Nancy Cantor comes to Rutgers by way of Syracuse University, where she determinedly promoted diversity and built strong ties between school and community
By Gene I. Maeroff
New Jersey can expect much more than a placeholder in Nancy Cantor when she assumes the chancellorship of Rutgers-Newark. Cantor, who announced in October that she would step down as chancellor and president of Syracuse University, is an intriguing choice for the position in Newark.
She has a long record as a leader devoted to promoting diversity and building relationships between town and gown. Minority enrollment at Syracuse increased markedly under her leadership, and she never hesitated to use the university’s resources to enhance the city, which — like Newark — has known better days.
Cantor, a social psychologist, promoted diversity and civic involvement so extensively that she alienated portions of the faculty who charged that she gave short shrift to research and academic excellence, jeopardizing quality and compromising admissions standards. Cantor and her many supporters vigorously deny these allegations. But it is a fact that Syracuse University voluntary withdrew in 2011 from the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU) just before the institution was going to be dropped from membership in the group of 60 top research schools. The invitation-only AAU took in Rutgers in 1989.
One important example of Syracuse University’s efforts to add to its minority enrollment and simultaneously raise up the city is the key role that Cantor played in Say Yes to Education, a program that has operated in Syracuse since 2008. She committed her institution to providing four-year tuition-scholarships to graduates of the Syracuse public schools who qualify for entrance to Syracuse University.
More than this, Cantor was instrumental in lining up other private colleges and universities, mostly in the Northeast, to provide similar tuition scholarships for Syracuse public school graduates. A main goal of the Say Yes scholarship program is to create a cadre of job-ready young people who will contribute to the economy and civic wellbeing of the city of Syracuse. Advocates of Say Yes make the case that an increasing portion of the population will be in a position to pay taxes and not become recipients of public support.
Newark and its public schools could benefit greatly from the kind of revival in which Cantor immersed herself in Syracuse. It aimed to draw and retain middle-class residents in the city by making the schools more successful and more attractive. In turn, a better-educated workforce was portrayed as a magnet for business and industry.
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