Spitzer Proposes SUNY Buffalo and Stony Brook as Flagships

Parents Forum
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<p>For what its worth, this is an excerpt from the Governor's State of the State Address delivered today:</p>

<p>HIGHER EDUCATION</p>

<p>While these proposals have put us on the path toward excellence in our primary and secondary schools, we have not yet set our colleges and universities on the same course.</p>

<p>If you want to participate in the innovation economy, a high school diploma is not always enough – you’re going to need a college diploma, or better yet, an advanced degree. We can’t strengthen our economy without the best colleges producing the best-prepared graduates. That’s why our goal must be to make an outstanding higher education affordable for every New Yorker.</p>

<p>Last year, I convened a Commission on Higher Education to recommend what we need to do to make America’s largest public system of higher education one of its very best. Last month, they spoke. Today, you and I need to begin acting on their recommendations.</p>

<p>Over the next five years, we must hire 2,000 new full-time faculty members for SUNY and CUNY, including 250 eminent scholars – the type of professors whose research draws grants and collaboration from around the globe, and whose stature lifts entire campuses.</p>

<p>We must create an Innovation Fund for cutting-edge research at New York’s public and private colleges, similar to the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. Supercharging cutting-edge academic research will also supercharge our innovation economy.</p>

<p>We must invest in our community colleges, which train New Yorkers for high-skilled jobs and serve as the gateway to four-year colleges. For the community college students who want to continue their education by transferring to four-year SUNY and CUNY schools, we will make the process simple and seamless, and give them full credit for the academic courses they have successfully completed.</p>

<p>Made wisely, these investments in higher education will also revitalize cities. We will move forward on the University of Buffalo’s “2020” expansion as a centerpiece of our strategy to reinvigorate the economy of Western New York. When completed, the University’s total student population will grow from 29,000 to almost 41,000. Over 7,000 students, faculty and staff will work and study on a new downtown campus for medicine and health sciences. UB will become an economic engine for Buffalo, and a flagship institution for a world class public university system.</p>

<p>We will create a flagship at the other end our state, as well. We will help bring together the University at Stony Brook, and the world renowned Brookhaven and Cold Spring Harbor laboratories. The result will be a peerless cross-disciplinary research engine in the areas of cancer, neurobiology, plant genetics and bioinformatics. The economic benefit for Long Island will be tremendous. The chance for New York to lead the world will be unparalleled.</p>

<p>ENDOWING HIGHER EDUCATION</p>

<p>But none of this is possible unless we figure out a way to pay for it. And to do that, we need a new funding source. The finest private and public colleges and universities in America use the funds from permanent endowments to achieve excellence. If we are to join their ranks, we must do so as well. Higher education funding should no longer be a budgetary pawn or a yearly battle. It must be a permanent priority.</p>

<p>Given the investments we must make and the sheer size of our higher education system, this endowment initially should be at least $4 billion, which would generate $200 million in operating funds each year.</p>

<p>Where’s the money going to come from? We should unlock some of the value of the New York State Lottery, either by taking in private investment or looking at other financing alternatives. As we do this, we will assure that the State continues to regulate all lottery games, and that we continue to receive the more than $2 billion annually for K to 12 education that the lottery now provides. Today’s endowment dollars will be a down payment on tomorrow’s dreams.</p>

<p>This is our plan for education. Funding our primary and secondary schools in a fair and effective way, using accountability to measure progress and identify where improvement is needed, and creating an endowment for our State universities to propel them into international centers of research and learning, and into engines of economic growth.</p>

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<p>I'm from the Stony Brook area and many family members are alums or employees, so I think this is great! It seems like both flagships are really going to push science, though, and I wish he'd talk a little bit about improving Binghamton (known as the best school in the state for social sciences/humanities) or Geneseo (which could be the William & Mary of NY--a great public LAC).</p>

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<p>I thought NYU was New York's flagship university!?! Or was that Cornell?</p>

<p>Frankly, I don't see any existing SUNY campus morphing into a flagship. So how 'bout it Eliot, could you see your way clear to building a brand new campus on the Hudson perhaps fifty miles north of NYC?</p>

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<p>Well, if I were associated with the SUNY campuses at Albany or Binghamton, I'd be rather annoyed.</p>

<p>I thought the concept was that all four of the large SUNY schools -- Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, and Stony Brook -- were supposed to be of equivalent importance.</p>

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<p>I am just glad it isn't Geneseo - I like my little rural corner of the universe! The residents around here don't want further development, so Buffalo and Stony Brook would be better.</p>

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<p>The problem is that it takes a generation, at least, to build a real flagship, and NY has never sustained the effort as to any particular campus. There was a program to turn Buffalo into a flagship in the late 60s and early 70s. The literature faculty there in the early 70s was astounding -- people like Michel Foucault, Rene Girard, Leslie Fiedler, John Barth, John Hollander, Helene Cixous, Ishmael Reed. Plus Sascha and Mischa Schneider in music, Warren Bennis in the business school. That's when they started building the current campus. But the whole project sputtered and died when Martin Meyerson left for Penn and Rockefeller became Vice President.</p>

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<p>JHS-My friend went to Buff in the 70s; she said it was really intellectual and that for people in western New York, Buffalo was equivalent to a flagship. The kids there from my daughter's downstate high school seem to like it a lot - all the ones I know could probably have afforded a private school but chose Buffalo.</p>

