India, Aug. 30 -- When he was the director of international student services at Syracuse University, Juan Tavares received a regular Saturday email from the dean of admissions reporting the tally of student applications, acceptances and enrollment deposits.

During the pandemic the numbers began to slide, so Tavares offered the admissions team seven suggestions to improve recruiting, he said. The recommendations centered on the idea that Syracuse was failing to recruit aggressively enough.

"The problem with Syracuse is that the school thinks of itself as like an Ivy, but it's not," Tavares said.

Tavares, who no longer works at the school, said his recommendations went nowhere.

In 2025, the weaknesses he had pointed out collided with Pr...