This discussion was initiated in a thread for another topic so I’m resuming here.
No it isn’t a flagship and it is not elite. Buffalo is big but not a flagship;Binghamton does not resemble an Ivy. Neither StonyBrook nor Albany is a flagship either. The PR departments seem hell bent on competing with each other by making absurd claims: “Soon to be the premier university of” whatever county it is in. The SUNY system was designed to offer inexpensive education to those New York students unable to pay for private schools and to provide discrimination-free entry to professional education for New Yorkers. It has no flagship and it isn’t elite. It wasn’t intended to be elite. The system and especially the PR departments seem hopelessly confused about its mission. Here is a reminder: The SUNY mission is to educate as many NYers as possible.
There are claims that each of the 4 centers are flagships. Not only is that not true but the institutions are dissimilar to the most well known flagships of other states. You will note a difference if you take a quick walk through any SUNY followed by a quick walk through any of the top 15 flagships. The claim to be similar to flagships by SUNY PR staff may have practical roots. Soon after the system was developed to address educational needs of NY students who could not afford private schools, the flagship universities of other states were still attracting NY applicants. By 1955, after the SUNY system had co-opted educational institutions that had been either low or no cost, they set tuition so high that it was cheaper for NY residents to continue to pay out of state tuition to attend other and better universities in other states than it was to attend in NY. Harpur, for example, was charging $400/year-- more than any other state university except Rutgers; Twice what Michigan students paid to attend their flagship. Is it any wonder that SUNY PR started to use terms like “elite”. How else could they entice students to choose Harpur over Michigan?
The SUNY mission was the opposite of “elite”; It was intended as low cost education for NY students who could not afford private schools. It was intended to be inclusive not exclusive. It would supplement not replace or compete with private education. By the time NY got around to developing a state university (fragmented) system it was the only one of the contiguous US states not to have a state university system. It got a critical development prompt after WWII when it appeared that returning NY Vets would overwhelm available educational slots. There was a rush (see Owen D Young Commission Report) to establish more slots that were affordable along with resignation about the obvious fact that the immediate solution was not an adequate long term one. Battles regarding the Regents and oversight controversies, budgetary/funding issues, and local protectionism contribute to the current mess and put more distance between the SUNY system and the other state university systems.
At the start, given the number of available pre-existing schools and the need for employable vets, liberal arts was not the priority. Only two liberal arts colleges were established: Harpur College (formally Tri-cities) and Champlain. Champlain was open only briefly. Because there was only one, Harpur was “elite” in the sense that it was the only liberal arts school in the system, thus the only supposedly low cost option for those interested in the humanities. Given the combination of the (very) limited number of liberal arts slots and huge numbers of NY high school students applying, the PR marketing of Harpur as “elite” sounded credible to many. It continues to be selective: Admissions is competitive. Its mission, structure, policies, instructor student-ratio and overall educational approach makes the term “elite” a misnomer.
Harpur is no longer Harpur. StonyBrook is no longer overwhelmingly science. Albany and Buffalo have numerous well established professional schools. Each one is a medium sized state university that provides a wide range of options to students at a relatively low cost. A premium is placed on efficiency so students appear to move through the system at a reasonable pace, graduating with little debt. The school administrations continue to appear confused about the mission of the university but the students are not. Most come for the opportunity to get an undergraduate degree at a reasonable cost in a reasonable length of time, graduating with little debt. It seems to me that the system is fulfilling its goal when New York residents graduate with degrees from SUNY.