We worked incredibly hard this year to leverage our systemness and move our students forward. There have been so many exciting developments across SUNY; these are some of the accomplishments we are most proud of.
March
The NYSUNY 2020 Challenge Grant Program was extended to all SUNY campuses in 2012, leveraging SUNY’s systemness to support economic development statewide. The plans from each of SUNY’s four university centers have been approved by Governor Cuomo.
April
The New NY Education Reform Commission brought together nationally-recognized education, community, and business leaders to recommend reforms to the state’s education system in order to improve performance in the classroom so that all of New York’s students are fully prepared for their futures.
May
President Obama visited UAlbany’s College of Nanoscale Engineering, where the president outlined his vision for job growth in America, saying, “I want what’s happening in Albany to happen all across the country.”
June
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden announced that SUNY is among the first universities in the nation to embrace the administration’s new “Know Before You Owe” financial aid transparency initiative and to commit to using the Financial Aid Shopping Sheet.
August
More than $6 million was reinvested in academic instruction and student services in the first year of SUNY’s system-wide shared services initiative. The three Campus Alliance Networks combined for an estimated first-year administrative savings of more than $2.5 million and more than 30 new full-time faculty hires.
September
We launched the “SUNY Smart Track Campaign” to combat student debt throughout New York and set a national model as college students across the country are taking on more loan debt than ever before.
September
SUNY community colleges received a $14.6 million federal grant to design, implement, and deliver a strategic approach to job training and education for high-need industries such as nanotechnology and advanced manufacturing.
September
SUNY was awarded a $2.95 million National Science Foundation grant with the New York Academy of Sciences to help bring to scale a successful afterschool program in which SUNY graduate students and postdoctoral fellows mentor middle school students from high-need school districts in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
November
SUNY hosted its second annual Critical Issues in Higher Education Conference in New York City. The conference brought together more than 400 education, business, and industry officials from across the globe to examine and debate the value of systemness.
November
At a national summit in November, SUNY launched its Statewide Teacher Education Network (S-TEN), which, by Fall 2014, will establish a network of institutions with the shared purpose of renewing and improving the preparation of teachers and educational leaders throughout New York.