STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

Strategic Plan 
FINAL 4.05.10




[COVER]

THE POWER OF SUNY 
Strategic Plan 2010 & Beyond

The State University of New York








[INSIDE COVER]


[MAP SHOWING 64 SUNY CAMPUSES]

*	The nation’s largest comprehensive system of public higher education 
*	64 institutions, including research universities, academic medical 
	centers, liberal arts colleges, community colleges, agricultural and 
	technical institutes, and an online learning network
*	More than 465,000 students
*	88,000 faculty and staff
*	2.4 million alumni worldwide





[ 
[INTRODUCTION] 
SUNY’S MOMENT—AND NEW YORK STATE’S OPPORTUNITY

[COPY]
There is a growing and welcome recognition that in a knowledge economy, institutions of higher 
education can—and must—be pivotal in generating growth and revitalizing communities. As 
Chancellor, I am convinced SUNY can carry out this role for New York in ways that will set a 
standard for the rest of the nation—while making life better for people across the state.

Our sources of inspiration are powerful and enduring. SUNY represents an expansive re-
imagining of one of the great American reforms: the land grant university. Created by acts of 
Congress and signed into law by Abraham Lincoln, land grant universities leveled the playing 
field, making it possible for every person and every community to experience higher education’s 
transformative power. The land grants focused their research on contemporary problems. Their 
extension services brought the expertise of the university directly into people’s homes and 
communities in the form of health advice, home economics and agriculture. By giving 
demonstrated value to college education, the land grants convinced ordinary Americans that 
higher education was the pathway to a better future. Today, SUNY, by virtue of the 
extraordinary range of our 64 campuses, elevates the land grant concept to a new level. 

SUNY is also are animated by the legacies of two legendary New York governors. Thomas E. 
Dewey saw in SUNY a means to fight the pervasive ethnic and racial discrimination in American 
higher education. Nelson A. Rockefeller believed that the people of New York deserved 
campuses that reflected their talents and aspirations, and spearheaded massive construction and 
infrastructure development. Thanks to them, SUNY is the pride of New York—and a global 
beacon of access and success. 

The magnitude of our potential is breathtaking. The power of SUNY is not confined to one or 
two dots on the state’s landscape, or to a cluster of institutions. We are literally all over the map, 
with 64 unique learning environments for every type of student, every stage of life, and every 
kind of passion. SUNY is truly a universe of knowledge, encompassing every field of human 
inquiry - disciplines that range from music to mechanics, and perspectives from the molecular to 
the macroeconomic. 

Like the global marketplace, SUNY is “always on” - constantly seeking, generating, analyzing, 
and sending knowledge back into the world through informed citizens, revitalized communities, 
and experts who transform entire sectors. Whether it’s a forestry program upstate, a nanotech 
center in the capital region, a fashion institute in Manhattan, or a marine studies center on the 
shores of Long Island, SUNY’s reach and impact is without peer. SUNY faculty and alumni are 
Nobel Laureates, members of the National Academy of Sciences, and Pulitzer Prize winners.  

Imagine the competitive advantage for New York State if SUNY institutions joined forces as 
never before, pooling knowledge, pushing and building on each other’s ideas, and collaborating 
in ways that deploy our distinctive capabilities to the fullest extent possible. Imagine the impact 
if, from this day on, we work toward a common goal: to revitalize New York’s economy and 
enhance the quality of life for all its citizens.  

This plan is the product of an unprecedented meeting of the minds. It reflects the 
contributions of many people on SUNY campuses and in SUNY communities: their ideas, their 
ambitions, and their determination to make our remarkable public system of higher education the 
driving force of a revitalized New York State.  We are preserving our strengths as places of 
learning, searching, and serving. But at the same time, we are pressing the “reset” button on 
SUNY-introducing a new way forward, aligning our purpose with New York State’s needs and 
opportunities, and creating an economic engine capable of propelling a new era of growth.  

This is the power of SUNY. We are building on the ideals of the land grant mandate – relevant 
research, outreach to communities, and access for everyone - and a homegrown passion for 
possibility. We are leveraging our unrivaled scale and diversity. We are New York’s home 
advantage. 

Today begins the journey of a lifetime--and one I wouldn’t miss for anything. On behalf of the 
State University of New York, I invite you to join us. 


Nancy L. Zimpher


[THESIS STATEMENT BOX]

We believe New York State can be one of the most vital, resilient, and inclusive economies in 
the global marketplace. And we believe the 64 campuses of SUNY can drive that ambition and 
make it a reality.

From 2010 forward, SUNY’s priority is the economic revitalization of the State of New York 
and a better quality of life for all its citizens.  





