The Syracuse University is actually a private research centre in the city of Syracuse which is also bang in the middle of New York State and about two hundred and fifty miles away from New York City. The University in Syracuse began life as a seminary founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832. The University campus is largely residential and it contains an eclectic mix of buildings from Victorian to contemporary modern. The University's founding college was the the college of Arts and Sciences which was established in 1870. This college is still the principal center of learning in the University and most students will study there.The School of Architecture has been part of the University since 1873 and is the fourth oldest of this type of program in the United States. The School of Education was founded in 1906 and was fundemental in establishing the inclusion movement in the United States. This made way for a fully inclusive education system where all young people would be able to take part in the learning process.
The Syracuse University of today has a large teaching faculty with 897 full time and 107 part time staff. The University has an extensive academic library which houses more than three million books. In fall of 2006 the University had more than twelve thousand full time undergraduate students and a thousand part time. There are also four thousand graduate students studying full time at the University and two thousand grad students studying part time.