The Capital District (Albany, Schenectady, and Troy) with a population
of 750,000, is near Saratoga, the Berkshires, the Catskills, and the Adirondack
Mountains, areas noted for recreational and cultural opportunities.
The University is 150 miles from New York City, 165 miles from Boston,
and 242 miles from Montreal. The main campus is located near the intersection
of the New York State Thruway, the Adirondack Northway, and Interstate
90. Within five miles of the campus are an AMTRAK rail station, the Greyhound
and Trailways bus depots, and the Albany County Airport, served by several
major airlines.
Nationally and internationally renowned scholars are among the more
than 650 full-time faculty members who are committed to maintaining the
high academic standards which have characterized Albany since its founding
in 1844. A large number of our faculty have earned the rank of Distinguished
Professor, the highest academic honor for a faculty member in the State
University of New York System. Additionally, many of the academic departments
have gained national prominence. Finally, many of the faculty are integrally
involved in meaningful community service efforts in the Capital Region
and throughout the state.
The University enrolls students in eight degree-granting
schools and colleges. The College Arts and Sciences and the Schools of
Business, Criminal Justice, Education, Information Science and Policy,
Public Affairs, and Social Welfare offer undergraduate and graduate programs.
The School of Public Health offers graduate programs only. The Nelson A.
Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy is composed of four independent
schools: the School of Criminal Justice, the School of Information Science
and Policy, the School of Social Welfare, and the Graduate School of Public
Affairs. There are opportunities for joint degrees between the three schools
and with other graduate programs.
The offices of the Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Vice
President for Research and Graduate Studies jointly work with the academic
units in curricular and research areas. On the undergraduate level, the
Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies is responsible for the coordination
of the academic experience of undergraduate students and works closely
with the deans and faculty of the individual schools and colleges in developing,
coordinating, and implementing undergraduate academic policy and curricula.
Nondegree study at the undergraduate level is coordinated by the Office
of General Studies.
The Campus: The main campus, designed by
noted architect Edward Durell Stone and completed in the mid-1960s, is
located on the west side of the city. The setting is highlighted by the
"Academic Podium," of 13 academic buildings on a common platform, all connected
by a continuous roof and a lower-level corridor. Although most classrooms
and laboratories are on this campus, the schools of the Rockefeller College
of Public Affairs and Policy are located on the downtown campus. Extensively
renovated, the downtown campus also includes residential, instructional,
clinical, and research facilities. Shuttle service between the campuses
is available.
In addition to the classrooms and laboratories on the Academic Podium
of the main campus, there are the University Library and the Performing
Arts Center, with several theatres, recital halls, rehearsal rooms, and
instructional areas.
Five residence quadrangles on the main campus, each housing approximately
1,200 students, include eight three-story halls and a 23-story tower in
each quadrangle. Besides living quarters, each quadrangle has lounges,
recreation areas, dining facilities, and classrooms. Housing is also available
on Alumni Quadrangle, located in down town Albany near the downtown campus.
Other special facilities on the campus include the Fine Arts Building,
which houses one of the finest museums in the Northeast, a meteorological
laboratory equipped comparably to a National Weather Service first-order
observing station, a Computing Center, and a linear accelerator for physics
research. The hub of student activity is the Campus Center and its new
extension, opened in September 1994, with its lounges, meeting rooms, ballroom,
cafeteria, snack bar, dining room, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and bowling
lanes. The Campus Center Extension houses the barbershop, banking facilities,
Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Cee Cee's convenience store, bookstore, computer
store, and sub shop. Outdoor recreation facilities include 24 tennis courts
(12 with lights), 4 basketball and 6 volleyball courts, an all-weather
running track, and several multipurpose playing areas. In the Physical
Education Center are a pool, handball and squash courts, and team sports
areas.
The newest addition to the athletic and physical education facilities
is the Recreation and Convocation Center (RACC). With an arena seating
capacity of nearly 4,800 the facility also houses a running track for indoor
competition, a modern fitness center, a fully equipped and modern athletic
training complex with whirlpools and other rehabilitative equipment, four
additional handball/racquetball courts, four squash courts and two main
locker room facilities, as well as 10 smaller team locker rooms. All facilities
are handicapped accessible and have designated seating areas for handicapped
spectators.
Libraries: The University maintains library
facilities on both campuses. Library collections, organized by the Library
of Congress classification system, number over 1.9 million volumes. Current
periodical and newspaper subscriptions number 6,500 and the library has
extensive back files. A selective depository for U.S. government publications,
the library also collects documents of local, state, foreign, and international
governmental agencies. The University Libraries also have archival collections
on particular subjects. Membership in the Center for Research Libraries
provides access to the centers three-million-volume collection. The University
is also a member of the Association of Research Libraries and The Research
Libraries Group.
Computer Search Services librarians assist users to develop computer
produced bibliographies using research data bases, including those covering
chemistry, biology, psychology, sociology, education, medicine, dissertations,
and government reports. These databases are particularly useful for searches
requiring an interrelationship between two or more subjects. The library
also has many databases available on CD-rom which users may search by appointment.
Collection Development bibliographers assist faculty and students in
the selection and use of library materials. Other available services include
tours, films, orientation sessions, and instruction in the techniques of
bibliographic research. In addition, there are special facilities to aid
the visually handicapped. The library on the uptown campus provides individual
student carrels and study rooms for faculty and doctoral research.