[ACADEMIC MISSION]
“TO LEARN, TO SEARCH, TO SERVE”  

[SECONDARY HEADLINE]
While our plan is outwardly focused, our vision remains grounded in the three imperatives 
on the SUNY seal. 


[COPY]
The words on our seal evoke the centrality of education, the spirit of inquiry, and the full 
participation in civic life that we expect from our students, our faculty, and the entire SUNY 
universe. 


*        [LEARN] We are first and foremost a community of teachers and learners. Courses, 
disciplines, and degrees may evolve, but our dedication to the exchange of knowledge from 
generation to generation is a constant. 

*        [SEARCH] We find and create meaning in our universe. The driving spirit behind 
research and discovery is the conviction that frontiers demand exploration, that conventional 
wisdom needs to be questioned, and that each discovery takes us to a new horizon of 
understanding. 

*	[SERVE] We are concerned and involved citizens. We have a stake in our community. 
We direct our skills, our knowledge, and our best intentions toward making a profound and 
lasting difference where we live—close to home and around the world. 



[HEADLINE]
OUR CORE VALUES

STUDENT-CENTEREDNESS
The student is at the heart of all we do. 
The learning and growth of our students come first and crystallize our purpose as a system. We 
tear down the barriers that discourage people from pursuing their higher education goals. We use 
innovative teaching tools and formats to make the most of individual learning styles. We 
continually look for new ways to provide academic, personal, and financial support. Our 
geographic reach, our ability to attract the best minds in teaching and research, the quality of our 
facilities and resources, and the breadth of our programs—all of these exist to benefit our 
students. 

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
In our communities, learning goes both ways.   
In every community or neighborhood where we have a campus, SUNY is both teacher and 
student. The needs and perspectives of our communities inform what we do and how we do it. 
Our communities are the very best proving grounds, constantly pushing us to be more 
meaningful and relevant to the lives of those around us.  

DIVERSITY
Diversity makes us stronger and smarter. 
We respect, encourage, and promote all aspects of human difference—whether in terms of 
background, interests, age, race, or stage of life. Diversity enriches our lives and the educational 
experience: it invigorates conversations, awakens curiosity, and widens perspectives. Diversity 
also ensures that our campuses mirror the rapidly changing world, creating an environment that 
prepares our students to be culturally competent so they can succeed anywhere. Our diversity is 
SUNY’s edge. 

INTEGRITY  
Integrity and collegiality are the bedrock of our enterprise.  
Trust and a shared sense of responsibility are essential to an enterprise of our size. Open, honest 
relationships allow us to cut to the chase and speak the truth. When we demand of each other the 
highest standards of integrity and accountability, we create a collegial community that can 
confidently explore new frontiers, vigorously debate ideas, and learn from mistakes. 

COLLABORATION 
Collaboration makes our expertise more powerful. 
Partnerships and alliances, both within and outside the SUNY system, have a multiplier effect. 
When our campuses join forces with each other and with organizations outside of SUNY, we 
amplify our expertise, resources, and geographic reach in new and often unexpected ways. When 
we acknowledge common goals and approach problems in a spirit of reciprocity and flexibility, 
we achieve far more than when we labor alone.


[COPY FACING BREAKER PAGE] 
Our ambitions are focused. On the following pages are six interdependent areas of opportunity 
and challenge – we call them Big Ideas - where we have determined SUNY can make the biggest 
difference for the State of New York. For each idea, we’ve proposed three major initiatives 
whose progress can be measured over time. We also show how each will advance our 
commitment to diversity. 

Even an institution as large and multifaceted as SUNY can’t tackle every challenge or fix every 
problem. But by linking our resources and talents in targeted, quantifiable ways, we will chart a 
better path to the future for New York State and create new models of action for the world. 


[BREAKER PAGE] 

SIX BIG IDEAS


To revitalize the economy of New York and enhance the quality of life for its citizens, 
SUNY will commit our energy and resources to the realization of six big ideas:  


SUNY and the Entrepreneurial Century
SUNY and the Seamless Education Pipeline
SUNY and a Healthier New York
SUNY and an Energy Smart New York
SUNY and the Vibrant Community
SUNY and the World




 
[HEADLINE]
SUNY and THE ENTREPRENEURIAL CENTURY  

[SECONDARY HEADLINE]
We will cultivate entrepreneurial thinking across our entire learning landscape, helping 
new and existing businesses innovate, prosper, and grow. 

