Kenneth A. Shaw is Chancellor Emeritus and University Professor at Syracuse University. Recently retired as the tenth Chancellor of Syracuse (with 10,500 undergraduate and 4,000 graduate students and a member of the Association of American Universities), Shaw led the University through the most comprehensive restructuring process in its history during the early 1990s and set it on a course to achieve its vision of becoming the nation’s leading student- centered research university. During his tenure, there was an appreciable improvement in the quality of incoming classes (a 17% increase in the number of new students who came from the top 10% of their high school classes) with corresponding improvement in attrition and graduation rates. Furthermore, a successful $373M fund drive made possible numerous campus and programmatic improvements. Syracuse University was described in an edition of Change magazine as “an institution that has been brilliantly successful over the last 10 years…in creating consensus for its refined mission, building an infrastructure to support it, and changing its campus culture.”

Shaw served as a university president for nearly 30 years. Prior to coming to Syracuse in 1991, he was President of the University of Wisconsin System. Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Shaw presided over the 26-campus system which serves more than 160,000 students. In addition, he was Chancellor of the Southern Illinois University System from 1979 to 1986, President of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville from 1977 to 1979 and Vice President and Dean of Towson State University from 1969 to 1977.

Shaw was chair of the Commissioner’s Advisory Council on Higher Education for the New York State Education Department. He served on the New York State Governor’s Commission on Education Reform and also served on the boards of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the Council on Independent Colleges and Universities and the American Council on Education. He is a member of the board of directors of the Student Loan Marketing Association Holding Company. In the Syracuse community, he is a member of the board of directors of the Unity Mutual Life Insurance Company and is chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Development Association.

A native of Illinois, Shaw earned a bachelor of science degree from Illinois State University in 1961, a master of education degree from the University of Illinois-Urbana in 1963 and a Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1966. He is also the recipient of honorary degrees from Syracuse University in 2004, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville in 2002, Purdue University in 1990, Illinois State University in 1987, Illinois College in 1986, and Towson State University in 1979.