diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 0ceebd67cadf09f59a7f71696b974ff58cf566f3..d12c83d3c56f36eaef92818d1dd643cda9931021 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ documents those changes that are of interest to users and admins.
  -- Fix select/linear bug resulting in run_job_cnt underflow message if a 
     suspended job is cancelled.
  -- Add test for fsync() error for state save files. Log and retry as needed.
+ -- Log fatal errors from slurmd and slurmctld to syslog.
 
 * Changes in SLURM 2.1.0-pre2
 =============================
diff --git a/src/slurmctld/controller.c b/src/slurmctld/controller.c
index 72042dbf6c9b0b263649fdcf491add2cbe7f4dbc..2446049ddf3688a7516cdffe9a5c3b5e078050fb 100644
--- a/src/slurmctld/controller.c
+++ b/src/slurmctld/controller.c
@@ -1634,7 +1634,7 @@ void update_logging(void)
 	if (daemonize) {
 		log_opts.stderr_level = LOG_LEVEL_QUIET;
 		if (slurmctld_conf.slurmctld_logfile)
-			log_opts.syslog_level = LOG_LEVEL_QUIET;
+			log_opts.syslog_level = LOG_LEVEL_FATAL;
 	} else
 		log_opts.syslog_level = LOG_LEVEL_QUIET;
 
diff --git a/src/slurmd/slurmd/slurmd.c b/src/slurmd/slurmd/slurmd.c
index 413f0ef0398357f1d4f44da7c40551a3baef16cd..65852da132cbacd2e1a540efd423c244ab12d64a 100644
--- a/src/slurmd/slurmd/slurmd.c
+++ b/src/slurmd/slurmd/slurmd.c
@@ -1353,7 +1353,7 @@ static void _update_logging(void)
 	if (conf->daemonize) {
 		o->stderr_level = LOG_LEVEL_QUIET;
 		if (conf->logfile)
-			o->syslog_level = LOG_LEVEL_QUIET;
+			o->syslog_level = LOG_LEVEL_FATAL;
 	} else 
 		o->syslog_level  = LOG_LEVEL_QUIET;