[COPY]
Research and innovation have long been hallmarks of American higher education. But in the 21st 
century, knowledge creation is no longer enough. Economic growth depends on translating that 
knowledge into tangible, measurable benefits—from more patents issued to more grants won to 
more jobs. This shift demands an entrepreneurial mindset—a way of thinking determined to 
create and shape new markets.     
The critical components that businesses of all sizes and stages need—knowledge, talent, and 
expertise—can all be found at SUNY. We have $1 billion annually in research expenditures, 
more than 10,000 research projects across 64 campuses, significant infrastructure, strong existing 
partnerships, and some of the best faculty and students in the world. We need to look at how we 
can combine our many diffuse pieces to help current and future New York companies and 
address national research gaps. Our individual institutions don’t have to do it all themselves—
they can invest in infrastructure more cost-effectively and make more compelling cases for 
public and private funding when they work collaboratively. The more we integrate, the greater 
our impact on the state’s economy.

We also need to follow the lead of the most fertile states for entrepreneurs and engage more local 
industries and local venture capitalists with our students, labs, and campuses. Nationally, 43 
percent of start-up founders established their companies in the same state where they received 
their academic degree. But among founders graduating from universities in New York, only 
about half that amount established their start-ups in our state. Given the huge number of 
institutions at SUNY and the number of venture capitalists in New York State, the opportunities 
for turning the tide in our favor are enormous. 
 

SUNY STARTUP 
Taking advantage of the untapped potential in our communities, SUNY StartUP will create 
programs that invite successful local entrepreneurs onto our campuses to advise and serve as 
mentors for our students and professors. These experts will bring real world knowledge to every 
phase of the entrepreneurial process: how to choose the right ideas, fund them, shape them into 
businesses, and grow them to full scale. SUNY StartUP will not just be a one-way street: our 
students and researchers will also go out into their communities, putting their fresh ideas and 
energy directly to work for local businesses. And by adding courses on entrepreneurship for 
students and faculty throughout the system, we will permeate the state with an entrepreneurial 
mindset and create a cadre of idea generators and job creators.

SETTING THE STAGE FOR INVESTMENT 
Research and innovation don’t come cheap. Using our statewide scope and our access to the 
world’s most creative and flexible financial markets, SUNY will develop strategies that draw in 
the full suite of investors – including federal, state, private and venture capital, and even grant 
funding. We will leverage our size and strength to become the go-to destination for critical basic 
and applied research in areas like energy, health sciences, and nanotechnology. Much as SUNY’s 
Research Excellence in Academic Health (REACH) initiative is building a collaborative 
biomedical platform that creates the scale and credibility needed to attract significant financial 
support, so will all of SUNY’s research talent work together to grow our market share of 
research funding.

SUNY-INC
SUNY has some of the world’s best researchers working on innovative and highly-marketable 
ideas across the state, but too often their work has not been coordinated, and many of our 
smartest ideas have been slow to translate into actual products and solutions. We want to create a 
true development chain that links all the players in a fast-track process, from concept all the way 
to commercialization. SUNY-INC (Incent New Companies) will start with a local research 
team in one area – say, health and life sciences, or energy -  and align that team with researchers 
on other SUNY campuses and at other public and private organizations across the state. Taking 
advantage of our unequalled statewide reach and our network of incubators and economic 
development centers, SUNY-INC will funnel discoveries to successive experts along the chain, 
promoting and tracking the concept through each development stage, from design to 
manufacturing, marketing, and even job training. The end result: new companies, new jobs, and 
the growth of a new economy.

[BOX]
DIVERSITY COUNTS 
At SUNY, we believe the entrepreneurial community should be as diverse as the world is. Yet 
there are still areas where minorities and other groups are vastly underrepresented. Study after 
study has linked the shortage of women and minorities in the STEM fields – science, technology, 
engineering and math - to inadequate K-12 education and the persistent stereotype that math, 
science, and technology aren’t for girls and minorities. SUNY will play a powerful role in 
reversing these trends by promoting STEM studies all along the education pipeline and making 
sure all students develop the logical thinking, problem solving, and analytical skills they’ll need 
to become scientists, researchers, innovators, and entrepreneurs.




[HEADLINE]
SUNY and THE SEAMLESS EDUCATION PIPELINE 

[SECONDARY HEADLINE]
SUNY sees education in New York State as a pipeline that extends from birth to 
retirement years – and finds ways to close the gaps that impede success.

[COPY]
An educated population is the foundation of economic growth. Studies show that in the years 
ahead, almost half of the jobs will require at least some college experience. Already, the 30 
fastest growing fields demand a minimum of a bachelor’s degree. At first glance, New York 
State may seem well-positioned for this new age: we rank fifth in the nation in terms of the 
percentage of the workforce that holds a bachelor’s degree or higher. But in reality, more and 
more of our young people are being sidelined from the knowledge economy. Nearly three in 10  
students fail to graduate from high school in four years. And only six in 10 of those who make 
it to graduation do so with a Regents Diploma – a critical indicator of college readiness. What’s 
more, far too many students who enter the higher education system need remedial course work, 
a level of unpreparedness that jeopardizes their success in college and career.

