The Summit: A Campuswide Call to Imagine What’s Next
Mark your calendar: The Summit kicks off festivities on Thursday, Sept. 17.
Reflecting Chancellor Haynie’s belief that the University’s greatest strength is its people, The Summit invites the University community to explore the ideas, people and collaboration defining Syracuse University’s future.
The schedule is designed so community members can drop in for a single session or take part in the entire day.
The Passport Challenge
Pick up a limited-edition Syracuse keychain and event passport in Panasci Lounge during the Summit Showcase, then collect three different commemorative charms as you move through the day. Complete at least five passport activities and turn it in at Orange Fest on Sept. 18 for a chance to win tickets to the University Suite at a men’s basketball game. Also stop by for inauguration keepsakes, including blankets and drinkware, showing your Syracuse University spirit.
Start the Day With Big Ideas
Head to Schine Student Center at 9 a.m. for the Syracuse Summit Showcase, where schools and colleges from across campus will have tables organized around five themes: artificial intelligence, experiential inquiry, creating (innovation, invention and design), engagement and access. Presentations include the following:
- Check out hands-on demos, including an immersive crime scene experience from Forensic and National Security Sciences; live hearing tests from the Gebbie Speech, Language and Hearing Clinic team; and inventions built by students from Invent@SU.
- The College of Engineering and Computer Science and School of Information Studies are teaming up on an AI and robotics showcase.
- The Newhouse School of Public Communications will spotlight student-led national reporting alongside an interactive opportunity with the Center for the Creator Economy.
- The College of Arts and Sciences will showcase community-engaged humanistic scholarship and its impact on the Syracuse community.
- The College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) will showcase art, design and performances across all disciplines.
- Other participants also include the School of Architecture, Falk College, the College of Law, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the National Veterans Resource Center.

Keynote: Future in Focus
At noon, Goldstein Auditorium is the place for Future in Focus, where members of our community will share personal stories of change, resilience and reinvention through a series of short talks.
Doors will open at 11:30 a.m. for a complimentary lunch buffet, and the program will begin at noon.
An Afternoon of Discovery
From 1 to 5 p.m., there will be a full slate of collaborative sessions across campus.
- Committing to Academic Access and Inclusion for All Learners at SU and Beyond (1-1:45 p.m., Huntington Hall Commons), a panel with the School of Education, College of Law and College of Professional Studies.
- VPA in the Making: Ideas, Experiments, Performances and Possibilities (1-5 p.m., first floor, Shaffer Art Building), featuring a college-wide exhibition of student, faculty and alumni work, with pop-up performances in Shemin Auditorium.
- Game Changers: A Conversation with Mike Levine of CAA Sports (2-3 p.m., Flaum Grand Hall, Whitman School of Management). Levine, the co-founder of CAA’s Sports Division, talks career and the business of sports media with Falk College Dean Jeremy Jordan.
- Veteran and Military-Connected Syracuse: Education, Research and Impact (3-4:30 p.m., National Veterans Resource Center Lobby). Meet student veterans and ROTC cadets, tour the Hall of Honor and NVRC Gallery, and grab complimentary coffee from the Canteen Café.
- Solving Grand Challenges Together (3-3:45 p.m., Schine Student Center). College of Arts and Sciences faculty and researchers dig into interdisciplinary work spanning the University.
- The 38th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy (3:30-5 p.m., Strasser Legacy Room, Eggers Hall). Journalist and author Gary Taubes will speak on diet, disease and the limits of scientific consensus.
- AI Across Syracuse: Ideas, Innovation and Impact (4-4:45 p.m., Schine Student Center). Faculty from across the University will share how their program, unit or initiative is working with AI and why it matters.
Elsewhere, don’t miss two exhibitions at Bird Library: “” (all day) tracing the impact of the University’s 13 chancellors across more than 150 years, and “” (2 to 5 p.m.), a University Archives pop-up on how students have driven change on campus.
On the Einhorn Walk, stop by “Charting Our Future Together.” At this interactive station, you can add your own ideas about where Syracuse should be headed, from what campus looks like in 20 years to what every student should experience by 2045.