The Dewey Graduate Library of Public Affairs and Policy, on the downtown
campus, serves the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and
Policy and the Rockefeller Institute of Government. The Dewey Graduate
Library facilitates and assists cross disciplinary, doctoral-level research.
It provides both materials and access to information in a variety of formats
and locations. Cooperative agreements on the local, regional, and national
levels facilitate this flow of materials and information.
Academic Computing: Campus computing
is rapidly changing and continually growing to meet
the needs of all users. The University at Albany offers a wide variety
of computing services for faculty, staff and students through the department
of Academic Computing. Services include email and space for web pages,
as well as access to a large central computer system, personal computers,
workstations, laser printing, and the world-wide Internet. Information
on how to use these facilities is available on the Academic Computing
web pages (www.albany.edu/academic_computing).
Academic Computing currently provides access to and support for a SUN
Microsystems Solaris UNIX cluster. In addition, the department supports
IBM-compatible personal computers and a wide variety of application software
products. Registered students are automatically eligible for a computing
account on the UNIX cluster. In addition to local network resources
and applications, direct access to the Internet is
available.
Academic Computing operates several public access computing rooms for
use by members of the University community. These rooms contain microcomputers
that can be used to access the available resources. Public access areas
include LC-3 and LC-4 in the Lecture Center area of the podium, as well as
UL-137 in the main University Library and DR-15 on the downtown campus.
Academic Computing provides consulting services through the Academic
Computing Help Desk, also located in the Lecture Center area(LC-27). The
Help Desk provides walk-in, phone, and e-mail support for the services
and facilities available through Academic Computing.
If you have a question or want to know more about the services provided
by Academic Computing, contact the Help Desk by calling 442-3700, by sending
e-mail to [email protected], or by visiting LC-27.
U-Kids Child Care Center: U-Kids Child
Care Center is a satellite of Campus Children's Center, Inc. and is located
at the uptown Albany campus. Its mission is to provide the University community
with the highest quality care. The center provides a diverse, educational,
friendly, nutritional, and safe environment that meets the needs of its
children. The center's atmosphere encourages children to learn through
discovery, providing care with concern for each individual child's needs,
interests, and ability levels. Qualities of independence and interdependence
are fostered as the children are guided through a program rich with stimulating
learning centers and creative activities. A special emphasis is made to
foster these qualities in a culturally, socially, and economically diverse
environment.
The center operates Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. until 5:30
p.m. For further information, please call 518-442-2660, or write to U-Kids
Child Care Center, 1400 Washington Avenue, Dutch Quad, Albany, NY 12222.
"Just Community" Principles:
"The University at Albany, State University of New York, is an academic
community dedicated to the ideals of justice. A university is above all
a place where intellectual life is central and where faculty, staff, and
students strive together for excellence in the pursuit of knowledge. It
is a particular kind of community with special purposes. Moreover, this
academic community, if it is to support our broader ideals, must also be
just.
"There is no definitive theory of justice. The differences in these
theories are to be respected. However, among all democratic theories of
justice, the principles of equality and liberty are basic. These principles
are no less central to a free university.
"Equality is a necessary part of any university that claims to be a
democratic institution. Distinctions based on irrelevant differences are
ruled out. Ascriptive characteristics such as race, religion, gender, class,
disability, ethnic background, or sexual preference, determine neither
the value of individuals nor the legitimacy of their views. Only the merit
of the individual as a participant in the life of the academic community
is worthy of consideration. Bigotry in any form is antithetical to the
University's ideals on intellectual political, and moral grounds and must
be challenged and rejected.
"Liberty is an equally precious academic principle because the free
expression of ideas is the central part of university life. To sustain
the advancement and dissemination of knowledge and understanding, the University
must allow the free expression of ideas, no matter how outrageous. Protecting
speech in all its forms, however, does not mean condoning all ideas or
actions. The University sets high standards for itself and denounces the
violation of these standards in unequivocal terms. Harassment and other
behavior that intrudes upon the rights of others is unacceptable and subject
to action under the guidelines of the institution.
"There is no guarantee that the principles of justice, once stated,
are realized. The University must constantly remind itself that its mission
and ethos must evolve within the context of justice. A just community is
always on guard against injustice, always struggling to move closer to
the ideals of justice, always asserting its dedication to justice. The
assertion of justice takes place in every part of the community: in the
classroom, the lecture hall, the library, the residence hall, wherever
members of the University come together. It is the responsibility of all
faculty, staff and students to keep the ideals of justice uppermost in
the minds of the members of the University so that they may be achieved."
KEY DATES
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1844 Founded as the New York State Normal School
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1909 Downtown campus opened
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1935 First residence halls opened, Pierce and Sayles
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1962 Designated SUNY University Center
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1967 Uptown campus opened
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1976 Renamed University at Albany
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1983 NYS Writers Institute established
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1992 Recreation and Convocation Center opened
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1996 University Foundation acquires new East Campus for School of Public
Health, biotechnology and high-tech start-up businesses
For more information concerning the rich history, traditions and achievements
of the University at Albany, please visit the University's web page:
www.albany.edu
