Message from Gretchen Ritter and Pete Sala

Dear Students, Faculty and Staff:

With just a couple weeks to go until the end of the calendar year, we are writing today to share two important changes coming to campus in 2022.

For the last several months, our teams have been meeting regularly to discuss how, together, we can advance certain components of the Campus Framework, a living, breathing roadmap for the University’s physical future. We are pleased to announce today that in 2022, we will take two significant steps in our ongoing efforts to foster a vibrant campus setting that is welcoming to all. They include the following:

  1. Transforming the Goldstein Alumni and Faculty Center into an inviting space that welcomes campus community members and visitors alike, and
  2. Identifying the appropriate space and creating a world-class faculty center, in close partnership with faculty.

Reimagining Goldstein

Every year, Syracuse University welcomes thousands of visitors to campus, including 25,000 prospective students and their families interested in joining the Orange family. Located at the gateway of our campus, the Goldstein building will now serve as our visitors’ first impression of all Syracuse University has to offer. The Office of Admissions will reside in this space and use it to greet and introduce prospective students to the University. The Division of Advancement and External Affairs, schools, colleges and other units will also continue to leverage this facility for major events, including Orange Central, Family Weekend, Coming Back Together and Commencement, just to name a handful. The second floor of the building will continue to be used year-round as an event space.

While the Goldstein Alumni and Faculty Center has served us well, every year the space becomes less and less utilized. Reimagining this space will better support our community members—current and future—and create an inviting space for all who enter through its doors. The first phase of our efforts to transform this space will commence Monday, Dec. 20, and will be completed by Jan. 18, 2022.

New Faculty Center

As work begins on Goldstein, Academic Affairs, Auxiliary Services and Facilities team members will meet with faculty to solicit input about what they’d like to have in a faculty center, including as it relates to the physical space, amenities, technological needs and so forth. Our goal is to create a state-of-the-art faculty center that fosters a comfortable, collegial and collaborative environment that meets the current and future needs of our diverse faculty cohort.

While we work with our faculty community to conceptualize and construct the permanent space, we will open a temporary faculty center at an interim location. We are exploring and assessing options as we speak and plan to communicate that temporary location before the start of the spring semester.

To our faculty colleagues, if you have immediate ideas you’d like to share, please email provost@syr.edu.

This is an exciting opportunity for our community as we continue to reimagine how the physicality of our campus aligns with goals specific to the student experience, academic excellence and fostering an environment that is welcoming to all.

We look forward to working with the many stakeholders to bring these two equally important concepts to life.

Sincerely,

Gretchen Ritter
Vice Chancellor and Provost

Pete Sala
Vice President and Chief Facilities Officer