Working adults face equally discouraging odds. Skills and experiences that once served them 
well are now overshadowed by the enormous economic and technological changes in the 
workplace and the expanding opportunities for workers with knowledge and skills in science, 
technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). We must help our population retool.  

SUNY will seek ways to minimize attrition throughout the “cradle to career” pipeline, with a 
particular focus on developing highly effective teachers. Targeting our resources wisely, we 
will make a huge impact on the individual and collective prospects of New Yorkers. 

THE SUNY URBAN-RURAL TEACHER CORPS
Student achievement and teacher attrition are intertwined issues. The primary determinant of a 
student’s academic success, regardless of all other factors, is a competent and caring teacher.  
Yet students in high-need urban and rural schools are the least likely to benefit from exposure to 
the highly effective teachers who can keep young people engaged in learning, whatever the 
challenges. The cause of teacher burnout, meanwhile, is two-fold: their initial preparation for 
working in high poverty urban and rural schools falls short, and they lack the support and high-
quality professional development they need once they’re in the classroom. The SUNY Urban-
Rural Teacher Corps will represent a thorough rethinking of teacher preparation. Employing 
classroom simulations as well as extended, structured classroom experience, the SUNY Urban-
Rural Teacher Corps will offer real world experience akin to the clinical training that medical 
professionals undergo. True to its name, the geographic scope of the Corps will be far wider than 
many teacher preparedness initiatives, ensuring that all New York’s children – whether in urban 
or rural communities - will know the rewards of learning from great teachers.

CRADLE-TO-CAREER SUCCESS 
Across the state and throughout the nation, many communities are forging partnerships among 
their education, business, nonprofit, community, civic, and philanthropic sectors to focus on 
student success, academic completion, and job readiness. SUNY is increasingly engaged with 
these “cradle to career” community collaboratives, and we aspire to a national leadership role. 
Our campuses will create community-based networks of professionals and organizations that will 
deploy evidence-based interventions at the key transition points of a student’s life, and close 
gaps along the education pipeline. We’ll also ease educational transitions by ensuring SUNY-
wide transfer agreements between our community colleges and four-year degree programs. Our 
goal is to lead every student, no matter how vulnerable, through the education system and into a 
career in the 21st century workforce.

SUNY WORKS 
Many SUNY campuses already provide paid, credit-worthy, and typically full-time internships 
for their undergraduates – programs known across the country as cooperative education. By 
integrating   academic work with industry-based paid professional experience at two-and four-
year campuses, co-op produces graduates who are work savvy and generally debt-free. They’re 
also truly job-ready—in fact, the businesses and industries that sponsor co-op often offer their 
students full-time employment after graduation. SUNY Works will take the co-op model to scale 
across the SUNY system, strengthening the collaboration between our campuses and the New 
York business and industry sector, and extending these experiences to graduate students and 
adult learners. We’ll also extend SUNY Works to SUNY employees, because we believe every 
member of the SUNY community should reap the benefits of educational attainment. We want 
everyone invested in the future of New York’s economy and quality of life—and SUNY Works 
will provide the incentives to help achieve that goal.   

[BOX]
DIVERSITY COUNTS  
In the national epidemic that is our high school dropout rate, children living in poverty and low-
income minority students unquestionably fare the worst. Across the country, barely half of 
African American and Hispanic students earn high school diplomas in four years. To reverse this 
trend, we will expand our partnerships with community leaders on strategies that target the 
interlocking problems that so often thwart the ambitions and capabilities of at-risk students. 
These programs run the gamut from early intervention to counseling and mentoring, physical  
and mental health services, and financial support. Ensuring that these students meet their 
educational targets, obtain their degrees, and join the workforce is one of the most powerful 
contributions we can make to our state’s prosperity.



[HEADLINE]
SUNY and A HEALTHIER NEW YORK

[SECONDARY HEADLINE]
A fully integrated SUNY healthcare enterprise has enormous potential--in terms of public 
health, economic impact and global influence. 


[COPY]
New York’s medical and health dilemmas mirror those of our nation. Healthcare costs are 
overwhelming our state budget. Disparities in access plague the system. Our population is aging. 
We face critical shortages in our healthcare workforce. Spiraling costs are bankrupting families. 
And too many New York children come to school every day with health problems that 
undermine their ability to learn. 

