State University of New York

The State University of New York (SUNY SOO-nee) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. Led by chancellor John B. King, the SUNY system has 87,956 employees, including 29,427 faculty members, and some 7,660 degree and certificate programs overall and a $13.37 billion budget.

With 25,000 acres of land, SUNY's largest campus is SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, which neighbors the State University of New York Upstate Medical University—the largest employer in the SUNY system with over 10,959 employees. Its flagship universities are Stony Brook University on Long Island in southeastern New York and University at Buffalo in the west. Its research university centers also include Binghamton University and the University at Albany.

The State University of New York was established in 1948 by Governor Thomas E. Dewey, through legislative implementation of recommendations made by the Temporary Commission on the Need for a State University (1946–1948). The commission was chaired by Owen D. Young, who was at the time Chairman of General Electric. The system was greatly expanded during the administration of Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, who took a personal interest in design and construction of new SUNY facilities across the state. Since 1978, its primary administrative offices have been located at SUNY Plaza in Albany with satellite offices in Manhattan and Washington, D.C.

Apart from units of the institutionally separate City University of New York (CUNY), SUNY comprises all New York state-supported institutions of higher education. In addition, SUNY has four contracted colleges/school (New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, New York State College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University, New York State College of Human Ecology at Cornell University, and the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University) operating concurrently with Cornell University, and graduates from these four contracted colleges/school have alumni status from both institutions.

History

New York was one of the last US states to set up a state college and university system. The first colleges were established privately, with some arising from local seminaries, and New York State had a long history of supporting higher education before the creation of the SUNY system. The oldest college that is part of the SUNY System is SUNY Potsdam, established in 1816 as the St. Lawrence Academy.

In 1835, the State Legislature acted to establish stronger programs for public school teacher preparation and designated one academy in each senatorial district to receive money for a special teacher-training department. St. Lawrence Academy received this distinction, and it later designated Potsdam as the site of the Normal School in 1867.

On May 7, 1844, the New York General Assembly voted to establish Normal School in Albany as the first college for teacher education. In 1865, the privately endowed Cornell University, one of eight Ivy League universities in the nation, was designated as New York's land grant college. In 1894, the state began direct financial support of four of Cornell's colleges.

Between 1889 and 1903, Cornell operated the New York State College of Forestry, until the governor vetoed its annual appropriation. The school was moved to Syracuse University in Syracuse in 1911, where it is now the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. In 1908, the State legislature began the New York State College of Agriculture at Alfred University.

Between 1946 and 1948, the Temporary Commission on the Need for a State University, chaired by Owen D. Young, chairman of General Electric Company, studied New York's existing higher education institutions. It was known New York's private institutions of higher education were highly discriminatory and failed to provide for many New Yorkers. Noting this need, the commission recommended the creation of a public state university system. In 1948, legislation was passed establishing SUNY on the foundation of the teacher-training schools established in the 19th century. Most of them had already developed curricula similar to those found at four-year liberal arts schools long before the creation of SUNY, as evidenced by the fact they had become known as "Colleges for Teachers" rather than "Teachers' Colleges".

On October 8, 1953, SUNY took a historic step of banning all national fraternities and sororities from its 33 campuses, a ban that lasted until 1977. The resolution was passed as an attempt to combat discrimination based on race or religion in many national organizations at the time. Various fraternities challenged this rule in court since it did not distinguish between those with discriminatory clauses in their by-laws and those who did not. The SUNY resolution was upheld in court as being within a state's authority to supervise and control its educational institutions.

Organization

SUNY is governed by the State University of New York Board of Trustees, which consists of eighteen members, fifteen of whom are appointed by the Governor, with consent of the New York State Senate. The sixteenth member is the president of The State University of New York Student Assembly. The last two members are the presidents of the University Faculty Senate and Faculty Council of Community Colleges, both of whom are non-voting. The board of trustees appoints the chancellor who serves as SUNY Chief Executive Officer.

