Nancy Cantor

Nancy Ellen Cantor (born February 4, 1952) is an American academic administrator who has been serving as the 14th president of Hunter College in New York City since August 2024.

She previously served as the 2nd chancellor of Rutgers University–Newark from 2014 to 2024, as the 11th chancellor at Syracuse University from 2003 to 2014, and as the 11th chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2001 to 2004.

Early life and education Cantor was born in New York City. with Walter Mischel inspired by the categorization research of Eleanor Rosch and Carolyn Mervis. and then chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2001 until 2004.

Syracuse University In 2004, Cantor was selected chancellor of Syracuse University. The university's board of trustees judged her initial five years to be very successful, pointing to her work with students, faculty and staff that leveraged the university's historic strengths, fostered innovation and creativity, and connected the institution in ways with the community, all of which has increased the university's quality and national visibility. Cantor received criticism for an overall deterioration in the university's academic standing as a research center resulting in a decline in admissions standards, with its acceptance rate climbing from mid-50 to more than 60 percent. Certain faculty members took issue with what was seen as "authoritarian rule". Syracuse history professor David H. Bennett commented, “My fear is that the university is moving away from selective to inclusive."

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. It was noted that Scholarship in Action was both popular and divisive at the same time. 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.

In 2006, following segments of racially discriminatory content that aired at the student-run TV station HillTV, Cantor halted production so that a university panel could review the content in keeping with the university's conduct code. “With free expression comes responsibilities for being a part of a campus community,” Cantor said in an interview. "We have codes of conduct. I don’t think it is beyond question to ask people who are in a diverse campus community to abide by those codes."

The University received criticism for withdrawing from the Association of American Universities membership in 2011 for "not meeting AAU criteria for producing research". Cantor's premature resignation 2 years prior to the ending of her contract raised questions from those at the university as to whether or not she was "pressured" to leave.

Rutgers University In 2014, Cantor left Syracuse and took a position as chancellor of Rutgers University–Newark. Excerpts of Cantor shouting "I’m the chancellor!" went viral online. Cantor issued an apology for her behavior, after an open records request brought the video to light three months later.

Hunter College On February 13, 2024, Cantor was appointed as the 14th President of Hunter College, and began her term on August 12, 2024.

Awards Cantor is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. She was the 1985 recipient of the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions in the area of personality psychology. Her award citation emphasized her contributions to the study of social categorization, specifically, how concepts are structured in terms of probabilities as fuzzy sets.

Personal life Cantor is married to sociology professor Steven R. Brechin, who teaches at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.