature. Our relationship with Upstate is not a strong connection. Let’s do it!”

3. “The proposed medical school aims at a greater integration of the university with the Department of Defense and the US military. This plan will subordinate the academic mission of the university to security interests furthering the corporate and business models already adopted at SU (with questionable success).”

4. “The presence of a medical school will be a valuable addition to the campus and will benefit interdisciplinary research.”

5. “It is impossible to assess the impact without knowledge of the costs and sources of revenue. There has been little or no information on budget and it looks like no one from the budget office is on this committee.”

6. “This plan is little more than an opportunistic way for the university to make money.”

7. “I do not believe that the medical college can be both self-sustaining and inclusive. Sounds almost contradictory.”

8. “I don’t buy your assumption about the medical school being self-sustaining. If medical schools made money, there’d be a hell of a lot more of them, wouldn’t there?”

9. “This could be viewed as an opportunity to cooperate with Upstate Medical (rather than compete with them).”

10. “I can’t imagine there is adequate space within the existing main campus footprint to locate a medical school. And once it is physically separated, like the Warehouse (or the Law School), it becomes peripheral in its connection to “campus life.””

11. “I like the idea of the university trying some risky bets, and I think this certainly qualifies as one. Yet, the university is already immensely complex and generally bad at setting priorities. We must decide to let go of something(s) before taking on new complexities.”

Faculty Advisory Committee Final Report

Published on November 2, 2015 at 10:18 pm

Contact Alexa: atorrens@syr.edu