The state of New York assists in financing the SUNY system, which, along with CUNY, provides lower-cost college-level education to residents of the state. SUNY students also come from out-of-state and 171 foreign countries, though tuition is higher for these students.

There is a large variety of colleges in the SUNY system with some overlap in specialties between sites. SUNY divides its campuses into four distinct categories: university centers/doctoral-granting institutions, comprehensive colleges, technology colleges, and community colleges. SUNY also includes statutory colleges, state-funded colleges within other institutions such as Cornell University and Alfred University. Students at the statutory colleges who are residents of New York state receive the benefit of state-subsidized tuition while enjoying all of the campus life amenities of the host institutions.

The Rockefeller Institute of Government is the public policy research arm.

The SUNY Charter Schools Institute was established by the Board of Trustees in 1999 to assist with their authority as one of New York's charter school authorizers. The Institute reviews applications, monitors academic and fiscal performance, and reports to the Trustees' Charter Schools Committee. It is based within SUNY System Administration but operates with administrative independence.

SUNY and the City University of New York (CUNY) are different university systems, both receiving funding from New York State. Also, SUNY is not to be confused with the University of the State of New York (USNY), which is the governmental umbrella organization for most education-related institutions and many education-related personnel (both public and private) in New York State, and which includes, as components, the New York State Education Department and the New York State University Police.

Student representation

The SUNY Board of Trustees has a voting student member on the board. The student trustee serves a dual role as the President of the Student Assembly of the State University of New York (SUNYSA). SUNYSA is the recognized student government of the SUNY system.

Campuses

All SUNY colleges are in New York State, except for one extension center of Jamestown Community College and SUNY Korea.

Jamestown Community College operates its Warren Center in Pennsylvania under a contract with the Warren-Forest Higher Education Council and the center is licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The Warren Center is 25 miles south of Jamestown, New York on the grounds of Warren State Hospital, in North Warren, Pennsylvania.

For international collaboration, SUNY Korea was opened by the government of South Korea in Incheon, South Korea in 2012, in conjunction with SUNY. As of 2023, it offers undergraduate and graduate programs, with faculty from Stony Brook University and the Fashion Institute of Technology.

SUNY Educational Opportunity Centers (EOCs) tuition-free training centers across New York State that provide academic, vocational, and workforce development programs to eligible adults. They offer high school equivalency prep, English as a Second Language (ESL), college prep, and vocational certifications to help residents achieve financial self-sufficiency. They are part of SUNY University Center for Academic and Workforce Development (UCAWD).

Through SUNY Online, certain programs which are hosted at all 64 SUNY campuses are offered fully online or hybrid.

Additionally, SUNY has four medical schools, two dental schools, one law school, a maritime school, and SUNY Optometry, New York state's only college of optometry.

Flagships

Stony Brook University

University at Buffalo

University centers

Binghamton University

University at Albany

Other doctoral/research

• Upstate Medical University
• Downstate Health Sciences University
• College of Environmental Science and Forestry
• College of Optometry
• Polytechnic Institute

One statutory college at Alfred University:

New York State College of Ceramics

Four statutory colleges at Cornell University:

• College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), which includes the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva
• College of Human Ecology
• College of Veterinary Medicine
• School of Industrial and Labor Relations

Medical centers and hospitals

The State University of New York operates three comprehensive academic medical centers, which integrate a medical school with a university hospital:

• Upstate University Hospital, Norton College of Medicine in Syracuse
• Stony Brook University Hospital, Renaissance School of Medicine in Stony Brook
• Downstate Medical Center, Downstate College of Medicine in Brooklyn

A fourth medical school, the Jacobs School of Medicine in Buffalo, does not have its own hospital, and instead affiliates with several Buffalo-area hospitals.

The SUNY system is also home to the College of Optometry in New York City, which maintains its own eye clinic.

