thursday, november 20, 2025
celebrating 122 years
free
FRAN'S FOUNDATION
Before Syracuse head coach Fran Brown helmed the Orange, he starred on the gridiron at Western Carolina and spent two years in the NFL.
DON'T TEST DEMETRES
While Syracuse freshman Demetres Samuel Jr. hasn’t gotten much run offensively, he’s become an anchor of the Orange’s defense.
university senate
SU plans ‘much stronger’ financial aid after spring’s late offers By Griffin Uribe Brown social media editor
Earlier this year, Syracuse University made national news for offering families late-cycle financial aid packages. The university has different plans this year, said Ryan Williams, SU’s vice president for enrollment services. “We’re planning to go out with a much stronger discount rate off the bat,” he said at Wednesday’s University Senate meeting. “We’re making sure that the families know that we’re putting forth an effort to understand where they are economically.” Ahead of the previous admissions cycle, SU initially budgeted 38.6% of tuition dollars for financial aid, though it ended up at 45%, Williams said. Just about every school in the United States also “scrambled late in the cycle,” he added. This year, the university’s discount rate will remain lower than peer institutions but “increase over historical percentages.” SU’s shift
has moved the overall undergraduate discount rate to 40%, Williams said. “We have been extremely fortunate to have a much lower discount rate than many of our peers for several years,” Williams said. “This past cycle gave us clear indication that the price sensitivity is pushing up our discount rate, and this is not likely to change anytime soon.” Williams told the senate his team is working with university administrators to establish admissions “headcount targets” and a discount rate based on the headcounts. Consultation with deans, teaching capacity and infrastructure constraints will factor into those decisions. SU is tentatively planning for an entering class of 3,750 students, Williams said. Last school year, the university received 47,178 applications to fill the same target — about 12.5 applications per open seat. “These goals and targets are established now based on historical trends, and will be adjusted as needed in January when the application deadline passes and the pool is 95% formed,” Williams said.
40%
is in late December, and regular decisions will be sent in early March. Senators also received updates on SU’s accreditation process from Julie Hasenwinkel, SU’s associate provost for
SU's overall undergraduate financial aid discount rate
Williams said the application landscape has “changed significantly” over the last six years and that the change is likely to continue. He cited factors including declining international enrollment, the questioning of the value of higher education and broader demographic trends affecting higher education as the cause. Looking to the incoming SU class, nearly 13,000 prospective students have visited campus this semester, and admission staff have met with around 36,000 prospective students off-campus, he said. Williams said SU’s early decisions will be released before Orange Appreciation Day, which
For the 2024-25 application cycle, there were 12.5 applications per open seat given target class size. see usen page 5
city
Upstate statues honor 'Founding Mothers' By Grace McCloskey staff writer
‘Hej Syracuse’ Destiny USA constructs ‘full IKEA experience’ ahead of Syracuse opening Story and photos by Henry Daley
W asst. digital editor
hen Ikea opens in Syracuse on Friday, 3,000 products available in store will greet Zink and other local Syracuse residents. IKEA Syracuse is a smaller version of the Swedish furniture store’s other outlets, with the store being 70,000 square feet, located where the former At Home was. see ikea page 5
Over a century after Elizabeth Blackwell and Sarah Lougen Fraser attended SUNY Upstate Medical University, their legacy lives on at the school, using their stories as motivation to keep pushing for representation in the medical field. On Oct. 23, SUNY Upstate unveiled statues of influential women in the medical field at the newly titled “Founding Mothers” courtyard. Bronze statues of Blackwell and Lougen Fraser now greet students and staff as they walk into the university. Students, faculty and staff gathered to honor the legacy of these two alumnae in a “very permanent way,” fourth-year medical student Amelia Gabor said. Blackwell was the first woman in the United States to receive a medical degree and the first woman to graduate from SUNY Upstate in 1849, named Geneva Medical College at the time. She was originally admitted as a joke, as the men at the university doubted she would accept the admission, Gabor said. “They didn’t believe she belonged there; they thought it would be the funniest joke to have a woman in their class, and you know, she was able to tune all of that noise out and get her job done, get her degree and excel at it,” Gabor said. Graduating at the top of her class, Blackwell was dedicated to broadening the effectiveness of medical care in the U.S. and had a great impact on the role of women in public health, Dr. Lynn Cleary, a professor at SUNY Upstate, said. Lougen Fraser was the fourth Black woman in the U.S. to receive a medical degree and the first to graduate from SUNY Upstate in 1876, then called Syracuse University College of Medicine. Later in life, see upstate page 5