Chancellor Zimpher’s State of the University Address was on Tuesday, January 15.  As the SUNY Board of Trustees, college presidents, and others packed The Egg in Albany, Chancellor Zimpher outlined progress made in the past three years and a bold new plan going forward.

1.   College is worth it.  Chancellor Zimpher cited Vivek Wadha in saying, “Students, you are probably not Mark Zuckerberg, so stay in school.”  Chancellor Zimpher took the question of college’s purpose head-on:

…While you may have the next game-changing idea in your field, without the educational foundation to bring your idea to life, you are no better off.  Without the business knowledge to start a company, without the research experience to bring your hypothesis to life, or the writing skills to express your ideas, you are no better off than if you had no idea at all.

While Jobs, Gates, and Zuckerberg are the poster children for success without a college degree, consider the number of Fortune 500 CEOs who did complete college.

2.   SUNY will create an 11th grade college readiness exam to help students determine if they are on track for college.  In an effort to curb costly remediation, the exam will be piloted this fall in SUNY’s Smart Scholars Early College High Schools. The Chancellor referred to the exam as one “high school students would actually want to take”.

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