Each medical center serves as the primary teaching site for that campus's medical school. SUNY medical programs have consistently ranked in the top 90 in both research and primary care categories, according to annual rankings published by U.S. News & World Report. The teaching hospitals affiliated with each school are also highly regarded and in 2022 all three medical centers generated US$3.86 billion through patient care accounting for 29% of total SUNY revenue.

In the latter half of the 20th century, the SUNY hospitals became the cores of full-fledged regional health systems; they were gradually supplemented by many outpatient clinics, offices, and institutes. SUNY medical centers currently play a major role in providing healthcare to the most-needy and marginalized populations and serve large numbers of patients who are uninsured, under-insured or covered by Medicare and Medicaid programs.

In 2020, medical school applications increased by 20.4% at SUNY medical schools systemwide, with schools receiving over 24,118 applications from students for only 685 seats.

With rising interest in medicine, former SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras announced the first statewide initiative, the Pre-Med Opportunity Program, to help more EOP students get accepted into SUNY's medical schools in February 2021. Later in the year in May, 25 college students in junior/senior standing from 10 SUNY schools were selected to receive academic guidance at the Norton College of Medicine while pursuing their medical degrees. The SUNY system will cover all costs for the summer academic enrichment program and the program will expand over the next few years.

SUNY medical, health professions and nursing schools graduate more than 11,000 health professionals annually, including one of three physicians (1 in 33 in the United States), nearly one of three nurses and one of four dentists in the state.

Statistics

University centers

New York's largest individual public university by enrollment is the State University of New York at Buffalo, which was founded by U.S President and Vice President Millard Fillmore. Buffalo has an enrollment total of approximately 32,000 students and receives the most applications out of all SUNY schools.

Costs

For the 2017–2018 academic year, tuition costs at SUNY schools for an undergraduate degree were less than two-thirds the cost of most public colleges in the United States. For example, tuition at the University at Buffalo for an undergraduate degree is $9,828 per semester or $27,068 per year for non-resident students. In contrast, undergraduate tuition for non-resident students at the University of Maryland is $35,216 per year, and non-resident tuition and fees at the University of Oregon are $32,535 per year.

New York State also offers free tuition for all public colleges and universities for families who have an income of lower than $125,000 and are residents of the state. Other requirements to qualify for free SUNY education include full-time enrollment and staying in the state for a number of years after graduating. In the 2017–2018 award year, 70,694 SUNY students received the Federal Pell Grant.

For the 2019–2020 academic year, medical school tuition costs at the Norton College of Medicine for the M.D. program were $43,670 in-state and $65,160 out of state. Tuition costs across all SUNY medical schools are similar to those at Norton and the cost is less than the average cost of medical schools in the United States.

Intercollegiate athletics

Every school within the SUNY system manages its own athletics program, which greatly varies the level of competition at each institution.

Division I

The four university centers compete at the NCAA Division I level for all of their sports. All but Binghamton field football teams, with Buffalo in Division I FBS (formerly Division I-A) and Albany and Stony Brook in Division I FCS (formerly Division I-AA). The four Cornell statutory colleges compete as part of the university as a member of the Ivy League, an FCS conference.

Divisions II and III

Most SUNY colleges, technical schools and community schools compete at the NCAA Division III level. The State University of New York Athletic Conference consists entirely of SUNY colleges.

Other associations

SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry is a member of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association.

A small number of community colleges compete at the National Junior College Athletic Association throughout their three divisions.

Rivalries

The most prominent intra-SUNY rivalry is between the Albany Great Danes and Binghamton Bearcats. The two belong to the America East Conference. Frequently referred to as the I-88 Rivalry, Binghamton and Albany sit at either end of Interstate 88 (roughly 2.5 hours apart). Both teams are known to post the highest visitor attendance at either school's athletic events. Both schools also have less intense rivalries with a former America East member, the Stony Brook Seawolves. In football, a sport not sponsored by the America East, Albany and Stony Brook have a rivalry in the Coastal Athletic Association, and play each other annually in the Battle for the Golden Apple.

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