Charles N. Sims (May 18, 1835 – March 27, 1908) was an American Methodist preacher and the third chancellor of Syracuse University, serving from 1881 to 1893.

Sims served as the first president of Valparaiso Male and Female College for two years starting in 1860 before resigning to become a minister.

[1] After serving as a minister at various institutions, such as the Summerfield Methodist Church of Brooklyn, Sims was approached to become chancellor of Syracuse University in 1881.

Sims’s efforts to persuade the Onondagas to sign a treaty with the state individualizing their landholdings ended in failure.

It is the merest farce in the world to treat them as a nation.”[10] He was supportive of the Syracuse Orangemen football, who played their first game during his presidency in 1889.