Change, bring it on!

Nancy Cantor, Syracuse University’s chancellor since 2004, has announced last Friday via an email that she is resigning from her position. This decision will be effective in June 2014. 

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Announcing this decision a year in a half in advance seems a little anticipated. Through the email, she keeps referring to SU’s great work over the years, and how the university is a leading higher education place contributing to the world’s greater good. Although all of that sounds very nice, it seems like she is trying to say a lot to, at the end, not say much about why she is really leaving.

The fact that she declared her departure months before it happens is on the one hand a great way for the university and its staff to get prepared to the change. But on the other hand, it sounds like she might stop caring about the university’s good because she knows there’s a determined end to her contribution.

From a PR perspective, managing her departure will surely be a challenge. By the time she left, she would have been at this position for 10 years, bringing her working lifestyle and beliefs among this big university. It is going to be a challenge to rebuild the university’s identity around a new chancellor, still unknown. It also is a challenge today to deal with the consequences of such an announcement. The fact that she didn’t give much reason explaining her departure will give some interesting PR releases.

Being a SU student for only three months makes me feel a little bit disconnected from such information. It is an important change, but it seems like a controversial one too considering SU’s past few years. The weeks to come will surely be of interest in learning more about this departure. I’m also curious to observe if her work at the university gets affected.