The health of New Yorkers is essential to our economic success. And no other organization, 
public or private, can address New York’s health challenges as powerfully as SUNY. We have 
field-tested knowledge that covers the entire state. Our researchers are generating new insights 
into everything from HIV/AIDS to personalized medicine to cardiovascular disease. SUNY 
institutions educate thousands of students each year for medical, dental, nursing, public health, 
optometry, pharmacy, research, paramedicine, allied health, and biomedical careers – 9,800 
alone from our four Academic Medical Centers - and the majority of these graduates stay to 
serve the people of New York State. Our Academic Medical Centers treat more than one million 
patients annually—including the sickest, the most vulnerable, and the most diverse populations. 
We see firsthand where and how the safety net is fraying or failing, and we can bring about 
pragmatic, fundamental reform. 

Just as Silicon Valley is synonymous with innovation in information technology, we want New 
York State to be recognized for the best thinking in healthcare. And we can do it – by 
capitalizing on what we already know and the innovations that emerge from SUNY’s healthcare 
environments every day. 

THE RIGHT HEALTH PROFESSIONALS IN THE RIGHT PLACES
We’re proud that SUNY graduates dominate New York State’s healthcare workforce.   The large 
number of New Yorkers we recruit and educate in SUNY’s health profession  schools, combined 
with our programs to encourage students to work in rural and underserved areas, help us get 
more of our graduates to more places.  But for too many New Yorkers, healthcare access still 
depends on zip code. Using data from the Center for Health Workforce Studies on shortages, we 
will determine which professionals are most critical to New York State healthcare and create 
capacity in our programs that train students for these areas.  We will also develop innovative 
delivery strategies, such as distance learning and executive scheduling that are needed to 
decrease barriers to access. In particular, we will create educational pathways so that students 
already living in rural areas can pursue health careers in their home communities.  In addition, 
we will track data for medical, dentistry and optometry students to assess the best methods for 
attracting and retaining professionals in New York State.

THE SUNY WELLNESS NETWORK
Prevention and wellness programs are proven, cost-effective ways to improve our health and our 
health system. But most initiatives are short-term, geographically fragmented, and treat people as 
if they lived in clinical settings rather than real life. SUNY has experts and programs throughout 
the state that address every aspect of keeping people healthier: outreach, clinical care, health 
education, acute care, and biomedical research. Equally important, we have institutional 
stamina—we don’t give up on a problem. By convening our system-wide knowledge, the SUNY 
Wellness Network will establish statewide health goals in areas like obesity, smoking cessation, 
and the prevention of chronic illness, and then mobilize on-campus and community resources to 
get results that save lives and money. A dedicated web component will enable New York and the 
world to follow our progress and benefit from our knowledge.
 
SUNY SCALE
Everyone benefits from evidence-based medicine – whether it’s a patient choosing a doctor or 
hospital, a policymaker trying to implement new reforms, or a healthcare company developing 
new products. But evidence-based medicine demands thoroughly tested standards for safety, 
quality, and effectiveness. SUNY’s many healthcare delivery mechanisms, our ability to collect 
vast amounts of data, and our strengths in behavioral research make us uniquely qualified to test, 
develop, and refine national and international standards for treatment and delivery. The product 
of this knowledge will be an online database, SUNY Scale, that will help determine the best 
interventions – putting New York State at the forefront of effective, outcome-based healthcare.


[BOX]
DIVERSITY COUNTS
Across New York State, low-income populations and racial and ethnic minorities are far more 
likely to get sick and injured than other groups, and far less likely to get the care they need. Only 
a concerted, multi-pronged campaign will close these gaps. SUNY’s breadth of healthcare 
expertise gives us a powerful role together with national, state, and local partners. But to 
meaningfully address health matters, providers have to know the people they serve. SUNY will 
do more to diversify that workforce so that our nurses and doctors, social workers and midwives, 
and clinicians and statisticians reflect and connect more closely with the populations they serve.




[HEADLINE]
SUNY and AN ENERGY SMART NEW YORK


[SECONDARY HEADLINE]
Achieving sustainability demands action on multiple fronts at once. SUNY’s collective 
intelligence makes it New York’s renewable resource for ideas.  

[COPY]
The alarms have been sounded again and again on the consequences of climate change and 
overdependence on fossil fuels. Meanwhile, New York State’s energy costs have escalated to 50 
percent above the national average – a burden that makes our businesses far less competitive and 
places enormous financial strain on households. Without smarter energy use, economic 
revitalization will remain an elusive goal. The time to act is now. And SUNY, New York’s 
renewable resource for ideas, is ready to lead. 

Many of our initiatives in this field are already in the vanguard of research and discovery, 
particularly in the areas of renewables, energy storage systems, interoperability and cyber 
security, sensors and energy control systems, and the energy applications of nanotechnology. We 
have productive partnerships with a wide range of private and public enterprises to tackle the 
multifaceted challenges of sustainability. We also have extensive degree, certificate, and non-
credit programs related to energy and sustainability and training for green jobs.

