University at Albany, State University of New York -- Mission Review

Table of Contents

Campus Self-Description

The University at Albany is nationally recognized as a rising research and graduate education center, an institution that is on a trajectory to become one of the nation�s leading research universities. Albany�s historical roots are grounded in the liberal arts, in professional teacher preparation, and more recently in research, education, and service related to public policy. From these traditions, Albany has emerged as a research university that emphasizes the integration of teaching, scholarship, creative expression, and service in all of its undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs. Like the majority of other campuses of the State University of New York, scholars and students at Albany share a desire to know and appreciate the traditions of the past, to explore contemporary questions and issues, and to acquire the experience and skills that are necessary for meaningful and productive lives in a global society. As a University Center, however, Albany has an additional special role and mission to push the boundaries of knowledge and to provide opportunities for students to pursue an education in a research environment.

Albany has a rich learning and research environment, whose major asset is a world-class faculty. The faculty members who have been recruited to the campus over the past three decades are dedicated teachers and internationally visible and respected researchers. They are among the most active and productive scholars in their individual fields, which include the core arts and sciences disciplines, as well as professional schools in business, criminal justice, education, information science, public affairs, public health, and social welfare. The faculty are defining and studying the most central and important intellectual questions in their specialties, including many that are also directly related to some of the most vexing problems facing current society. Many of the faculty have been recognized as leaders in their professional associations. Through their scholarship, individual scholars have established important and productive research networks with campus colleagues and with collaborators at many other major research institutions. A growing number of researchers are also involved in significant research enterprises � for example, in advanced thin film technology and in biotechnology � that hold tremendous potential for contributing to the economic development and vitality of our region and State.

Albany�s excellent faculty has been critical in creating and offering high quality academic programs that attract high-achieving and committed students. Many of these programs are already ranked among the very best in the country. Still others are positioned to move into the ranks of our nation�s premier programs for their discipline. Our students recognize and respond to this quality. As a highly selective institution, Albany attracts undergraduate students who are among the most able from New York State, and increasingly from throughout the northeast and eastern part of the United States as well as from other countries of the world. In addition to a fine general education foundation, these students pursue bachelor degrees in 100 discipline based and interdisciplinary programs. Opportunities also abound for combined bachelor�s/master�s degree programs, for internships designed to give students practical �hands-on� experience in a field or area of interest, and for study abroad at academic institutions in all of the major geographic regions of the world. We administer more study abroad programs than any other campus in the SUNY system. Our graduation rate is among the highest for public institutions in the country. From regular and systematic surveys of alumni we know that our students highly value their experience at Albany. Approximately 40% proceed immediately to graduate school upon graduation, and roughly 70% receive a graduate degree within ten years of their undergraduate preparation.

Albany�s graduate students are similarly able and inspired by the reputation of the faculty and the institution�s academic programs, which include 20 graduate certificate programs, 57 masters degree programs, and 38 doctoral degree programs. These programs prepare students for successful careers in a broad range of fields. Through these experiences, students acquire the knowledge and skills for bringing systematic knowledge to bear on professional practice and policy. Students involved in advanced doctoral study enjoy impressive opportunities to engage in basic and applied research that is at the leading edge of discovery and inquiry in a variety of disciplines as well as in the interdisciplinary mode that has become a defining characteristic of most of the professions. Much of the activity is supported by competitive external grants; faculty of the University at Albany received $57.8 million in booked awards for 1997–98 through the SUNY Research Foundation and $63 million through Health Research, Inc, the fiscal agent for grants and contracts for the New York State Department of Health. Increasingly, the institution is exploiting new modes of delivery in responding to individuals with continuing education interests and professional development needs. Albany faculty are known and highly regarded for the high quality of their graduate teaching, for their commitment to individual students, and for their success in mentoring and placing graduates at the conclusion of their degree programs.

The University�s exceptional programs are supported by impressive facilities maintained by a professional staff dedicated to the mission and goals of the institution. The academic programs are located on three campuses — an "uptown" or main campus on the western edge of the City of Albany, a �downtown� campus only blocks from the State�s capitol building, and an �east� or Rensselaer campus across the Hudson River in Rensselaer. Residential facilities to house and feed approximately 5,600 students are maintained on the �uptown� campus as well as between the �uptown� and �downtown� campuses. Albany�s campus has begun to expand significantly with the infusion of new capital funding. These changes are essential for maintaining the institution�s developing program and enrollment base and are providing the infrastructure to support the institution�s upward trajectory. A new recreation and convocation center was constructed on the south side of the campus in 1994. This highly acclaimed facility nearly doubled the institution�s capacity to serve student recreation needs and will support a Division I athletic program beginning in the 1999–2000 academic year. In 1996, we acquired the former Sterling-Winthrop facility, which is now home for the School of Public Health, research programs of a number of our faculty, as well as a business incubator for many private biotechnical firms. In that same year, ground was broken adjacent to an expanded Campus Center for a new digital science and mathematics library that will open over the summer of 1999. The new digital library underscores the central role of research in the mission and activities of the University Center at Albany. The most recent completed addition to our campus, built by the University at Albany Foundation, is another research building, the Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management (CESTM). The CESTM facility represents a new direction in collaborative research with considerable potential for stimulating regional and State-wide economic development. This award-winning facility houses the University�s New York State Center for Advanced Thin Film Technology (CAT), the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC), a National Weather Service Forecast office, and a number of related small business incubator enterprises. Later this spring, we will break ground to add a third wing to this building following Albany�s recent selection as a National Focus Center on Interconnects by the Semiconductor Industry Association.

In recognition of Albany�s prior need and expansion in new areas, the State University Construction Fund authorized the campus to conduct a full Master Planning Process in 1996. That process, concluded a year later, produced a Campus Master Plan that sets out a facilities program for the next decade involving the construction of new buildings and the refurbishing of existing structures. These capital improvements will ensure a modern, flexible environment for the University�s academic and research programs well into the next century. More important, the Governor and the Legislature have authorized $130 million in capital spending to fund the initial phases of the Plan. Their action, together with the support of the Chancellor and the Trustees, is a strong and powerful affirmation for the University at Albany�s mission, its faculty and students, and for our aspirations to still higher levels of excellence and achievement.

Our aspirations are grounded in a solid understanding of what the University at Albany is and on a systematic determination of what kind of institution we are becoming. In selecting our current and aspirational peers, the following organizational variables were considered: mission (institutional type, control); organization size; organizational wealth (all resources); complexity/diversity; and quality/selectivity (faculty, students, outputs and outcomes). Based on an analysis of 38 characteristics of these organizational variables, the University at Albany�s peer institutions include the University of Delaware, the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of California at Santa Cruz, the University of Rhode Island, Washington State University, Virginia Tech, the University of Connecticut, the University of Massachusetts � Amherst, the University of South Carolina, the University of Oregon, and the State University of New York Centers at Buffalo and Stony Brook.

To identify our aspirational peers, we rely on recently published rankings in Hugh Graham�s and Nancy Diamond�s study, The Rise of American Research Universities. This book has received widespread national attention. The authors studied 203 public and private universities and examined data between 1980 and 1990 on federal research grants, faculty publications, and faculty scholarship in the most frequently cited professional journals. They use multi-year, rather than single-year indicators and calculate their measures on a per faculty member basis. Thus, their analysis gauges faculty performance in funding and scholarship over time and across a range of disciplines, from medicine to the humanities. They authors then cluster the 203 universities into four groups from Research 1 (highest) to Research 4 (lowest). The University at Albany is ranked with 33 other public universities in the Research 1 category.

