Our Goal

Participate!

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.

Teams and Related Workgroups

SUNY and the Vibrant Community