State University Construction Fund

The State University Construction Fund was created in 1962 to be the construction 
agency for SUNY, at the request of Governor Rockefeller. Although The Fund is a 
public benefit corporation, it is treated by the Legislature, Division of Budget, 
Attorney General’s Office and State Comptroller’s Office as a State agency. 

The Fund is governed by a three-member Board of Trustees, appointed by the Governor. 
One of the three trustees, by law, must also be a member of SUNY’s Board of Trustees. 
The Fund is comprised of approximately 125 employees in five divisions: Office of the 
General Manager, Capital Program Management and Finance, Design and Construction Management, 
Administrative and Operational Services, and Legal Services. 

SUNY is the Fund’s only client. The Fund manages capital projects at SUNY’s educational 
and hospital facilities, while capital projects at SUNY’s community colleges are managed 
by the school’s local sponsor (usually the county government) and residence hall projects 
at community colleges are managed by the NYS Dormitory Authority.

SUNY’s state-operated campus academic and hospital facilities, the facilities managed 
by the Fund, constitute 77.4 million gross square feet of space across 34 separate campuses 
statewide, supporting the daily activities of more than 200,000 students and approximately 
55,000 faculty and staff. This network contains more than 2,400 separate buildings, 
hundreds of miles of roads, millions of square yards of walks and plazas, and some 1,200 
licensed hospital and clinic beds.

Nearly 75 percent of this space is more than 30 years old, with the average building age 
exceeding 40 years.

The Fund’s primary purposes are to plan, design, construct and fund SUNY’s academic and 
hospital facilities. The Fund also assists SUNY by providing additional services, at SUNY’s 
request, such as capital budgeting and fiscal plan management, preparation of the University’s 
Annual Master Plan Capital Report submitted to the Legislature as required by Education Law, 
and provision of administrative services on SUNY’s behalf for the State’s 50 percent share 
of the costs of community college capital projects.

The Fund, unlike state authorities and some public benefit corporations, does not have the 
power to borrow or issue bonds and does not have an independent revenue stream. The Fund’s 
operating and capital budgets are appropriated by the Legislature, and, pursuant to statute, 
are supported by bond proceeds issued by the Dormitory Authority.

In 1998, with support from the Governor and Legislature, SUNY began operating under a multi-year 
financing plan for all its capital programs:  community colleges, residence halls, state-operated 
academic and hospital facilities.  Multi-year planning and financing is critical to the University’s 
ability to implement capital projects most efficiently and effectively throughout its diverse and 
extensive network of facilities, and successive multi-year funding authorizations enacted in 2003, 
2004, 2005 and 2006 provide continued and expanded State support for ongoing capital investments.

The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive university system in the United States, 
educating more than 418,000 students in 7,669 degree and certificate programs on 64 campuses.