The Graham and Diamond analysis concludes that the University at Albany is one of 32 �rising� universities and ranks 17th among public Research 1 universities. Albany faculty compare very favorably in the category of scholarship, ranking 12th among public universities and 27th among all public and private institutions. In Federal R&D funding per faculty member, Albany ranks 40th among public universities and 74th among all universities. This achievement is further noteworthy because the study does not control for the presence of schools of medicine, engineering, law, or agriculture, none of which are in Albany�s program portfolio. Albany�s peer group as defined by the Graham and Diamond study includes, among others, the University of Virginia, the University of Texas-Austin, Arizona State University, Indiana University-Bloomington, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the University of California-Irvine, Florida State University, the University of California-San Diego, the University of Maryland-College Park, and Rutgers University-New Brunswick. Investment to lower our student/faculty ratio and to increase support for research and graduate students would move Albany squarely into the company of these and other Carnegie Research I institutions. Additional detail regarding the Graham and Diamond study as well as the determination of our aspirational peers is provided as an appendix.

To guide the University at Albany in taking this step, a faculty-driven strategic planning process was initiated in 1996. A broad cross-section of the University at Albany community has identified strategic values consistent with the institution�s 1992 Mission Statement. These values � Engaged Learning, Discovery, Societal Responsibility, Innovation through Technology, and Distinctiveness � provided a framework from which to develop strategic goals and related initiatives (a detailed description of the planning process and outcomes is provided as an appendix). Among others, our strategic goals reaffirm our commitment to excellence in our undergraduate and graduate programs and to attracting the best students and faculty. We are further committed to research that aims to pursue knowledge for its own sake and for its practical benefits to society. Engagement with the needs of our region, New York State, the nation, indeed our global society, is a commitment grounded in our obligation to public service and societal responsibility. Lastly, we recognize the growing competition for resources in our fiscal environment as well as our stewardship obligation to deploy State resources effectively and to be aggressive in pursuing other sources of revenue. This year, each academic and support unit is developing its own strategic plan that will �nest� within the over-arching goals framed by the campus-wide community. As our strategic planning continues, we will identify specific initiatives to maintain and enhance those academic programs that are already highly ranked nationally and, in addition, to elevate other programs that are strategically positioned to move higher in national stature.

In short, this is the University at Albany�s collective objective: in our size, impact, operation, and stature to become a Carnegie Research I institution as well as to qualify for election to the American Association of Universities. Such institutions are noted as places that recruit, retain and graduate high-achieving students; that offer high quality educational programs featuring comparatively low student/faculty ratios and opportunities for students to engage in research; that attract, nurture, and retain world-class faculty, who compete successfully for significant Federal R&D grants and contracts; that support high quality graduate and professional programs; and that attract substantial private support. We believe Albany has a sound base for aspiring to excellence at this level. The level of funding allocated to the campus will determine not only whether but how quickly we can achieve the goal.


Campus Demography

The University at Albany�s Five-Year Enrollment Plan is consistent with the enhancement of the institution�s national stature as a premier mid-sized public research university. Over time, we will seek to move total campus enrollment to 20,000 students. Our current Enrollment Plan, which was submitted to System Administration in April 1999, calls for a 2001–2002 enrollment comprised of:

We will achieve growth in enrollment through strategic investment in and promotion of academic programs that are already or are positioned to move into national prominence for this University. While there will be some growth at the graduate level, we expect to increase the undergraduate proportion of the institution�s total enrollment. Albany is a campus of choice for high-achieving, fulltime, residential students. Our highly successful Presidential Scholars and Project Renaissance initiatives are examples of strategies for pursuing this objective. Within this Plan, there will be modest but important shifts in the composition of the student population.

Broader Geographic Base: The undergraduate program at Albany is known for its responsiveness to the educational needs of New York State�s citizens. However, the educational experience can be enriched by a student population that is more geographically diverse. Thus, the University at Albany has begun a planned increase in the recruitment of undergraduate students from selected states outside of New York. In doing so, the University expects to compete directly for out-of-state students with the same institutions who represent our main competition for in-state students � namely, public and private universities in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida, and to a lesser extent, public institutions in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Ohio. Similarly, and in support of our overall focus on a more international campus, the University has begun selected recruitment initiatives aimed at enrolling a larger number of international students as freshman and transfers, and in selected disciplines at the graduate level. In keeping with this aspiration, the number of international students on campus has reached an all-time high.

Racial/Ethnic Composition: While not marking a change in our enrollment plans, it is important to note the University�s strong record of success in providing access to all of New York State�s citizens. The University has successfully achieved its goal to enroll a student body that closely matches the racial/ethnic composition of the State of New York itself. For the past ten years, approximately 25 percent of the entering freshman class at Albany has been students from minority groups.

Nontraditional and Geographically Remote Learners: Building on our highly successful Professional Development Program and our experience with contractual activities developed through our professional schools, the University is also promoting programs to meet the needs of nontraditional adult learners. These efforts include a focus on new and customized programs for selected groups of learners, as well as on modifying the modes of delivery of instruction, including the times, locations, and media that can assist the nontraditional adult population in meeting their educational goals.

Technology-mediated learning assists not only the nontraditional learner in gaining access to selected programs and degrees, but also assists geographically remote learners. Our plans call for constantly evaluating and expanding our technological resources to offer a selection of programs and degrees that will supplement or meet the needs of an ever-changing student population. Current activities, in the formative stages, involve each of the schools and colleges on our campus.

As examples of our efforts to serve the nontraditional learner, Albany currently supports some of the highest enrolled courses offered through the SUNY Learning Network and was the first (and may still be the only) campus participant to offer an entire masters program using this technology. Albany is also the lead campus for the EastNet Interactive Distance Learning Initiative, offering graduate programs in social welfare and educational administration and policy to learners in Binghamton and Oswego. Our goals include expanding on this initiative by reaching out, through complementary programs, to other SUNY campuses in both the graduate and undergraduate arenas. Reaching under- served student populations represents a new challenge to the University and is fully consistent with our plans for growth.

A discussion of campus demography would be incomplete without noting the University at Albany�s commitment to recruit and retain a diverse faculty and staff. Albany is an institution that values the experience and perspectives of under-represented minorities in all of its constituent communities. The campus has made tremendous strides, even during recent years when the recruitment of new faculty has been extremely limited, in increasing the representation of women and under-represented minorities in its workforce. We will continue to pursue our diversity goals in the future.


Programmatic Mix

As described at the outset, Albany�s distinguishing characteristic is its status as a research university. Research is a central component of virtually every program and experience sponsored by the campus. Discovery and creation of new knowledge in and of itself are core aspects of Albany�s mission. Research also informs central elements of the University�s contributions in service and defines in fundamental ways the character of the institution�s teaching and academic programs.

The basic resource that fuels this enterprise is the University�s faculty, which is among the most visible and active of any public research university in the country. Our faculty has been recruited from the nation�s tier one universities. They share a common identity that is grounded in the traditional academic value for excellence in research, in teaching, and in service in the institutional, professional, and public contexts. On a per capita basis, Albany�s faculty stands with the nation�s best in terms of scholarly productivity (see appendix, The Rise of American Research Universities). Increasingly, their work is defining major parts of the research agendas for their disciplines and professions. The research is also attracting substantial external funds from both public and private sources. As Albany�s faculty has grown stronger, so too has the University�s student population. We attract and graduate high-achieving students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels of the academic program. A community of scholars and learners, the University at Albany focuses creative talent and resources on the study and analysis of a wide continuum of fundamental and applied questions, in the process developing the background and skills required to pursue fulfilling and productive careers in the future.

But perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of the University at Albany is our commitment to be proactive in relating the basic and applied research conducted by our faculty and students to the public that surrounds and supports us. We see ourselves increasingly linked with other institutions, agencies, and organizations in our community. These partnerships � with industry, business, government, non-profit agencies � are integral to our vision of what a modern public research university is about, and they are important agents for insuring that our programs are responsive to the needs of the world around us. Our partnerships have also been highly effective in attracting resources for creating economic growth and development.

