Statement from Chancellor King and the SUNY Board of Trustees on Black History Month

February 3, 2025

"On behalf of the State University of New York, we are proud to celebrate Black History Month and recognize this year's theme of 'African Americans and Labor.' As the Association for the Study of African American Life and History notes, this important theme 'focuses on the various and profound ways that work and working of all kinds – free and unfree, skilled and unskilled, vocational and voluntary – intersect with the collective experiences of Black people.'

"At SUNY, we recognize this legacy and honor SUNY's founding mission 'to provide to the people of New York educational services of the highest quality, with the broadest possible access, fully representative of all segments of the population.'

"This year's Black History Month theme is a powerful reminder that teaching the truth about our history is integral to SUNY's commitment to academic excellence. We also recognize that SUNY's role as an engine of upward mobility is interwoven with the history and future of labor and economic opportunity – from our Educational Opportunity Centers to our Community Colleges to our Bachelor's degree granting institutions to our graduate and professional programs that award advanced degrees in cutting-edge fields."

About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY’s 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country’s oldest school of maritime, the state’s only college of optometry, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.4 million students amongst its entire portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2023, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and one in three New Yorkers with a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit suny.edu.


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