What’s missing is a coordinated, focused approach. By changing that, we can exemplify how a 
large-scale, geographically far-flung institution can turn promises into genuine progress.


SUNY SMART GRID
Incorporating information technology and communication tools, a Smart Grid transforms our 
existing electricity grid into one that is cleaner, safer, and more reliable and efficient. Among 
other things, a Smart Grid accepts energy from virtually any fuel source (including solar and 
wind); allows consumers to tailor their energy consumption to individual preferences (like price 
or environmental concerns); senses system overloads and reroutes power to prevent outages; 
resists attacks and natural disasters; and slows the advance of global climate change. SUNY is a 
founding member of The New York State Smart Grid Consortium, which will help drive down 
New York’s excessively high energy costs while creating jobs in our state. And, as our own 
“grid” of colleges and universities reaching every corner of New York, SUNY Smart Grid is 
uniquely suited to help invent, test, commercialize, train and educate for this energy revolution, 
leading the way in making Smart Grid a reality for New York. 

NEW YORK AS A GREEN INCUBATOR 
When it comes to green energy, SUNY and New York State are already rich in talent and 
resources. We have an incomparable base of experts in both academia and industry who are 
researching, analyzing, developing, and commercializing cutting-edge energy initiatives, and we 
are one of only ten states with a major Department of Energy laboratory – Brookhaven National 
Laboratory. But our resources are geographically dispersed, and our projects sometimes fall short 
of their potential because of a lack of coordination. SUNY’s Green Incubator will develop an 
integrated network of energy specialists from academia, industry, government, and the public 
policy arena who will fast-track our strategies, putting us on the leading edge of opportunities. 
And we will tap into more and different kinds of financing - including venture capital and angel 
investment funding - to place New York at the forefront of the clean energy economy. 
LIVING SMART 
With an annual energy bill of about $280 million, SUNY is among the state’s largest energy 
consumers – now, we need to be its smartest. While each of our campuses has a sustainability 
coordinator and committee, and while we’ve established stringent energy standards for new 
buildings and renovations, we can and must do much more to shrink our carbon footprint. We 
will reduce SUNY’s system-wide energy consumption by at least 30 percent over the next 
decade by becoming the nation’s first system of “energy smart” campuses. Our 465,000 students, 
meanwhile, represent a potential critical mass of green thinkers and doers, especially if we offer 
courses and degree programs that equip them with the best thinking and practices. And if our 
campuses get it right, our communities will too.


[BOX]
DIVERSITY COUNTS 
It’s no surprise that across the country, toxic sites are all too often located in the poorest 
neighborhoods. Wherever land is cheap, that’s where the most polluting industrial infrastructure 
can be found. At SUNY, we believe all people deserve to live in clean and healthy 
neighborhoods. Our experts in public health, the environment and community planning will work 
to ensure that environmental and public health hazards do not disproportionately affect minority 
and vulnerable populations. We will develop strategies to help communities take part in the 
crucial planning decisions that so profoundly affect their quality of life, and, when necessary, 
help them claim their rights. 



[HEADLINE]
SUNY and THE VIBRANT COMMUNITY

[SECONDARY HEADLINE]
As other entities cut or loosen local ties, SUNY’s role as an enduring, enriching presence in 
communities becomes even more critical.  


[COPY]
Wherever New Yorkers come together as a community, SUNY is there—a remarkable 97 
percent of all New Yorkers live within 20 miles of a SUNY campus. Many of our campuses 
proudly bear the name of their home city or town. All of them serve as the local crossroads, 
enabling people from many different backgrounds to meet and deepen their mutual sense of 
belonging. Even in a “flat world,” the SUNY campuses stand as testimony to our powerful 
attachment to place. 

Strong communities are at the heart of economic revitalization.  As more and more communities 
worry about “brain drain,” SUNY campuses act as a natural magnet for young, talented, and 
creative people—the intellectual firepower that’s so critical to economic development in the 21st 
century. SUNY graduates also become volunteers, teachers, healthcare professionals, first 
responders, employers, advocates, and leaders – the people who make communities work. And 
SUNY is a major source for arts-and-culture programming that makes life richer for everyone 
and connects us to one another as no device or social network ever can. Our cultural efforts are 
critical building blocks in the development of a new creative economy. 

Now we need to act on behalf of New York’s communities with greater intentionality across our 
entire system. Our initiatives will take advantage of the already fluid boundaries that exist 
between town and gown while offering new ways for SUNY communities to form stronger 
bonds with one another. We want to create a broader sense of common ground and make a 
lasting difference for everyone in the places we call home.

