Nancy Cantor

Early in her career, Cantor held teaching positions at the University of Michigan and Princeton University. As an academic administrator, she served as chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Michigan.

In 2004, Cantor was selected chancellor of Syracuse University.[7] There, she presided over a general deterioration in the university's academic standing as a research center, the withdrawal of Syracuse from the American Association of Universities, and was blamed for a decline in admissions standards, with its acceptance rate climbing from mid-50 to more than 60 percent.[7][8] Faculty took issue with what was characterized as her "authoritarian rule".[7][9]

Cantor came under scrutiny for failing to disclose to the university's trustees what she knew about child molestation allegations against basketball coach Bernie Fine and for handling the allegations as an internal personnel matter rather than calling the police, a decision she later said she regretted.[10][9] In 2006, she ordered the closure of student-run TV station HillTV over objections to a satire program aired on the channel. More than 60 faculty signed an open letter protesting the move and her decision was overturned by a university panel.[11]

Cantor headed a major fundraising campaign at Syracuse and was responsible for the development of the university’s Scholarship in Action initiative, which emphasized the role of the university as a public good. The Connective Corridor was the physical part of Scholarship in Action that aimed to bridge gaps between a wealthy university and a surrounding struggling city.[9][12] This includes the university's having been named among the first institutions to earn the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's classification as a university committed to Community Engagement, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York's having granted Cantor the 2008 Carnegie Corporation Academic Leadership Award.[13][14] Scholarship in Action was both popular and divisive at the same time.[15][16]

Reflecting on her tenure, the Daily Orange observed that it was "stained with controversial behaviors and bird-by-bird decisions" and the "stifling of criticism and open dialogue".[7]

In 2014, Cantor left Syracuse and took a position as chancellor of Rutgers University–Newark.[9]

Cantor was video-taped angrily confronting police during a minor Rutgers-Newark traffic accident investigation on March 4, 2019, involving her driver's car and a Rutgers University police car. The confrontation, which involved Cantor trying to pull rank on the police, was reported in the news media.[17][18] The police video of the incident also went viral online when outbursts of Cantor shouting: "If I miss my plane, you folks are in big trouble!" and "I’m the chancellor!" caught the public's attention. One of her staff members who had arrived on the scene was recorded saying: "Take a picture and let her go. Would you do this if she was the president of the United States? No, no you wouldn't."[19] Three months later, in June 2019, Cantor issued an apology for her behavior, after an open records request brought the video to light, thus sparking viral outrage.[20]

Among the boards of which Cantor is a member are the American Institutes for Research, the New York Academy of Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Say Yes to Education, in addition to being past chair of the board of directors of the American Association for Higher Education and 2006 chair of the board of the American Council on Education (ACE).[21] She is an Honorary Trustee of the American Psychological Foundation and was national co-chair of Imagining America's Tenure Team Initiative. She served as co-chair of the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council, a post to which she was appointed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2011.[22]