The College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) was everywhere during Chancellor J. Michael Haynie's two-day inauguration, starting with "The Summit: Syracuse University into the Future," a daylong, campus-wide event held Thursday, Sept. 17. Visitors got a hands-on look at research and student support across the College at the Syracuse Summit Showcase in Schine Student Center. A&S programs and offices such as the Center for Global Indigenous Cultures and Environmental Justice, the Engaged Humanities Network, Project Mend, the Humanities Center, the Community Folk Art Center, the Office of Student Success, the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and the Forensic and National Security Sciences Institute invited visitors to take part in representative activities similar to what students could expect, like hearing screenings and mock crime scene investigations.

The College also put together one of the day's signature panels, "Solving Grand Challenges Together: A&S Interdisciplinary Research Across Syracuse University." Greg Hoke, A&S' associate dean for creativity, scholarship and research and chair of Earth and Environmental Sciences, co-moderated alongside his counterpart at the College of Engineering and Computer Science, Bing Dong.

Three A&S physicists rounded out the panel. Vice President for Research Duncan Brown was one; the others were Alexander Maloney, who directs the Institute for Quantum and Information Science, and Lisa Manning, there for the BioInspired Institute. Psychology professor Joseph Ditre represented the Center for Health Behavior Research and Innovation, and Maloney, Manning and Ditre each brought along a student researcher from their institute. "Often the best scholarship, the best research, the best science is done at those boundaries," Hoke said.

The next day, at Haynie's investiture ceremony in the JMA Wireless Dome, A&S and Newhouse student OlaRose Ndubuisi '29, the 2024-25 New York State Youth Poet Laureate, read an original poem about Haynie's connection with students. Haynie's own address struck a similar note: "I do not stand here with all the answers," he said, "but I do stand here with a promise. We will ask the right questions, together, with honesty and without fear."

Dean Behzad Mortazavi heard that promise echo A&S' own values and vision. The College has long been asking how to teach judgment in the age of the machine; what a degree is worth, and to whom; and who gets to do the asking. "This College has been working on those for a long time," he said. "We're ready to keep going."