Ischool Swot

iSchool Overview

The iSchool was established in 1896 as the School of Library Science and changed its name in 1974 to the School of Information Studies to reflect the expanding information field. Syracuse was the first library school to change its name in this way, hence its claim to be "the original school for the information age". Starting in the 1970s, the school began to add new programs focused more on information science vs. library science, and now offers 2 undergrad degrees, 2 dual undergrad degrees, 4 Masters degrees, 2 Doctoral degrees, and 9 Certificates of Advanced Study (CASs).

The faculty is comprised of three types – Tenure Track, Professors of Practice, and Research Faculty, although always considered as a Faculty of One. Our student population is now close to evenly split between undergrad and masters students, with growth coming more in the undergrad population. In addition, about 25% of our academic credits each year are earned by students from other SU schools & colleges, both grad and undergrad, which swells the size of our teaching responsibilities.

We are a well-managed school, with a discount rate of 16.9% at the masters level, significantly below the University average of 32.19%. At the Doctoral level, our discount rate is 40.44%, while the University average is 85.62%. We have been profitable since Fiscal Year 2008 with only one minor exception in FY 2011 when we had a $5,200 operating deficit. While our expenses this year will slightly outpace our income, we have a good reserve, and will soon be back to profitable as this over-run is due to the one-time expenses of a new space – the ICE Box (Innovation, Collaboration & Entrepreneurship).

While the dollar amount of research funding is not as high as we are striving for, the quality of the research from the iSchool is excellent and well-known. A number of our Tenure Track & Research Faculty have high visibility in the research world both for conducting collaborative...