  • Albany�s linkages with regional arts and other cultural institutions makes the Capital Region a more attractive and vibrant place in which to live and work. The State�s investment in the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany has been instrumental in providing a rich program of readings and presentations from individuals who are among the world�s best known contemporary poets, playwrights, novelists, and writers of non-fiction. The Institute�s collaborations with other cultural and educational institutions have made it possible to project these presentations to a wide audience, extending well beyond our immediate community and region. Our University Art Museum has similarly engaged both public and private sector agencies in mounting exhibitions that are inspired by the interests and creative capacities of our faculty and students.

  • Partnership is at the very core of the concept for the University at Albany�s widely-acclaimed CESTM facility. This space supports active collaborations at the cutting edge of atmospheric and materials science, involving University faculty and students, practitioners in related professions and services, and private entrepreneurs to accelerate the application of new knowledge for the creation of profitable new products and services. The synergy made possible by these partnerships has already shown results. Our microelectronics initiatives, organized under the auspices of the Center for Advanced Thin Film Technology, are generating critical new knowledge that will be central for producing the next generation of computer chips. Later this year, we will break ground for a new wing on the CESTM building that will serve as a pilot test fabrication and workforce development facility. All of this work will in turn inform concerted regional efforts, involving the full range of educational institutions in the Capital District, to address the workforce needs for future manufacturing companies and spin-off enterprises. These efforts are integral to a coordinated strategy aimed at attracting the semiconductor industries� most significant private sector competitors to the State. Already, an investment of $4 million has yielded a return of $50 million in infrastructure and $16 million in funding from public and private industry sources.

  • The CESTM facility also supports the University at Albany�s world-renowned research program in atmospheric sciences, a central feature of the institution�s expertise and assets related to the environment. Albany�s programs bring together faculty, research scientists, and students with practitioners, most notably the professional staff employed by the National Weather Service, as well as with entrepreneurs who are developing a number of new businesses in CESTM�s incubator facility. Our investments in atmospheric and environmental sciences, together with our association with federal and state authorities and related industries, have contributed substantially to the State�s scientific capacity and infrastructure to support informed decision-making in areas of life and work that are impacted by climate, weather, and atmospheric pollutants.

  • The concept of partnering with the private sector is also visible on the University�s new Rensselaer Campus, which houses Albany�s School of Public Health, research staff employed by the State�s Department of Health, laboratories for the State�s Department of Environmental Conservation, and parts of our campus� new Center for Functional Genomics. All of these research programs interact closely with several biomedical and pharmaceutical companies which are also located on our Rensselaer campus. The linkages that have been created between the University�s life sciences programs and related public and private sector agencies are fostering highly productive collaborations that are enhancing services to the State and fostering significant economic development in the region.

  • The linkage with the world of practice is demonstrated further in Albany�s concentration of faculty expertise in policy analysis. The study of methodologies for policy research and analysis is an integral feature of the curriculum offered by all the University�s professional schools. We are ranked among the top schools of public affairs and policy in the nation. Our focus is particularly strong in areas central to state and local government, where we have a considerable comparative advantage in being located in the country�s third largest center of government. Opportunities abound for our faculty members and students to collaborate with professional practitioners in all three branches of government as well as with a vast network of non-profit agencies that share interests in related policy areas.

  • More generally, research conducted by faculty and students across a wide range of Albany�s academic programs helps to inform public policy in critical areas such as business, criminal justice, education, environmental conservation, information management, planning, public budgeting and finance, public health, public management, and social welfare. In addition to sponsoring the generation of fundamental knowledge in substantive policy areas, these relationships help the University to serve as an important instrument for the cultural and economic vitality of the region and beyond. Often an initial investment for clerical support, graduate research assistance, renovations and equipment will generate substantial external support. Just such an investment, made at a critical juncture, has been instrumental in attracting a $2.1 million federal grant to establish a national population research center, a $4.9 million federal contract for a national longitudinal study of youth development and experience with the criminal justice system, and a $12.5 million grant to study and disseminate best practices to raise reading achievement in the nation�s elementary and secondary schools.

These values and sensibilities are reflected in the University at Albany�s mix of academic programs. While there are strong, viable offerings in all of the University�s current fields of study, the campus has particularly notable nationally-ranked programs in accounting, atmospheric sciences, criminal justice, education, information science, library science, literacy, materials science, psychology, public administration and policy, reading, social welfare, and sociology. We also have very strong programs poised to move to significantly higher levels of national reputation in niche areas. These include cultural and area studies, life sciences, management, planning, public health, and other selected areas in the social sciences, humanities and the arts. All these programs are distinctive given that they are interdisciplinary in their approach to research and education, comprehensive in supporting basic as well as applied investigation, and engaged with the world as a living laboratory for the study and illumination of contemporary problems.


Undergraduate Admissions Selectivity

In 1996 the University at Albany launched an effort to shape and coordinate our admissions initiatives across campus units through a newly created Office of Enrollment Management. This initiative reflects the University�s dedication to a thoughtful and deliberate process of student recruitment and enrollment. Over the past two years, 73 percent of Albany�s regular freshman admissions have been students in the �highly� selective category as defined by the Mission Review Guidance documents; over 40 percent of these students fall in the �most selective� category. As we continue our growth, our focus will be on further increasing our selectivity by attracting a highly qualified student body and by increasing the number of applicants from the most selective category. One of our strategic goals states this clearly: �The University will establish and stabilize enrollment at a level comparable to this nation�s mid-sized public research universities, with a student body reflective of the rich diversity required for a quality education, and with an academic profile comparable to the most selective of this nation�s public research universities.� Our experience demonstrates that this goal is attainable. Not only have we been successful, for example, in increasing the size of our entering first year class in each of the past two years, we have increased average combined SAT scores and high school averages for new freshmen. Established in 1993, with 37 students, Albany�s Presidential Scholars program has grown to nearly 600 this year. Retention of these students exceeds the already high rate for other students. Project Renaissance, an interdisciplinary living-learning program, has been integral to our strategy to offer prospective students a distinctive, technology-enhanced freshman year experience. Theme semesters — e.g., the widely praised Shakespeare Semester of Spring '98 and Irish Semester in Spring '99 — have further enriched our entire community and provide prospective students with a memorable preview of the kind of attention and program they may expect to receive at Albany.

As we increase our selectivity, the University at Albany will continue to address its responsibility as a public institution to promote access to a quality educational opportunity for all the citizens of New York. The institution has several programs that assist in responding to the needs of underrepresented groups of students. Separate offices have been established to focus on services to minority students and students with disabilities. The Office of Academic Support Services organizes study groups, funds tutoring services, and administers an early warning system and a faculty mentor program that identifies and responds to students at risk. The gem in the crown of this effort is the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP). Each year approximately five percent of our freshman class enters Albany through this Program, which is a State-wide model. The six-year graduation rate for our EOP students has been at or above the national average for all college students. To date more than 4,000 students have completed their undergraduate degrees and are pursuing a wide range of careers including, among others, medicine, health care, business, education, the media, public service, and the law.

In addition to our EOP program, the University at Albany offers two other admissions opportunities to ensure access notwithstanding our �highly selective� admissions level. First is the Talented Student Admission Program (TSAP), through which up to 7.5 percent of the incoming freshman class may be offered admissions. This program permits entrance to students whose academic credentials are just below the traditional criteria if they possess a talent or characteristics deemed to be desirable by the faculty of the University. Second is the Multicultural Recruitment Program (MRP) for students from under-represented minority groups whose academic credentials may include a slightly weaker standardized test score, but an otherwise strong academic record. In total 15–20 percent of a freshman class may be admitted through these three alternative admissions programs.