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<p>Well . . . it isn't exactly true that for people in Western New York in the 70s UB was like a flagship. As someone who went through private school in Western New York in the 70s, I can tell you that UB was regarded as Loserville. A really talented African-American girl in my class chose to go there, and people were tearing their hair out wondering how she could be throwing away that potential. It was only after the fact that I appreciated how special a place it had been then, at least in the areas I cared about.</p>

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<p>Some of the state flagships are the land grant colleges. In New York's case that would be Cornell -- but Cornell is not a state school.</p>

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<p>Safe political choice for Governor Spitzer. Nobody in NYS likes Albany -- even our recent governors refuse to live there. Binghamton is located in a traditionally Republican area and, although the Governor has stated that it is one of his priorities to staunch the outflow of jobs and people from Upstate communities, he covers himself by selecting Buffalo. As bad as times have been in Binghamton, Buffalo has been an even bigger basket case. An added plus for the Governor is that Buffalo and Erie County have a strong Democratic machine. Then there is Stony Brook. His nomination of Stony Brook satisfies downstate, Democratic interests on one hand, while throwing a bone to Long Island Republicans.</p>

<p>I'm not saying these were bad choices, just that politics is written all over it, just as it has been for the SUNY system as a whole from the beginning.</p>

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<p>I think Buffalo and Stony Brook are good choices as state flagships - for the reasons stated by hudsonvalley51. I think it's important to have at least one really good state school that is not located upstate.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Well . . . it isn't exactly true that for people in Western New York in the 70s UB was like a flagship. As someone who went through private school in Western New York in the 70s, I can tell you that UB was regarded as Loserville. A really talented African-American girl in my class chose to go there, and people were tearing their hair out wondering how she could be throwing away that potential. It was only after the fact that I appreciated how special a place it had been then, at least in the areas I cared about.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Having grown up in Buffalo and having graduated from HS in 1970, I had some friends who went to UB right out of HS but most of us thought ourselves too good for that. Funny thing, practically everyone I knew ended up transferring back to UB at some point when we realized what a jewel it was (and cheap!!!)</p>

<p>My ex-H was an English major there at the time. He transferred back from Cornell because of the incredible faculty at UB. </p>

<p>In the early 90s I ended up teaching at UB (I had long before left Buffalo) and it was so sad what it had become as compared to the glory years. It's a very good, solid school but not special like it once was. Their "new" president is terrific and may be able to turn the place around and into the flagship Spitzer plans. I hope it happens. (I still have warm feelings for Buffalo . . .)</p>

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<p>I guess I understand hy Spitzer would pick Buff over Bing - - since Bing would forever be playing second-fiddle to nearby Cornell and transportation from the NYC to Buff is far easier than to Bing.</p>

<p>Can't see why he'd pick Stony Brook.</p>

<p>In the end, I'm with Rachacha, glad it's not Geneseo.</p>

<p>Also wonder whether either Buff or StonyB will rival the great flagship Us: the top UCs, UNC and UMich.</p>

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<p>Why not just seize Columbia University using the State's power of eminent domain. The students will be thrilled to see their tuition drop by 90%, existing staff loyalty could be purchased with fat retention bonuses, and New York would have the first flagship Ivy. Not only that, Columbia's existing $6 billion endowment would solve the problem of funding a new endowment.</p>

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<p>:):):)Yay. Just, yay. Bring it on. </p>

<p>I will welcome everyone with some sponge candy and a Buffalo Bills mug. </p>

<p>I will meet those new students and professors at our international airport, the one that has no traffic jams along the way. </p>

<p>Am waiting until Mythmom sees this thread. She's been cheering on StonyBrook for some time on this site.</p>

<p>Yay.:):):)</p>

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<p>Stony Brook has recently acquired amazing and expensive facilities -- i.e. the Southampton campus of LIU, now to be used for a marine science major.</p>

<p>The Gyrodyne property was also acquired to serve as an incubator for businesses.</p>

<p>To justify these expenditures I think Spitzer had to name Stony Brook. And the presence of Brookhaven National Lab does dominate science research in the area and the links are strong. Cold Spring Harbor is a bit of a stretch, but with Watson booted out, there may be possibilities there.</p>

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<p>paying3: How a propos: we cross-posted! Yes, I am happy, though I did empathize with the Bing and Albany faculty yesterday. What a kick in the behind.</p>

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<p>^^True, Mythmom. You see it from the faculty perspective, and the hardworking faculty of other SUNY campuses must feel disheartened.</p>

<p>Buffalo is the second largest city in New York after New York City, so my celebration is as a community resident. I would love to see this strengthen our lakefront downtown, in concert with other community efforts, and also provide new staff job opportunities for residents of the city's core, mostly poor and African American. Also I note that in the upscale suburbs north and east of Buffalo, many from India who came to study medicine at UB (a specific recruitment from one region in India..) decided to live here afterwards to practice and raise families. They liked the community. Roswell Cancer Center, national in scope and located downtown, can only benefit from this new infusion of talent, I hope. Housing at this time is very affordable everywhere.</p>

<p>A SUNY student I think would still favor Binghamton for foreign language, Albany for education, and respond to each campus's strength. I hope that students continue to perceive the niche that each campus offers. But I think the state really needed to make up its mind and identify flagships for powerhouse research. The upstate/downstate solution was astute, I think.</p>

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<p>Biggets mistake SUNY and Buffalo made was expanding in Amherst instead of Downtown.
If that had occured this would be an entirelly diffrent discussion.</p>

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<p>Well, it seems that a lot of the new expansion will take place down town. The speech seems to indicate that.</p>