Standing before a crowd that gathered in the Maxwell School’s Dr. Paul and Natalie Strasser Legacy Room for an Orange Central event on Friday, Sept. 29, Dean David M. Van Slyke offered a short history lesson about the school’s founding.

George Holmes Maxwell, an 1888 Syracuse University alumnus who became a successful Boston patent attorney, financier, inventor and shoe manufacturer, made a gift to his alma mater to establish a "School of American Citizenship.”

“His generous gift funded what we now proudly call the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, which first opened on Oct. 3, 1924, in Slocum Hall,” Van Slyke explained. It offered an undergraduate citizenship course, a weekly seminar in political science and a one-year graduate program in public administration.

“As you know, we’ve come a long way in the 10 decades since,” the dean added, “offering a range of highly regarded undergraduate and graduate programs that share in the goal of making the world a better place for all. With more than 3,000 students, 200 faculty, and nearly 100 staff, we learn and work in 12 departments and 15 different research centers and institutes. We are an engaged, highly accomplished community of alumni, students, faculty, staff and supporters.”  

Indeed. The dean’s remarks during Orange Central—a campuswide alumni homecoming weekend—served as a kick-off for a year-long celebration of the Maxwell School as it approaches its 100th anniversary in October 2024.

Plans are in the works for special events, including panel discussions, regional get-togethers and two large celebrations—an alumni awards ceremony and gathering in the iconic Smithsonian Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., on May 31, and a grand celebration in Syracuse in the fall of 2024.

“We look forward to welcoming our alumni, faculty, staff and friends back to the place where it all began, as we revel in the spirit of Maxwell,” said the dean.

Other centennial plans include the production of a video celebration of Maxwell’s history, an interactive digital map showing Maxwell’s vast global presence—38,500 alumni reside in all 50 states and 154 countries, and a commemorative edition of the school’s alumni magazine, Maxwell Perspective. Alumni will be invited to engage with the Maxwell School through a variety of outreach efforts, including a social media campaign.

The centennial’s theme connects its past and future: ever strive.

The two words are etched on the wall in the Maxwell School’s first-floor foyer. They begin the Oath of the Athenian City-State, “which serves as a constant reminder of our mission–to leave what we find better, greater and more beautiful than we found it,” Van Slyke said. He told Orange Central attendees, “As we embark on our centennial, let us recommit ourselves to the values and principles that have shaped us over the past century. Together, as a community of scholars, practitioners, and advocates for positive change, we will continue to make a profound impact on the world.”

By Jessica Youngman