Undergraduate Education

As members of the University at Albany community, undergraduate students are encouraged, indeed expected, to be engaged learners. As reflected in our mission, the institution invests concerted effort to create an intellectual climate that stimulates and challenges students to be active, rather than passive learners, and to enjoy the satisfaction not only of assimilating the inherited wisdom of the past, but also of participating in the creation of new knowledge. Faculty are expected to incorporate the latest knowledge into their teaching, typically including the results of their own research and scholarship. Students, in turn, are encouraged to participate as full and active collaborators in the enterprise. This exchange is fostered in an environment that is rich with facilities, laboratories, studios, performance and exhibition spaces, and state-of-the-art equipment. The combination — outstanding faculty, engaged students, a rich learning/discovery environment — is central and critical to the institution�s comprehensive mission for research, teaching, and service.

The University�s undergraduate curriculum blends a strong liberal arts foundation with a wide range of hands-on and real-world experiences. A vital, relevant curriculum is constantly changing to reflect what is known and the needs of society. Albany�s undergraduate curriculum is dynamic and vibrant, interdisciplinary, collaborative, increasingly individualized, and focused on the development of discernment as well as interpretive and analytical skills. A complete, detailed listing of degree requirements and majors is provided in the appendices (Undergraduate Bulletin) accompanying this statement.

The General Education program at the University at Albany is a central and important component of the undergraduate curriculum. Focusing on lower division students, general education courses at Albany seek to infuse breadth, coherence, critical inquiry, and public responsibility in the intellectual life of every undergraduate. In addition, our program aims to develop reasoning, writing, reading, and computational abilities, along with interpretive, analytic, and synthesizing skills that are central to the intellectual life of the University. More specifically, General Education courses must satisfy the following criteria:

  • They offer general, non-specialized introduction to central topics in a discipline or interdisciplinary field; while they may satisfy major or minor requirements, their purpose is to serve students who do not intend to pursue more advanced work.

  • They encourage reflectiveness about disciplinary knowledge; they explain what it means to be a practitioner of a discipline; they convey explicit rather than tacit understanding of the nature and importance of a discipline.

  • They encourage active learning; they attend, as appropriate, to reasoning and/or aesthetic aptitudes, and to reading, writing, and computational abilities.

  • They are sensitive to the multiple perspectives of a pluralistic culture both within and beyond the university.

We regularly review the institution�s General Education program, and we are now re- examining the University�s offerings in light of the SUNY Trustees� recent general education resolution.

We encourage our students to test their knowledge and skills during their educational program through internships and class field projects. Such practica experiences are a hallmark of the University at Albany�s undergraduate curriculum and are supported through a vast network of field placements in private, public, and not-for-profit organizations throughout the Capital Region, and in some cases beyond. The University at Albany is the place to study government and public affairs in the SUNY system. Our location in New York�s capital provides students with immediate access to the third largest center of government in the United States (following Washington, D.C., and Sacramento, California). We offer unusual opportunities, both in Albany and through our Washington Program, to observe and learn directly about government, public affairs and policy formation and implementation at all levels. Many students at Albany also participate in community service programs. These partnerships help to ensure that our students acquire experience with the issues and essential practical techniques for successful careers in workplace settings that are increasingly complex, diverse, and global. All these relationships are vital to the University�s strategy for pursuing its research and public service goals.

Project Renaissance, a living-learning program available to freshmen, embodies many of the distinctive characteristics of the University�s undergraduate program, and illustrates the kind of responsive curricular innovation that is supported at the University at Albany. Approximately 500 students, roughly � of the freshmen class, participate. Over their first year, students complete twelve credits of general education coursework designed around the broad theme of technology and human identity. The courses are team-taught by interdisciplinary teams of faculty drawn from the natural and social sciences, the humanities and fine arts, and the professional schools. Engagement with technology, including the development of web-sites and the use of the internet as a research tool, is a central feature of the experience. Likewise, a premium is placed on field projects that take students into the surrounding community. A collaborative mode of instruction is supported by housing student participants together in residence hall spaces which are also furnished and equipped to serve as sites for faculty office hours, discussion groups, seminar instruction, and computing laboratories. Project Renaissance has been highly successful in providing incoming students with an option for an educational experience in a format which is comparable to that found in a small, liberal arts college, and yet in a dynamic environment that still gives them access to all the resources and advantages of a large research university.

We are institutionally committed to further innovation and change in the undergraduate program. One aspect that is being vigorously pursued seeks to ensure that our students are prepared for full participation in a global society. Albany is uniquely positioned in many ways for expanding its international programs. The campus recognized the value of combining area and ethnic studies in the early 1980s and over the past two decades has built strong interdisciplinary combinations of faculty and programs focused on selected regions of the world — e.g., Latin America and the Caribbean, and East Asia. We have over 70 active agreements with institutions abroad that provide the structure for exchanging outstanding scholars and students from around the world. Albany has also developed a number of highly successful curricular initiatives that have a central international component — e.g., BA/MBA programs in China, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Eastern European countries, as well as programs in Zurich and Buenos Aires. We will be strengthening these investments and developing other programs to expand awareness of and engagement with other cultures.

Albany is known to be a leader in the administration of Study Abroad Programs. With the large number of international agreements that we have with other institutions, the University is able to provide unique study abroad experiences to our students as well as to other students within the SUNY system and students throughout the country. Albany administers more programs than any other campus and we send more students abroad on our programs than any of the University Centers. Our recent funding from the New York State Legislature has allowed us to expand our support of study abroad and, indeed, our programs strive to serve students within and outside of the SUNY system. The campus gives a high priority to the promotion of programs in countries where the Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, or Spanish language predominates. It is not a coincidence that as our Study Abroad initiatives have grown, the number of foreign students on campus has increased. In fact, the number of international students on our campus is at an all- time high.

We expect, as well, to continue to develop additional undergraduate degree options in areas where Albany has distinctive assets. Environmental science is but one example. The establishment of an undergraduate major in this area is a natural outcome of our existing strong programs in atmospheric and earth sciences, biology, public health, and public policy as well as our affiliations with the National Weather Service and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Our research and academic programs in atmospheric sciences are ranked among the very best in the nation. These assets have been further enhanced by the Department of Environmental Conservation�s decision to move its state-of-the-art laboratories to the Rensselaer campus. These laboratories will conduct research and develop technology for responding to new federal air regulations. Scientists, faculty members and students associated with all of these programs study the basic environmental sciences and pursue questions of fundamental importance to the region and the State, including global climate change, solar energy, ozone depletion, the effects of acid rain, and biodiversity. Much of the work is externally supported by grants from major federal research agencies as well as private corporations and interest groups. In addition to conducting the basic science, Albany is uniquely positioned to relate new knowledge about the environment to public policy. Our linkages and partnerships with government have been instrumental in focusing attention on a number of significant environmental issues — e.g., the measurement of atmospheric constituents, solar radiation, regional acid deposition, the health effects of PCBs, returnable container legislation, wetlands management — and in bringing systematic knowledge to bear on the many complex issues that are involved in understanding and managing global resources.


Student Services

The Albany campus has a long tradition of integrating the academic program with student services so as to offer a coordinated, mutually reinforcing, total educational experience. We take seriously the �living-learning� approach to higher education. Concerted efforts are made to break down the barriers that often exist between a student�s academic and residential life. Courses are offered in the residence halls. Faculty live in residence on each of the principal residential quadrangles. A larger network of faculty associates share meals with students and work with interest groups. Orientation programs and workshops are offered to socialize new students into the University as an academic community.