CITIZEN SUNY
Volunteer work by our students, faculty, and staff is important, but it’s only the beginning. We 
will position SUNY as a national model for higher education citizenship, unleashing the 
problem-solving energy of our entire system on the challenges our communities face. We will 
take service learning and volunteerism to scale, collaborating with community representatives on 
each campus and across the state to identify their most pressing problems and create solutions 
that promote safe and livable neighborhoods, stable housing, and thriving workplaces.  We’ll 
ensure long-term commitment by building our involvement into the courses and degrees of each 
SUNY college and university.  And we’ll establish a Center for Citizen SUNY to gather, 
analyze, and share research and experiences in civic engagement, making the most of our 
combined knowledge.   

SUNY PASSPORT 
The more we encourage people to enjoy everything the entire state of New York has to offer, the 
more likely they are to put down roots here—and serve as unofficial New York ambassadors to 
the rest of the world. Through reciprocal partnerships among all SUNY campuses, as well as 
strategic alliances with cultural institutions, state offices, and local tourism boards, SUNY 
Passport will offer free or discounted admission to a wide range of cultural and recreational 
attractions for students, faculty and staff – making both the on and off-campus resources of the 
entire SUNY system available to everyone at our 64 campuses. Helping members of the SUNY 
community take full advantage of the state’s bounty will be an important factor in promoting 
economic development and in retaining talent in New York State.

SUNY COMMUNITY EXCHANGE PROGRAM  
There’s no question that study-abroad programs and sabbaticals have lifelong value and promote 
genuine global citizenship. But domestic experiences can be just as enlightening, especially in a 
state as geographically, economically, and demographically diverse as New York. Among the 
boundary-spanning possibilities: semester- or even year-long academic exchange programs for 
SUNY students among our campuses, and “reverse internships” for faculty in local businesses 
and cultural organizations. By encouraging this kind of direct cross-fertilization, we can deepen 
our reserves of empathy and understanding, make sure good ideas travel widely, and create a 
stronger knowledge network. We can literally learn a lot from one another.     


[BOX]
DIVERSITY COUNTS 
SUNY campuses bring together all kinds of learners with different personal histories and 
heritages. But it’s when they venture into their local communities that many of our students 
encounter diversity in its most enlightening and rewarding forms. We will encourage those 
experiences by expanding our service learning programs that connect our students with people of 
different races, ethnicities, ages, and economic backgrounds. A student may join forces with a 
group of veterans to build a memorial or with the elderly in a nursing home. Service learning 
creates bonds of fellowship, erodes stereotypes, and deepens our commitment to civic 
responsibility. 



[HEADLINE]
SUNY and THE WORLD 

[SECONDARY HEADLINE]
We will nurture a culturally-fluent, cross-national mindset and put it to work improving 
New York’s global competitiveness.

[COPY]
If you look around our campuses on any given day, it quickly becomes clear that we have 
succeeded at bringing the world to SUNY: taken together, our campuses comprise one of the 
most diverse learning communities in the world. Our system attracts adventurous and ambitious 
people from every possible background. In the international race for talent—the most fiercely 
contested race in the 21st century—we’re off to a running start. 

But numbers alone are inadequate. For SUNY to drive economic vitality, we must remain a 
beacon for talent worldwide. And once that talent is here, we need to retain it within our state. 
Most important, we must think of diversity in terms of the energy and perspective that it 
represents and use it to everyone’s advantage—for example, in partnerships with domestic 
companies that are struggling to expand globally and adapt to new economic and competitive 
realities. 

While building upon our New York roots, we can transform SUNY into a transnational 
enterprise of the highest order—a ubiquitous knowledge generator and provider, and a leader in 
the globalization of information.     


BUILDING OUR GLOBAL TALENT POOL 
In the globalized economy, students with a broad cultural and international perspective have 
distinct competitive advantages. To create a globally competent student body, we must increase 
the opportunities for international exposure throughout all courses and degrees. Not only will we 
send more students abroad, but we will also increase the pool of talented foreign students 
studying on our campuses, making use of certified recruitment agents around the world.  We will 
also develop incentives for foreign students to remain here in New York State after their studies 
end and contribute to the economy. The lessons of Silicon Valley should not be lost on us: more 
than half of Silicon Valley start-ups were founded by immigrants over the last decade—
businesses that employed 450,000 workers and had sales of $52 billion in 2005. 

SUNY DIPLOMACY
SUNY is already at the table for some of the world’s weightiest discussions: many of our 
campuses have long and direct relationships with foreign universities, governments, 
multinational corporations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). SUNY can play a 
unique role in facilitating global dialogue at the highest level, but we need to look at our 
relationships more strategically and use an outcomes-driven framework to capitalize upon 
them. We will tap into other capacities throughout the SUNY system to widen and deepen the 
connections, including the enterprise-wide mapping of our global relationships. SUNY will 
become a global convener at a level few academic institutions anywhere can match, with a 
focus on projecting New York in the world. 

