State University of New York
The State University of New York's 64 geographically dispersed campuses bring educational opportunity within commuting distance of virtually all New York state residents. The campuses comprise the nation's largest centrally managed system of public higher education.
When founded in 1948, the university consolidated 29 state-operated, but unaffiliated, institutions into the SUNY System. In response to need, the university system has grown to a point where its impact is felt educationally, culturally and economically the length and breadth of the state.
More than 403,000 students pursue traditional study in classrooms or work at home, at their own pace, through such innovative institutions as Empire State College, whose students follow individualized and often non-traditional paths to a degree. Of the total enrollment, about 36 percent of the students are 25 years or older, reflecting SUNY's services to specific constituencies, such as refresher courses for the professional community, continuing educational opportunities for returning veterans, and personal enrichment for more mature persons.
The SUNY System's research contributions are helping to solve some of modern society's most urgent problems. It was a SUNY scientist who first warned the world of potentially harmful mercury deposits in canned fish, and another who made the connection between automobile and industrial smoke combining to cause changes in weather patterns. Other SUNY researchers continue important studies in such wide-ranging areas as immunology, marine biology, sickle cell anemia and organ transplantation.
More than 1,000 public service activities are currently pursued on SUNY campuses. Examples of these efforts include: special training courses for local government personnel, state civil service personnel and the unemployed, participation by campus personnel in joint community planning or project work, and campus-community arrangements for community use of campus facilities.
A distinguished faculty includes nationally and internationally known figures in all the major disciplines. Their efforts are recognized each year in the form of such prestigious awards as Fulbright Hayes, Guggenheim and Danforth Fellowships.
The SUNY System offers a wide diversity of what are considered the more conventional fields, such as engineering, medicine, literature, dairy farming, medical technology, accounting, social work, forestry and automotive technology. Additionally, its responsiveness to progress in all areas of learning and to tomorrow's developing societal needs has resulted in concentrations which include pollution, urban studies, computer science, immunology , preservation of national resources and microbiology.
SUNY programs for the educationally and economically disadvantaged have become models for delivering better learning opportunities to a once-forgotten segment of society. The System's Educational Opportunity Centers (EOCs) offer high school equivalency and college preparatory courses to provide young people and adults with the opportunity to begin college or to learn marketable skills. In addition, campus-based Educational Opportunity Programs provide counseling, developmental education and financial aid to disadvantaged students in traditional degree programs on most SUNY campuses.
Overall, at its EOCs, two-year colleges, four-year campuses and university and medical centers, SUNY offers some 4,000 academic programs. Degree opportunities range from two-year associate programs to doctoral studies offered at 12 senior campuses.
The 30 two-year community colleges operating within the SUNY System play a unique role in the expansion of educational opportunity by: providing local industry with trained technicians in a wide variety of occupational curriculums; providing transfer options to students who wish to go on and earn advanced degrees; and providing the community with yet another source for technical and professional upgrading as well as personal enrichment.
During its brief history, the SUNY System has graduated some 1.4 million alumni, the majority of whom are pursuing their careers in communities across the state.
SUNY is governed by a board of trustees, appointed by the governor, which directly determines the policies to be followed by the 34 state-supported campuses. Community colleges have their own local boards of trustees whose relationship to the SUNY board is defined by law. The state contributes one third to 40 percent of their operating cost and one-half of their capital costs.
The State University of New York motto is: "To learn; to search; to serve."
