 Its airport is the largest in the region.Syracuse is home to Syracuse University, a major research university; Le Moyne College, a Jesuit liberal arts college; SUNY Upstate Medical University, a public medical school; and SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry, a public university focusing on forestry, the environment, and natural resources.French missionaries were the first Europeans to come to this area, arriving to work with the Native Americans in the 1600s.