In more recent years we have accelerated our efforts to make positive changes in the delivery of student services, knowing their direct impact on the academic program and student satisfaction with the overall experience at Albany. Our initiatives include many programs that are concerned with the extra-curriculum, the student experience outside the classroom or laboratory. The overall quality of campus life, ranging from residence halls and food to safety, athletics, entertainment, recreation opportunities and more, plays an important role in student recruitment and retention, particularly at the undergraduate level. We have expanded — at the request of our students — the hours of operation of the Library, the Campus Center, computer user rooms, and the Recreation and Convocation Center. We have enhanced our delivery systems for academic computing throughout the campus, including the residence halls which offer students high-speed internet computer access (i.e., one port per pillow) as well as access to University-sponsored on-line resources. We will soon implement enhanced service to off-campus, remote users. We have implemented new telecommunications technologies to provide 24-hour dial-in access and service for course registration and records services. We are upgrading and transforming the technology in classrooms and other teaching spaces. We are implementing a new degree audit system that will give both current and prospective students immediate information about the transferability of course credits from other institutions and the courses they need to take to complete their degree requirements. Next academic year, Albany�s intercollegiate athletics program will compete at the Division I level in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, a move aimed at bolstering school spirit, enriching campus life, and advancing campus connections to the region. We have also enhanced the intercollegiate, intramural and recreational opportunities for students, faculty and staff. We have taken a variety of steps to enhance campus safety. A community policing initiative, �Park, Walk and Talk� has been particularly successful in helping to reduce campus crime, which is at one of the lowest levels in the entire SUNY system. Albany�s Security Service Assistants Residence Hall Pilot Project was selected this past year for recognition as a model by the State University�s Faculty Senate Student Life Committee. We continue to follow an aggressive rehabilitation schedule for our residence halls. Fitness and weight rooms have been added. The institution�s University Auxiliary Services have been restructured to improve the quality and variety of food throughout the institution. We are making our student services more �user-friendly� by consolidating service units in easily accessible space in the Campus Center and by moving web and network-based systems for routine transactions. All these efforts and others will continue as they are essential for maintaining the kind of environment we need to deliver our undergraduate program and to carry out the other responsibilities of a research university.


Research, Graduate Education, Specialized Mission

As a community of scholars and students we seek to create an environment that nurtures intellectual coalitions where faculty from multiple disciplines and with varying scholarly approaches can come together to address areas of common interest. These coalitions are instrumental in translating new knowledge, in generating new insights, and in developing new theoretical approaches. In addition to its interdisciplinary character, the continuum embraces both fundamental and applied research. Albany is a supportive home for the pursuit of scholarship driven by the interests of a professional discipline or individual scholars. At the same time, the institution encourages research that features the application of systematic knowledge to critical problems and issues in society, both in the U.S. and abroad. Especially in recent years, faculty members and students at the campus (as indeed among scholars throughout higher education) have become more active in investigating fundamental questions that are directly related to some of our global society�s most critical problems. This work has become even more prominent and vital to the institution�s academic program following vigorous and successful efforts to project the campus and its assets into the community through internships, professional practica experiences, and consultancies.

In the final analysis, it is through the quality of our research and scholarship, and the quality of our learning environment, that we ultimately fulfill our mandate of public service. It is through the quality of our relationships with the communities we serve that our public service mission becomes relevant and of true societal value. The interconnections between research and such societal responsibility are particularly evident in such programs as those being conducted in the University�s CESTM facility and on the Rensselaer campus, as well as the outreach of our New York State Writers Institute and our Art Museum. Through these and other initiatives the institution has excelled in bringing the power of its faculty�s expertise to bear on the economic, cultural, and social needs of our region and State. Efforts have been vigorously made, particularly in recent years, to engage the campus with its surrounding community, and where possible, to take a leadership role in developing and promoting activities and initiatives that contribute to the cultural and economic vitality of our region.

Albany�s research and graduate education portfolio has been the engine that has transformed the fundamental character of the institution over the past three decades, offering new opportunities for students, faculty, and the world beyond the campus. This dimension of the institution has been built by recruiting an outstanding faculty of productive scholar/teachers from the nation�s tier-one academic institutions. The outcome also follows investments and vigorous efforts to create a physical infrastructure to support invention and discovery. Finally, the University community has established a culture that values research as an integral, defining aspect of our purpose and mission. Albany�s faculty compete with growing success for external grants, which now exceed $57.8 million through the SUNY Research Foundation and $63 million through Health Research, Inc., the fiscal agent for the New York State Department of Health. The professional achievements of faculty members, postdoctoral associates, graduate students, and undergraduate students are also being recognized through major national awards, prizes, and prestigious fellowships. This recognition is reflected further in the faculty�s many publications, in their editorial service for the leading journals of their professions, and in their record of invited presentations and professional consultancies.

At present Albany offers over 115 doctoral, masters, and graduate certificate programs. In terms of headcount enrollment, the five largest doctoral programs are in psychology, criminal justice, sociology, curriculum and instruction, and educational administration and policy studies. The next five largest are English, social welfare, counseling psychology, physics, and anthropology. At the master�s degree level, the largest programs are in social welfare, educational theory and practice, business, reading, information science, public administration and policy, and public health. Admission to these programs is competitive, increasingly so as the institution�s national and international reputation has risen. Both our traditional and interdisciplinary research programs provide educational experiences that prepare postdoctoral associates, graduate students, and undergraduate students for productive and rewarding careers as teachers, scholars, researchers, and practitioners in a wide spectrum of professions. Our graduates are serving in important and critical roles in both public and private institutions, in corporate and small business organizations, in government, and in the non-profit sector throughout our region, in the state and nation, and to a remarkable extent in other countries. Our faculty are constantly looking for opportunities to expand and extend the academic program in new directions. We are evaluating at present a number of opportunities for offering professional masters programs in response to industry needs.

The research and graduate education enterprise plays itself out in important projects directed by faculty and students across virtually all of the University�s programs and units. The University�s investments include both basic, fundamental scholarship as well as applied kinds of inquiry. A strong feature of the campus is the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of the work, involving investigators from a variety of traditional disciplines and professions who are associated through appointment to an academic unit or an organized research center or institute. This strategy is instrumental in producing major advances. It is a strategy, for example, that relates discoveries in molecular biology to public health policy, and insights in the humanities to the morally responsible use of new technologies. The approach relates new knowledge in chemistry, public health, atmospheric sciences and geology to more informed approaches on environmental issues. It helps to insure that theoretical advances in materials science, business, economics and public policy are combined in concerted fashion to yield positive impacts on our nation�s global competitiveness. It facilitates the application of new discoveries and insights in sociology, psychology and education to improve the quality and performance of our nation�s schools. These are simply examples of the exciting, path-breaking, and important research being conducted by Albany�s outstanding faculty.

Several particular initiatives, selected from many at the campus, illustrate how all these characteristics work together in ways that create exciting research and educational opportunities for faculty, postdoctoral associates, graduate students and undergraduate students as well as important benefits for the public. Since its inception, in 1993, the University�s Center for Advanced Thin Film Technology has grown into a leading resource for research, development, education, and economic development related to the science and manufacture of microelectronics, optoelectronics, and photonics devices and components. The Center�s activities are conducted in the University�s Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management as well as in the Physics Building. The work provides unprecedented research and training opportunities for graduate students. These opportunities will only increase in the years ahead following Albany�s designation as a lead campus for a consortium of national institutions selected by the Semiconductor Industry Association and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to investigate the science and technology of interconnects, the complex signal- carrying conduits in the computer chip that are universally recognized as the technology driver for increased chip speed and performance. The research involves faculty and students at Albany with collaborators at other premier research institutions, including Cornell University, Georgia Institute of Technology, MIT, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Stanford University, and SUNY/Stony Brook. The New York component of this consortium is the largest and will be located at our CESTM facility and be led by one of our faculty members. Combined federal, state and industry funding for the national Focus Center is expected to exceed $50 million by 2001. Our Focus Research Center is an excellent example of how the University�s interactions and partnerships with industry can help to attract significant resources, which in turn advances the economic development of our region.

In another area, the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis, already nationally recognized for its work on population-related issues, has recently been designated as a national Population Research Center, one of only 12 in the country. The Center brings together faculty, postdoctoral associates, graduate students, and undergraduate students from anthropology, criminal justice, geography and planning, Latin American and Caribbean studies, psychology, public health, social welfare, and sociology, all of whom share a common research interest in demography, including exploration of topics related to family and household dynamics, health, morbidity, and mortality, and the status of children and adolescents. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has funded the Center with a $2.5 million grant. The data and analytical expertise available through this Center serves as a major resource for policymakers throughout the State.