OPEN SUNY 
Building on SUNY’s current open and online initiatives, OPEN SUNY has the potential to be 
America’s most extensive distance learning environment. It will provide students with 
affordable, innovative, and flexible education in a full range of instructional formats, both online 
and on site. OPEN SUNY will network students with faculty and peers from across the state and 
throughout the world through social and emerging technologies and link them to the best in open 
educational resources. OPEN SUNY will provide an online portal for thousands of people 
worldwide seeking a foothold in post-secondary education - from soldiers of the 10th Mountain 
Division in Afghanistan to new immigrants with foreign educational credentials to overseas 
students who can’t afford in-person American study. 

[BOX]
DIVERSITY COUNTS
All students, regardless of where they come from, must be widely knowledgeable about the 
world. Unfortunately, underrepresented minorities and low-income students often miss out on 
experiences that help them develop cultural fluency. SUNY will redress this by creating more 
accessible and affordable opportunities for these students to gain firsthand international 
experience, including programs for study abroad, work abroad, and foreign teaching internships 
and assistantships. By making these experiences a key feature of every SUNY education, we will 
instill across the system not only global thinking but a deeper appreciation for the nuances of 
cultural difference.



 
[HEADLINE]
BUILDING A BETTER SUNY 


[CALLOUT TEXT]
The goals we’ve set for ourselves bring with them serious challenges. That’s what makes 
them worthwhile. But there is no bigger challenge than earning and keeping the public 
trust. 


[COPY]
New Yorkers know they can depend on SUNY—our institutions have been educating people 
from all walks of life for over a century. But the call for accountability has never been louder. 
SUNY must make significant changes in the way we operate—and must deliver results in more 
meaningful and measurable ways—to show that we mean what we say. 

A more effective SUNY demands we hold to these standards: 

Action trumps everything. 
There’s an old and unfortunate truism about academia: “When all is said and done, more is said 
than done.” We are determined to overturn that conventional wisdom. The only way an 
enterprise like SUNY can prove the power of its vision is to act on it. We must be willing to 
experiment, be nimble, take risks, think on our feet, and, occasionally, fail. We’re going to have 
to draw on the deepest reserves of our patience and persistence. But we will get our ideas to 
market—and sooner rather than later. 

Credibility is a product of inclusiveness and transparency.
In preparing this Strategic Plan, we’ve spent the past ten months collecting information, 
gathering ideas, and taking account of the expertise and insight of hundreds of people through 
town hall gatherings, community meetings, working groups, and expert panels. Equally 
important, we’ve communicated what we are doing as widely as possible and sought the broadest 
input as we’ve made strategic decisions, defined our priorities, and refined our goals. The 
openness and inclusiveness that have characterized this process will remain our standard. 

Data drives decision making and holds us accountable.  
Achieving the goals of this Strategic Plan will only be possible if we commit to the ongoing 
measurement of our progress—and if we resist the all-too-human impulse to move the goal posts 
when the results aren’t to our liking. SUNY already generates a vast amount of information 
related to performance and progress, but we can still be better and faster in capturing data, 
measuring our progress, extracting value, and disseminating what we learn. A culture of data-
driven accountability is one of the most enduring legacies we can leave for those who will 
reinterpret SUNY’s goals for succeeding generations. 


[CONCLUSION]
OUR PROMISE 


SUNY was born out of a commitment to opportunity and access, and designed to meet diverse 
needs across a vast geographic landscape. We reflect both the land grant mission reborn and a 
distinctly New York impatience with the status quo. Throughout our history, we’ve shown a 
willingness to throw open doors, embrace new thinking and commit to brighter ideals. 

On the pages of our strategic plan, we present our Big Ideas not as hopes, but as firm intentions. 
Why do we believe that SUNY, unique within American higher education, can best achieve these 
goals? Because of the extraordinary power of SUNY:


The diversity of our institutions and the diversity of our people. Together, they 
make it possible for us to incubate ideas, create best practices, and share everything 
broadly.  

The breadth of our impact on individual lives. We employ thousands and 
transform millions.   

Our reach and commitment. We are anchors in our communities, committed to 
their long-term  health, cultural richness, and economic well-being.  
 
Our credibility as a convener. We bring together governments, non-profits, 
industry, and philanthropy in the wiser pursuit of a better world.    

Our willingness to experiment. As educators, we know that new knowledge entails 
risk, and that failure can be as instructive as success. We are always learning.  

Together, we are the power of SUNY. 

Join us. 






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