Maxwell School News

The Maxwell School’s Tenth Decade Project provides seed funding for worthy scholarly projects that have the potential to produce significant external research funding and high-impact publications. Since it was created, the Tenth Decade Project has attracted nearly $850,000 in gifts from 267 individual donors, including a lead gift from long-time Maxwell supporters Gerry and Daphna Cramer.

A unique arrangement between Syracuse University, the Syracuse Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and SoldierStrong has resulted in the donation of a groundbreaking virtual reality system to treat veterans experiencing post-traumatic stress. SoldierStrong co-founder Chris Meek '92 B.A. (Econ/PSc)/'18 E.M.P.A. says "it is both clinically effective and it reduces the stigma that many service members feel about seeking treatment for their post-traumatic stress," of the effectiveness of virtual reality treatment. 

As undergraduate programs have become more visible, Maxwell donors—many of them alumni of the undergraduate majors themselves—have grown more eager to support those programs.

Junko Takeda, an associate professor of history at Maxwell who focuses on European and global histories, has been named the inaugural Daicoff Faculty Scholar. The five-year appointment recognizes Takeda’s contributions as a teacher and mentor, productive researcher, and engaged citizen and leader at the school.

Sarah Stegeman, a doctoral candidate in history, is embarking on dissertation research on the role of African-American women in colonizing Liberia. “There’s a large gap in the historiography of Liberia,” she says, “where women have not been part of the historical narrative.”

The drive to fund a new scholarship reminds us there is an alumni community bound in the ways of Bill Coplin.

"The most forward-thinking companies integrate a sustainability approach into their corporate strategy and how they operate. Their employees, customers, supply chains, and even their investors are watching closely and demanding progress," says Kenneth Pontarelli '92 B.S. (Econ), a former Goldman Sachs executive who funds a Maxwell-based professorship in environmental sustainability and finance.

The Northeast Residential Energy Use Pilot Study is an interdisciplinary project between students and faculty in the Maxwell School, SU College of Law, SU’s iSchool, and the SU College of Engineering and Computer Science. The study will employ high resolution metering for long-term monitoring of electricity usage of individual households.

Business success enables Marvin Lender to support the causes that matter to him most. And few matter more than social justice — the focus of a new Syracuse University center bearing the Lender name.

Thanks to the generosity of one “citizen of the world,” dozens of budding scholars have chased far-flung intellectual goals.

Gerry Cramer was the perfect friend of the Maxwell School - generous, visionary, and ultimately trusting. Cramer passed away on February 13, 2018.

Peter Wilcoxen, professor of public administration and international affairs, will serve as the inaugural Ajello Professor in Energy and Environmental Policy. The professorship was created from a $250,000 gift from Maxwell School alumnus James Ajello ’76 M.P.A.

A new faculty scholars program, which recognizes top teachers with a special emphasis on lower-division, team-taught, interdisciplinary courses, is named the Robert D. McClure Professors of Teaching Excellence, named Bob McClure, former associate dean and current professor at the Maxwell School.

“The Otey and Barbara Scruggs scholarship is a fitting tribute to a treasured member of the History Department and his wife,” said Associate Professor and Chair of History Norman Kutcher. “Otey cared deeply about the University generally and the History Department especially. Graduate education grew substantially in strength and numbers under his leadership, so it is fitting that this scholarship will benefit our most deserving graduate students.”

Andrew Wender Cohen, professor of history, has been announced as the recipient of the Montgomery Gruber Professorship. Additionally, the O’Hanley Faculty Endowed Fund for Faculty Excellence, which serves to help recognize, reward and retain excellent teachers at the school, announced three new scholars: Azra Hromadžić, associate professor of anthropology; Natalie Koch, associate professor of geography; and Rebecca Schewe, assistant professor of sociology.