The chancellor of Syracuse University is looking for a massage.

Kent Syverud just entered a health expo at Flanagan­­ Gymnasium and the first thing he wants to find is a massage chair. He makes his way around the gym, pointing out the condom booth, saying hello to a student in a cigarette costume and touting an environmentally friendly Tops bag.

He finally spots the chair. And as he makes his way toward it, he’s pulled aside by one of the participants at the fair. The two have a firm handshake and chat. Syverud poses for a photo for the man to tweet out. Then, the conversation ends, and it’s time for Syverud to go.

Being chancellor doesn’t leave much time for massages.

This year’s been one in which the chancellor doesn’t think he could have slept any less. A year in which the honeymoon period was swept from under his feet, and left him with 18 days of students sitting in Crouse-Hinds Hall, a 94-page report exposing SU Athletics’ closet of skeletons and 11 workgroups and steering committees strategizing the university’s future.

Many are supportive of the chancellor saying his first full academic year at SU was an impossible one, consumed with serious challenges and hard decisions.

But despite the ups and downs of the turbulent year, there’s a formula behind almost every decision the chancellor has made.

Get the facts. Listen. Collaborate.

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Syverud’s mindset is almost always the same when handling conflict: he reads all the documents, talks to everybody and never has people summarize.

He used this strategy of immersing himself in the facts when he negotiated the $20 billion Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Trust fund, founded by BP after the oil spill, and he’s tried to bring this same mentality to decisions he’s making at SU, with varying success.

In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon explosion spilled masses of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico. The White House and the Justice Department appointed Syverud to be one of the two trustees to oversee the $20 billion trust fund to compensate victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

One of Syverud’s strengths as a trustee was his ability to bring in experts in areas related to the spill that the he wasn’t knowledgeable about, said John Martin, the other Deepwater Horizon trustee and a former U.S. District Court judge.

But when Syverud took over as chancellor, he wished he got more of the facts.

It’s one of his biggest regrets.

“I wish I had more time to learn (about) the place before I started,” Syverud said. “Because there was a lot of challenges going on and a lot of pent up decisions or concerns that had been in process for years that I kind of came in the middle of the year to address.”

One of those included the NCAA investigations, which had been ongoing prior to Syverud becoming chancellor. While he doesn’t consider it an accomplishment, Syverud said he was relieved to see the conclusion of the NCAA investigation, which he said took up a majority of his time this year.

Another includes the closing of the Advocacy Center last summer, which was done as part of the university’s efforts to reorganize sexual assault services for legal reasons. Syverud previously said he wished he was more informed about the center’s role on campus in dealing with sexual assault.

For some on campus, such as Becca Glaser, a member of THE General Body, Syverud’s handling of the Advocacy Center was a clear example of how the new administration handles issues.

“He seems kind, which I appreciate, but it seems his administration is interested in doing things their way,” said Glaser, a third year graduate student in the Creative Writing Program.

Deborah Pellow, an anthropology professor in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, believes there’s an “annoyance” among critics because Syverud has a fact-based personality that doesn’t privilege anyone — which wasn’t always the case for the past 10 years, she explained.

And while some criticize his law background, Pellow, who was a member of the chancellor search committee, said the committee saw him “head and shoulders” above the other candidates as he showed “genuine leadership.”

She brought up the example of Bird Library stopping its renovations after finding chemicals in the library’s old carpet. The construction couldn’t go forward until final approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which took several years.

The former administration’s stance on the issue aligned with the philosophy “you can’t move the federal government,” Pellow said. When Syverud came to campus, he told the chief financial officer that SU had one month to resolve the issue, or Syverud would turn to the governor, she said.

“My point is, he knows what has to be done and he’s willing to do it.”

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One night, in 1991, Syverud cried from the heart.

In 6,886 words, Syverud, then a professor at the University of Michigan, wrote an exasperated response to an administrator who wasn’t paying attention to students.

The essay, called “Taking Students Seriously: A Guide for New Law Teachers,” has become one of Syverud’s most famous pieces of work. Among the advice, he describes the importance of listening.

“If you don’t force yourself to listen to what the students are saying, you end up missing what is going on is your own class,” Syverud writes. “… So force yourself to listen, and to endure silence.”

Almost 25 years later, Syverud still thinks advice from the essay applies to SU and his own chancellorship.

His ability to listen is a large part of what makes his leadership effective, which became clear when he interacted with students, specifically THE General Body and its sit-in, said Patrick Neary, president of the Graduate Student Organization.

“The fact that he has been willing to take a step back and say, ‘OK, let me listen to you, figure out what’s going on, potentially reconsider and move forward,’ I think there are a number of people who respect him for that,” Neary said.

Syverud’s ability to listen to others can be traced back to his days as a law professor at Michigan said Joel Seligman, the president of the University of Rochester and a former colleague. Seligman said people view Syverud as having a judicious personality; he listened patiently to the facts and was willing to hear both sides.

“In my view, one of the most important things a leader needs to do is have the capacity to listen. Not shoot from the hip, to take the time to understand the problems,” Seligman said. “You have to be decisive at a certain point, but it’s very important that before you get there you understand what’s going on.

“Those are the kind of civil virtues that Kent has. He’s someone who is authentic. What you see is what you get.”

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It took 11 words for David Rubin to see that Syverud would be different.

When the two first met in December 2013, Syverud said something that still sticks with Rubin: whenever you know something that I need to know, tell me.

When first arriving on campus, Syverud quickly became aware that he needed people to feel comfortable telling him information that he needed to hear, a quality former Chancellor Nancy Cantor never had, said Rubin, dean emeritus of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

“That, to me, was a really good sign how different he was,” Rubin said.

To many at SU, Syverud’s collaborative leadership style will lead the university into the next decade.

The process of Fast Forward, one of Syverud’s main initiatives, and deciding the direction of the university’s future has been much more open for the campus community. The previous administration didn’t give many opportunities for input, said Robert Van Gulick, a philosophy professor and a university senator.

The Day of Conversation in February and other commenting periods have allowed for different constituents to offer ideas and suggestions about the university’s future, Van Gulick said.

To a number of faculty members on campus, Fast Forward and the various strategic plans are good in theory, but in reality are producing vague, undefined goals.

Fast Forward makes many faculty members question the role of the University Senate, as it has not had the opportunity to comment. The idea of “erosion of faculty governance” has been a concern at SU for a number of years, said Eileen Schell, an associate professor in the writing program.

“The chancellor has assured us that he believes in transparency and academic governance, and I’d like to see him pursue that,” Schell said. “And I’d like to believe that what he says is what he actually believes.”

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In his inauguration address last April, Syverud said SU’s goal should not be based on one slogan, idea or chancellor, but instead by the work of the university community.

But fast forward 369 days later to the health expo in Flanagan Gymnasium, the chancellor of Syracuse University finds himself looking for a massage chair.

Is it hard to be chancellor when you have such a vocal campus community?

He stops walking. He pauses, thinking before he answers the question. Finally shaking his head no.

“I think some campuses are more Disney World-like in that students are customers, happily consuming whatever is presented from the menu,” Syverud said. “That in my view is not a good education. A good education is actually taking responsibility for figuring things out.

“It makes things more exciting at times for a chancellor, but I can handle that excitement if the students can, and they seem to be doing just fine.”

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Published on April 27, 2015 at 11:59 pm

Contact Meredith: mhnewman@syr.edu | @MerNewman93