About SUNY & the 60th Anniversary Conference
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SUNY & the Promise of Public Higher Education in America
A Scholarly Conference on SUNY's 60th Anniversary
April 3 - 5, 2009
University at Albany
"If you want to preview the American university of the 21st century, look at
what is happening in higher education at SUNY today."
Governor Nelson Rockefeller, 1968
State university systems propelled the revolutionary American experiment in "mass higher education," a pioneering model now spreading around the world. Although the Empire State was the last to create a State University system, SUNY evolved into the nation's largest, currently enrolling more than 439,000 students. After a contentious founding amidst the dramatic 1948 presidential election and a stumbling first decade, SUNY emerged as a leader in American public higher education in the 1960s.
Today, SUNY's 64 campuses provide wide access, a plethora of academic programs, vital public services, and cutting-edge research. But New York State's Commission on Higher Education has challenged SUNY to assume a leading role in reviving the State's economy and to more effectively serve and shape an informed and productive citizenry. Understanding the past should enhance our ability to meet those challenges.
The 60th Anniversary of SUNY's founding presents an ideal moment to assess the history of this multi-faceted organization. The conference seeks to promote a scholarly understanding of SUNY in the context of New York State's political, economic, social, and cultural history and to assess how effectively it has broadened access to higher education and brought social and economic benefits to New Yorkers. In addition, scholars will examine SUNY's development within the context of other national and international models. Finally, the conference will explore the archival and historiographic issues inherent in the preservation, interpretation, and dissemination of SUNY's and other state systems' histories.
The conference concludes on the 60th anniversary of the day in 1949 when the campus leaders first gathered in Albany to launch SUNY, although its official seal is embossed with the date "1948." Therein lies one of many interesting tales that will intrigue conference members and help us toward greater understanding of the limits and possibilities of public higher education in New York State and beyond.
The conference is only a starting point. Toward the goal of raising SUNY's profile on historians' horizon and informing a new generation of New Yorkers about their university, the conference will generate a book to be published by the SUNY Press.