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Syracuse University was founded in 1870 as the home for a Methodist-based college in Syracuse, New York, in central New York. It officially opened one year later, as a non-denominational school. Its motto is "Suos Cultores Scientia Coronat," Latin for "Knowledge crowns those who seek her."
Among the university's top-ranked schools are the Newhouse School of Public Communications (whose alumni include Ted Koppel, Bob Costas, and Steve Kroft), the Maxwell School of Public Citizenship and the School of Information Studies. The performing arts and creative writing programs are also nationally recognized.
Other notable alumni include novelist Joyce Carol Oates, U.S. Senator Joe Biden, football players Donovan McNabb and Jim Brown, journalist William Safire, sculptor Sol Lewitt, entertainer Dick Clark, music legend Lou Reed, and writer/producer Aaron Sorkin.
In the 2002-2003 academic year, 12,645 undergraduate, 5,176 graduate, and 783 law students were enrolled at the University, for a total of 18,604. In the fall semester, there were 859 full-time faculty members, and 505 part-time and adjunct faculty members.
The Daily Orange, the school's student newspaper, began publication in 1903, and became independent from the University in 1971.
Syracuse's football and men's basketball teams play in the enclosed on-campus Carrier Dome. The school's teams are known as the Orangemen or Orangewomen, depending upon sex. They participate in NCAA Division I (I-A for football) in the Big East Conference. The men's lacrosse team has won eight national championships, the football team won the national championship in 1959 and the men's basketball team won its first national championship in April 2003.
In December 1988, 35 Syracuse students studying abroad were killed in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The university started an annual scholarship in memory of the students, and built a memorial wall at the main entrance of the campus.
The main SU campus is located on a hill close to downtown Syracuse, NY. The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the SUNY Health Science Center are both located adjacent to the campus. South Campus, about a mile away, is made up primarily of athletic and residential facilities. The university also maintains offices in New York City and Washington, DC, and offers a number of educational opportunities overseas through its Division of International Programs Abroad.
In February 2004, Nancy Cantor of the University of Illinois was named Chancellor, becoming Syracuse's first woman president.
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