Environmental sciences is yet another interdisciplinary area of research and education that is particularly strong at Albany. We have established and recognized programs in atmospheric and earth sciences as well as in biodiversity. The program with the longest tradition is our Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC), which was established in 1961 and is internationally known and highly respected. ASRC seeks to promote and encourage programs in basic and applied sciences related to the atmospheric environment. The research conducted by scientists and students associated with the Center focuses on instrumentation and field measurement; on fundamental studies of chemical and physical atmospheric processes; on the development, evaluation, and application of atmospheric simulation models and regional environmental modeling systems; on the development and evaluation of climate modeling systems; and on environmental data base management and analysis. Activities in each of these areas are carried out by faculty members, researchers, and students through partnerships with federal, state, and industrial agencies. Annual grants and contracts from these partnerships exceed $3.5 million. The Center�s programs have contributed substantially to New York�s scientific capacity and infrastructure in support of informed environmental decision-making, advanced climate and weather prediction, and instrumentation and modeling technology development and transfer. This capacity is central for supporting credible cost-effective environmental decisions that assure the quality of life and economic well-being of the State�s citizens; for predicting the long term impacts of climate change in the State on energy resources, climate sensitive economies, and public safety; and for generating economic growth through cooperative agreements with industry to transfer University developed technologies to the marketplace. These research and service objectives have been tremendously well-served by the Center�s new location, in the Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management, which provides space for the National Weather Service and facilities to support a number of related incubator companies and technology transfer enterprises.

Information science is a further example of an interdisciplinary field that Albany is pursuing on a broad front, involving faculty who hold primary appointment in a range of related disciplines and linkages with organizations and agencies that are central to the economic vitality of our region and requiring state-of-the-art information technology equipment and facilities. Exploration of the ways and mechanisms by which information is acquired, structured, stored, processed, transmitted, utilized, and evaluated constitutes a vital research agenda for all forms of social, economic, and organizational activity. The implications of changes and developments in information management are enormous for business, government and for the education and skills of future citizens. Albany has substantial expertise in these areas, reflected not only in the faculty appointed to the University�s School of Information Science and Policy, but also to programs in business, communication, computer science, geography and planning, management science and information systems, and public administration and policy. Many of these faculty and research staff are jointly associated through appointment to an interdisciplinary doctoral program in information science, a program that fosters advanced study and applied research in expert and knowledge-based systems, geographic information systems, group decision support modeling, information decision systems, and the organization of knowledge records. The University�s academic computing systems and libraries, particularly the new Science and Technology Library, provide necessary support services for research and education in this dynamic and growing profession. Public and private sector partners serve as valuable resources for laboratory field projects and research practica. Our national award-winning Center for Technology in Government is another significant asset for facilitating the application of systematic knowledge in this fast changing area on behalf of more effective and efficient public service. Applied research carried out in this Center has already saved various New York State agencies millions of dollars.

For nearly two decades, a major strength of the University at Albany�s research and academic programs has been public policy, particularly in relation to research and service needs at the state and local levels of government. The Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy combines public management, policy analysis, and direct practice within the varied offerings of nationally ranked programs in public administration, criminal justice, and social welfare. It is fair to say that more research of direct relevance to public affairs and policy in the State of New York is done on the Albany campus than at any other university in this state. Albany also has had an integral relationship with the Rockefeller Institute for Government. Founded in conjunction with the Rockefeller College, the Institute is a unique and highly effective forum for bridging theory and practice, and for bringing policy analysis to bear on public affairs. Our programs have been enhanced further by activities developed under the auspices of Centers for Legislative Development and Women in Government. The University has created this capacity by recruiting faculty with expertise in the technology and methodologies of public policy formation and decision-making as well as such substantive policy areas as criminal justice, social welfare, education, political science, urban and regional planning, and public health. Resources have also been allocated to enhance the campus� capacities in cognate disciplines by recruiting faculty and students in core arts and sciences departments such as economics, sociology, history, psychology, and philosophy. Over a very short space of time, Albany has developed an impressive and nationally visible reputation and capability for research, education, and service in the public policy field. We expect to maintain and enhance this investment in the years ahead.

Albany's newest research and graduate education enterprise is our School of Public Health, New York State's only public School of Public Health. Located on the University's Rensselaer Campus, the School offers both masters and doctoral degrees in public health and in the five core discipline areas that constitute the profession. By its very design, Albany's School of Public Health is unique in the nation, being a partnership between worlds of academia and of public health practice. The School opened in 1985, as a joint venture of the University at Albany, the New York State Department of Health, and Albany Medical College. Many of the approximately 150 faculty members work on a daily basis within the field of public health, administering major health programs of the State, or studying scientific or policy-oriented public health problems of national significance. Students have regular access to these health experts as teachers and mentors. In addition, students have access through the School to a vast array of internship opportunities, not only at the Health Department and Albany Medical College, but at a wide variety of other public and private health institutions throughout New York State. We are being challenged to extend these substantial assets in public health throughout the State. Instruction for our degree programs is already being delivered to students in Western New York. We are also being urged to deliver programs and training workshops using distance learning technologies and through partnerships with institutions in both Syracuse and New York City. The University's initial primary investment for creating the School of Public Health derived from the SUNY Graduate Research Initiative. We are enthusiastic about building on this foundation and to take the School to the next level of its development.

Our School of Public Health enhances and extends many of Albany's other strong academic and research programs in productive and powerful ways. Public health today is a fast-changing, interdisciplinary field that is faced with some of society's most challenging social, medical and economic problems: these include, among many others, AIDS and drug abuse, teen pregnancy and tuberculosis, genetic disorders and gerontological diseases, women's health and workplace hazards, interpersonal violence and injury control, infant mortality and minority health needs, health care reform, medicaid, and the health problems of the homeless. Public health also encompasses a growing list of environmental concerns, including radon, acid rain, lead pollution, ozone depletion, global warming, hazardous waste disposal, and the contamination of air, water, and food supplies by toxic chemicals. Public health problems increasingly are taking center stage. The health problems of the poor and the disadvantaged are not only growing more difficult to solve, but more and more difficult even to define. Persistent urban decay is creating a core of especially troublesome concerns, particularly among minority populations. Like all public health issues, these problems must be addressed head on by professionals who have a broad variety of technical skills and practical experience, as well as imagination, energy, and creativity. Importantly, these professionals also must have deep sensitivity and insight into the needs of special populations. Albany's School of Public Health is an exciting response to these complicated, emerging public health challenges. Our strategy combines rigorous academic training and practical experience into a coherent program that educates the public health professionals required to engage the full range of health and environmental problems that will continue to confront society well into the next century, both locally and globally.

Again, these are mere examples. Similarly impressive achievements could be described for research being carried out under the auspices of Centers in criminal justice, legislative development, gerontology, applied psychology, and x-ray optics. More important, we are developing other centers and institutes that relate the expertise of our faculty and the educational interests of our students to areas of societal need. Several very exciting programs are already in the advanced implementation stage. These include a Center for Comparative Functional Genomics, building on Albany�s faculty and facilities in the life sciences and public health. Similarly, we are embarked on a range of activities and programs with a central international component. A new Institute for International Studies will serve as the premier public resource for international education, outreach, and research. The Institute will serve as an umbrella organization housing our international research centers, the University Libraries, which rank among the top 100 research libraries in the country and support research and graduate education by a continuing, iterative process of determining research needs and providing appropriate resources, access tools, and services. The Libraries support research through access to resources as well as through ownership of collections. ADVANCE, the Libraries� online information system, contains over 1 million bibliographic records representing the almost 2 million volumes in the Libraries�collections. The ADVANCE system also acts as a gateway to journal databases. A growing number of databases and electronic journals are also available through the Libraries� award-winning web-site, which serves as a key research tool for the University community and affiliated users from off campus. Additionally, the Libraries provide statewide, national, and international access to resources in other libraries through memberships, affiliations, resource sharing, and interlibrary loan agreements.

