private, coeducational institution of higher education, located in Syracuse, New York, U.S. It offers more than 200 undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs through 15 colleges and schools. Research facilities include the All-University Gerontology Center (established 1972), the Center for Advanced Technology in Computer Applications and Software Engineering (1984), and the Center for Science and Technology (1989). Campus libraries are anchored by the Ernest Stevenson Bird Library, which contains more than 2 million books. The State University of New York (New York, State University of (SUNY)) system (SUNY) operates the College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the Health Science Center on the Syracuse campus. Baccalaureate degrees only are granted at Utica College of Syracuse University (founded 1946) in Utica, New York. The university also conducts several international programs, notably in London and Florence. Total enrollment is approximately 18,400.

Syracuse University was founded in 1870 when Genesee College, located in Lima, New York, and operated by the Methodist church, relocated to Syracuse. There it began holding classes in 1871. The university is now nonsectarian. The College of Medicine, originally founded as Geneva Medical College in 1834, was owned by Syracuse from 1872 until 1950, when it joined the SUNY system. Newspaper magnate S.I. Newhouse donated $15 million to Syracuse to establish the S.I. Newhouse (Newhouse family) School of Public Communications. Notable Syracuse alumni include authors Shirley Jackson (Jackson, Shirley) and Joyce Carol Oates (Oates, Joyce Carol), dancer-choreographer Paul Taylor (Taylor, Paul), and football Hall of Famer Jim Brown (Brown, Jim).