Center on Russia and the United States :: History
In the mid 1970s the State University of New York's University at Albany campus began the first direct academic relationship with a Soviet university. The University at Albany began a faculty exchange program with Moscow State University (MSU), and an undergraduate language and culture exchange program with the Thorez Language Institute in Moscow. The University at Albany made its programs available to faculty and students across the SUNY system. Faculty exchanges between SUNY and MSU continued into the 1990s, and faculty in all fields moved back and forth during those years. In the 1990s the undergraduate exchange program was moved from Thorez Language Institute to MSU, specifically to the Faculty of Foreign Languages.
During the 1990s, as interest in Russian language and area studies waned throughout the United States, the SUNY programs suffered a decline as well. In January 2000 the SUNY-wide relationship with MSU was assumed by the SUNY System Administration in the form of the newly created Center on Russia and the United States. The undergraduate student exchange continued to be administered by the University at Albany, while the faculty programs and other SUNY-wide initiatives were undertaken by the Center.