The institution is also organized to support faculty in identifying and securing external funds. Faculty involvement in significant research and graduate education is recognized in the institution�s policy on Faculty Teaching, Research, and Service Responsibilities, the policy document that provides the framework for assigning courses and other teaching and service responsibilities. Indirect cost revenues are shared by means of an incentive formula with the departments, schools, and colleges that generate sponsored funds. Scholarship, including success in attracting external funds, is a critical performance measure in evaluating faculty members for continuing appointment, promotion, and discretionary salary increases. The campus� Office for Research is staffed with professionals employed to assist faculty in identifying and applying for grant and fellowship opportunities. New faculty members receive allocations for equipment and related set-ups, where applicable including significant laboratory renovations, to support their research and teaching. Finally, the campus sponsors its own internal grants program to support pilot studies, conferences, and journals, as well as to provide matching funds where they are necessary to secure significant external awards.


Teacher Education

We welcome the invitation in the Mission Review Guidance document to describe more fully Albany�s program in teacher education. The University at Albany has had a long and important history in teacher education since its founding as a teacher-training college in 1844. Many of the institution�s graduates, having prepared themselves as teachers, distinguished themselves in shaping the educational system of New York State, the Northeast, and the nation. We continue to train teachers through a series of undergraduate and graduate teacher education programs administered by the School of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences.

To ensure a close relationship between the University at Albany Teacher Preparation Program and area public schools, colleagues in public schools are incorporated into the University structure by participating in our Faculty Field Team, which serves as a consultant/advisory group. The Team is composed of School of Education faculty and master secondary teachers from the academic areas of English, foreign language, mathematics, science, and social studies. We believe that blending state-of-the-art research and excellence in the field provides critical guidance and creativity to our teacher education programs. Graduates from our programs have demonstrated that they are well prepared, not only by their achievements, but also by their success rate on the New York State Teacher Certification Examinations (NYSTCE) which is consistently sustained at the 92 percent or higher pass rate on both the Liberal Arts and Sciences Test (LAST) and the Assessment of Teaching Skills-Written (AST-W).

The School of Education has initiated discussions regarding the development of a five-year combined bachelor�s and master�s degree program in teacher education. We are also exploring tandem arrangements with four-year colleges (public and private, local and regional) which have programs in teacher education. The impetus for considering new arrangements comes from both our own sense of optimal preparation for teachers as well as several changes noted in the recent report of the Regents Task Force on Teaching. In addition, increased attention is being paid to the professional development of teachers, particularly efforts involving opportunities for continuing education outside of or beyond regular degree programs. The University at Albany has already implemented summer programs designed to meet the new requirement for 175 hours of professional development for teachers every five years. These programs may very well lend themselves to delivery through innovative means such as distance learning modalities.

The University at Albany supports a premier doctoral education program in education. Individual graduates of our doctoral programs are serving in professional roles associated with teacher education at every four-year campus of the SUNY system and in the state university systems of Connecticut, Maryland, Kentucky, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nebraska, Nevada, Wisconsin, Texas, Maine, South Carolina, Illinois, Virginia, New Hampshire, Ohio, and California. In an international context, the University�s graduates have been appointed to administrative and research positions in the ministries of culture and education and to teacher education faculty in Indonesia, Cyprus, the Republic of China, Taiwan, the Phillippines, Egypt, the Virgin Islands, New Zealand, Portugal and several developing countries of Africa and Latin America.

Our School of Education sponsors a number of externally funded centers that sponsor research on instructional technology, literacy, interdisciplinary teaching and learning, and counseling. The largest of these is the National Research Center for English Learning and Achievement (CELA), one of only twelve in the nation. CELA is a major five-year, federally funded interdisciplinary research and development center that supports activities conducted by University at Albany scholars and collaborators appointed in teacher education at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Washington, and the University of Georgia. The Center�s focus is the study of exemplary teaching practice and its goal is the creation of new knowledge for the profession. Efforts by the Center and by the School to disseminate research-based, best practices is consistent with the broader institutional strategy to foster a continuum of scholarship that leads ultimately to advances in knowledge and to improved performance of critical social institutions and the constituencies they serve.

This linkage to the world of practice is further strengthened in the area of teacher education by the Capital Area School Development Association (CASDA). Located at the University at Albany, CASDA provides a vehicle for associating faculty and students in the School of Education with K-12 educators from 113 school districts and private institutions in a five-county region of upstate New York State. The Association is celebrating 50 years of service this year and is one of the oldest study councils in the United States. Through its activities, the Association serves the professional development needs of in-service administrators and teachers, and provides programming for school support staff. Each year features a rich program of educational seminars and workshops that responds to the continuing educational needs of teachers and other school personnel. The organization is also an effective instrument for promoting cooperative interaction between the University at Albany, the affiliated school districts, and educational and social agencies and businesses.


Academic Standards

The University at Albany in 1968 was among the first institutions in the nation to undertake a systematic evaluation of all graduate and undergraduate programs on a regular cycle. We are nationally known in the area of assessment methodologies and have served as a model for best practices in this critical area. After a decade of individual program reviews leading to the strengthening, merger and termination of many Albany programs, the University in 1978 launched a series of student cohort studies that placed the campus in the forefront of assessment research. These assessment efforts, which have been conducted on a continuous basis ever since, have given the University a rich array of evaluative databases, including student opinion surveys, cohort studies, and alumni studies.

The primary institutional purpose of this assessment effort is to enhance the learning experience for students at Albany. Therefore, assessments that are being administered centrally are further complemented with a wide array of evaluations and peer reviews carried out at the departmental level. In addition, major programs are subject to approval and review by the Undergraduate and Graduate Academic Councils of the University Senate, as well as the State Education Department. Many of the institution�s professional programs are also regularly reviewed for accreditation purposes. As a result, the quality of Albany�s educational programs is currently being assessed in many complementary ways, by both internal and external peers, editors, reviewers, funding institutions, budget panels, and accrediting agencies. In this context, student grades, self-reported assessments, faculty teaching evaluations, periodic program reviews, alumni studies, and assessment information about student attainment in the major all constitute complementary ways of obtaining useful feedback in order to improve learning.

The University at Albany is very proud of its national reputation in the area of assessment. The �Albany Model� is widely known and has been instrumental in guiding the assessment efforts of many other postsecondary institutions, particularly in the public sector. A more detailed description of the institution�s assessment systems is provided as an appendix.


Intercampus Collaboration

Faculty and staff at the University at Albany have welcomed opportunities to collaborate with colleagues at other academic institutions. These collaborations have been instrumental in enriching the academic and research programs that are available to citizens throughout the State of New York and beyond. We have developed and maintain articulation agreements with 16 two-year public and private institutions to facilitate efficient transfer to Albany's baccalaureate programs. These agreements recognize formal partnerships with SUNY community colleges and several private institutions in the Capital Region. We have also begun to develop similar agreements with institutions in neighboring states. We also offer students the opportunity to pursue combined baccalaureate and professional degree programs through joint admission agreements involving both public and private institutions in engineering, medicine, dentistry, and law. Albany has developed more than 70 of its own combined and joint degree options, including one recent program combining an undergraduate major in East Asian studies with a masters in business administration that is being offered in partnership with Fudan University in The People's Republic of China. This program has already been recognized by external donors, having attracted significant funding for student scholarships from the Starr Foundation and the Freeman Foundation. Similar joint BA/MBA collaborations have been launched with Latin American and Caribbean studies and more recently with Slavic and Russian studies. This kind of option will be pursued in the future as part of the larger effort to internationalize the university.

Albany faculty also maintain strong research collaborations with colleagues at other campuses throughout the nation, and indeed globally. A long-standing characteristic of the organized research conducted in the physical and life sciences, such relationships are becoming more common in the social and behavioral sciences, and to some degree in the humanities. Many of our research centers and institutes are connected via funding networks to complementary work being pursued through centers and institutes at other research institutions.

Other important collaborations have evolved from the University's participation in continuing professional education and distance learning initiatives. These efforts have involved, for example, collaboration to offer Albany's graduate programs in educational administration and policy studies, social welfare, and public health, through partnerships with the SUNY campuses at Oswego, Binghamton, and Buffalo. The courses Albany faculty offer through the SUNY Learning Network attract large enrollments, among the largest for any single campus; we also offer an entire masters degree program, in instructional technology, via the Network.

In addition to collaboration with other postsecondary and research institutions, Albany is proud of its University in the High Schools program, which associates the University with a network of 130 secondary schools throughout 33 counties primarily in the eastern part of the State of New York. With more than 6,000 annual enrollments (some students elect two or more courses a year) this initiative is the largest of its kind in the State. The University in the High Schools program provides opportunities for high-achieving high school students to accelerate their baccalaureate programs by earning advanced college credit in introductory courses in languages and literatures, mathematics, the arts, and selected sciences. The program has been useful in further projecting the University at Albany into our surrounding region and is a component of our efforts to recruit high- achieving freshman students to our own institution.

The University at Albany has demonstrated that it values opportunities to participate with other educational institutions in collaborative ventures that show promise for serving students and responding to social needs, for advancing our mission as a research university, and for strengthening the quality and reputation of our faculty and institution.


Challenges and Conclusion

As a nationally-recognized rising research and graduate education center, the University at Albany is facing many challenges. We face challenges to maintain and further strengthen the quality of our programs in a national environment that is becoming dramatically more competitive for the human and capital resources that are critical to our mission. We face challenges to sustain and accelerate the investments we are making to achieve Carnegie Research I status and to qualify for election to the American Association of Universities. And we face challenges to continue to imagine and pursue initiatives that will inspire further public confidence in the University as a valuable and accountable asset to the region and the State of New York.

To accomplish these goals requires much from us and much from those who are in a position to share our vision for the future and to work tirelessly with us as supporters and advocates. We know that significant change will be necessary, particularly in our resource base. What Albany has already achieved in terms of productivity and reputation is all the more remarkable in the context of our funding base. Initial tests of the new SUNY Resource Allocation Methodology demonstrated that the campus has been substantially under-funded in relation to its enrollments. The version of the Methodology currently in place continues to show that Albany justifies more resources than the campus currently receives. We need support in three critical areas: faculty, graduate students, and infrastructure.

Faculty — Maintaining and enhancing the University's outstanding faculty is critical for sustaining our mission and objectives. Other States have moved ahead of New York over the past decade in providing the necessary resources to compensate their very best faculty and to attract the very best new faculty. In addition to compensation, we will be increasingly challenged to marshal the very considerable resources required to provide equipment for faculty at a time when technology has become an essential feature of excellent teaching and research in all disciplines. In several respects, the space requirements and laboratory set-ups for scholar/teachers in the social sciences now approach those in complexity and cost for the physical and life sciences. In addition to retaining our current base, Albany will need to add faculty to move the current student/faculty ratio closer to the level normally associated with a premier research institution. This will be a particularly important challenge given our plan to increase enrollments and the national competition for scholar/teachers of the caliber we have been hiring and will seek in the future.

Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Research Associates — No less important for accomplishing our objectives is the necessity to recruit and retain high-achieving graduate students. Postdoctoral research associates, selected from premier graduate programs, are also integral to the environment of a vibrant research university. To compete successfully for the nation's best graduate students and postdoctoral associates requires us to match the stipends offered at the best research institutions. Evidence documenting stipend levels clearly demonstrates that SUNY funding for graduate stipends has fallen behind in comparison to national peer institutions. In many fields stipends are 35% below a nationally competitive level, affecting the quality of the program. Failure promptly to address this critical shortfall will further erode quality over time, jeopardizing the national status of these programs. In addition to increasing stipends to retain our current students, we are challenged to generate the additional funds required to support more students.

Infrastructure — Similarly, we must continue our vigorous efforts to provide a learning environment that will produce even higher levels of achievement in the production of new knowledge and technologies. As it takes shape over the next decade, Albany's Master Plan will make a tremendous contribution in responding to this challenge. Other funding initiatives will also be instrumental in upgrading teaching spaces and research facilities. But the rapidly changing context in which we are living compels us to be prepared to invest substantially and regularly on a more compressed replacement schedule to maintain our advantage in critical technologies. A SUNY-wide matching grants program will be critical for assisting all campuses in competing for large capital grants from federal and private sources that share this concern.

Part of our obligation in addressing these requirements is to pursue private and other non- State sources of funding. Sustained, increased investment from the State, however, will also be required to create the infrastructure, including the necessary economic base for attracting competitive private and federal support.

In addition to our overall goals, there are several initiatives that relate to specialized aspects of Albany's mission that will require enhanced support. The first of these is related to our School of Public Health. To secure the future of this unique program, we need to (1) regularize the University�s relationship with the New York State Department of Health, and (2) it is imperative that this relationship be recognized in establishing the appropriate funding level for the program from SUNY. The costs for delivering the program are not currently addressed in the Resource Allocation Methodology. The costs of instruction for this unit are comparable to those for the other primary health professions. The quality and national competitiveness of the program also depends on maintaining a research environment that requires substantial and continuing investment for equipment and technical personnel. As with many other University graduate programs, our ability to recruit and retain high-achieving graduate students is highly sensitive to the kinds of funding packages that can be offered, including summer funding for research. Put simply, additional targeted funding will be required to realize the full potential of this unique program. While much has been accomplished to establish a sound foundation on which to build, additional support is necessary to expand the School's programs. We believe that the benefits that will accrue to the State are substantial and compelling to justify such an investment.

Another concern of immediate importance is the current organizational arrangement for The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. Founded in conjunction with our Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, the Rockefeller Institute is the natural research arm of Albany�s nationally-ranked, federally-funded programs in public administration and policy, criminal justice, and social welfare. Further, the synergies possible with our federally-funded Center for Social and Demographic Analysis and many other disciplinary areas across our arts and sciences programs make such a policy focused institute essential to the future of our University. The University at Albany has over the years invested substantial financial resources in the Rockefeller Institute. Such investment was made with the understanding that this Institute would indeed serve as the research arm of Rockefeller College even as it served SUNY-wide and State needs in the policy arena. The organizational relationship of the Rockefeller Institute to the University at Albany needs to be re-established and supported.

Albany has contributed significantly in so many ways throughout its 153 year history. The transformation that has been achieved in the past thirty years is truly remarkable. Our faculty, students, and alumni have very good reason to be proud of the institution's tradition, reputation, and direction. As important, we are united in our commitment and determination to do more, to increase the quality and impact of our programs still further, in short, over the next decade to move the University at Albany into the company of the nation's mid-sized tier-one research universities. We look forward to that prospect and welcome the support and assistance of the System Administration, the Trustees, and others in achieving that goal for the citizens of the State of New York


Appendices

Strategic Planning Documents

President Karen R. Hitchcock�s Inaugural Address: Engaging the Future

The President�s Report, 1997-98

Selected Materials on Undergraduate Programs
    Presidential Scholars
    Project Renaissance
    Joint Degree Programs
    Combined Bachelor�s/Master�s Programs
    Honors Programs
    Study Abroad
    Undergraduate Bulletin

Selected Materials on Graduate Programs

East Campus

Center on Environmental Sciences and Technology Management (CESTM)

Institutional Research Assessment Reports

The Rise of American Research Universities, Hugh Graham and Nancy Diamond, Johns Hopkins Press, 1997

University at Albany