University at Albany, SUNY
The State University of New York at Albany, commonly referred to as the University at Albany, UAlbany or SUNY Albany, is a public research university with campuses in Albany, Rensselaer, and Guilderland, New York. Founded in 1844, it is one of four "university centers" of the State University of New York (SUNY) system.[6]
This article is about the university in Albany, New York. For the historically black university in Albany, Georgia, see Albany State University.
Former names
State Normal School (1844–1890)
New York State Normal College (1890–1914)
New York State College for Teachers (1914–1959)
State University of New York College of Education at Albany (1959–1961)
State University College at Albany (1961–1962)
Sapientia et sua et docendi causa (Latin)
"Wisdom, both for its own sake and for the sake of teaching"
May 7, 1844
$100.9 million (2022)[1]
675 (Full-time)
456 (Part-time)[2]
16,648 [3]
12,184
4,695
Small city[4], 1,421 acres (5.75 km2)
Purple and gold[5]
Great Danes
The university enrolls 16,849 students in nine schools and colleges, which offer 50 undergraduate majors and 125 graduate degree programs.[7] Through the UAlbany and SUNY-wide exchange programs, students have more than 600 study-abroad programs to choose from,[7] as well as government and business internship opportunities in New York's capital and surrounding region. It is classified by the Carnegie Classification system among "Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".[8] The research enterprise totaled expenditures of $115 million in fiscal year 2021 and is focused in four areas: social science, public law and policy, life sciences and atmospheric sciences.[9][10]
UAlbany is home to the New York State Writers Institute.
Campuses[edit]
Uptown Campus[edit]
The Uptown Campus, the university's main campus, is located mostly in Albany, with a small portion (a dorm "quad" and the athletics complex) spilling into the McKownville neighborhood in the neighboring town of Guilderland (official address: 1400 Washington Avenue in Albany). Its visual effect has been described as "Dazzling one-of-a-kind" by architectural critic Thomas A. Gaines, who called it "a formal masterpiece" and "a study in classical romanticism."[28] Designed in 1961–1962 by noted American architect Edward Durell Stone and constructed from 1963 to 1964, the campus bears Stone's signature style that includes towers, domes, fountains, soaring colonnades, sweeping canopies, and other architectural features typical for the era. Stone's campus layout emphasizes residential quadrangles, also known as "quads", surrounding the academic buildings.
At the hub of the Uptown Campus is the rectangular "Academic Podium", featuring 13 three-story buildings under a single overhanging canopy roof. The Podium's showpiece is a central pool with fountains and an off-center circular bell tower, or "Carillon", which also serves as a water storage reservoir.[29] In April 2012, the university undertook a complete renovation of the main fountain and water tower area, as well as of the Campus Center fountain. There is LED lighting in the base of the fountain, and a new, more interactive center element with seating areas. Completion of the project is scheduled for fall 2013.[30]
Buildings and facilities[edit]
Campus Center[edit]
The Campus Center, located on the Uptown Campus Podium, has traditionally been the community center of the University at Albany, serving students, faculty, professional staff, alumni, and guests. Considered the "hearthstone" or "living room" of the campus, the Campus Center has provided services that include lounging areas, cafeterias, a Barnes & Noble bookstore, and national chain eateries operated and staffed by Sodexo. The structure has been the site for informal and formal interactions, the latter including the meetings of student-run clubs, academic conferences, and cultural functions.
Organization[edit]
The university is a first-tier component of the State University of New York. It receives annual appropriations as a part of the SUNY budget, and the New York State University Construction Fund manages and finances buildings and capital improvements. Although the university is governed by the SUNY Board of Trustees, the university does have a separate 10-member council that is appointed by the governor, with one student-elected member. The governor designates the council's chair.[41] The university has its own Headmaster, who is currently Robert Jones.
The university has a separate University at Albany Foundation, which conducts fundraising on behalf of the university. For example, when the new library was built, state funds paid for the construction of the building, but the foundation raised $3.5 million to equip the new facility. The foundation has a Board of Directors, which includes three voting member elected by the faculty and one elected by students.[42] The foundation owns facilities that supplement the state-owned buildings, including: the Management Services Center, the Headmaster's residence, the East Campus, the State Street Conference Center, the Cancer Research Center.[43] During 2015–16, the foundation raised $18.7 million and had total assets (including buildings) of $88.85 million.[44]
Academic rankings
147–157
241
133
62
188
601–700
771–780
501–600
405
Research[edit]
Cancer Research Center[edit]
UAlbany's Cancer Research Center (CRC) runs research that focuses on the underlying biology associated with tumor initiation and progression, and the development and evaluation of chemopreventive regimens and therapeutic approaches for common cancers. The center fosters the training of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in cancer biology. Located on the university East Campus in Rensselaer, N.Y., the center combines UAlbany research expertise in genomics and biomedical sciences with technology in a new 117,000-square-foot (10,900 m2) facility.
The center opened in October 2005 with $45 million in support through New York State's Gen*NY*Sis Program. Additional funds currently being raised from the private sector for the center's Fund for Memory and Hope will be used for special equipment and needs of the research program. In September 2009 the Center recruited scientist Ramune Reliene from the University of California Los Angeles to its research team and faculty of the School of Public Health's Department of Environmental Health Sciences. Reliene, who received her doctorate from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich in Switzerland, expands the scientific portfolio of the Center in the genetic and environmental causes of cancer.
Study abroad[edit]
The Office of International Education Study Abroad & Exchanges sponsors 70 study abroad programs in 34 countries directly through UAlbany, but students can take advantage of more than 300 programs in over 80 countries throughout the SUNY system. Among the most popular international programs for UAlbany students have been Italy, Great Britain, Ireland, France and Spain. Students study abroad any time after their freshman year, up to and including their final semester senior year. Programs are available semester-long and for the full academic year, as well as in summer and during winter session.
Environmental sustainability[edit]
Its UAlbany Green Scene initiative is conducted through AT&T grant-funded research. UAlbany researchers study coordination of traffic signals and transportation patterns, with the goals of minimizing car-engine idling times, forging new carpooling connections, and communicating more effectively alternative transportation options to the campus community.
Campus efforts were on display on September 22, 2009, with "Destination Green," a day focusing on encouraging sustainable transportation. It highlighted the campus's alternative transportation options, which include hybrid buses, global electric motorcars (GEMs), public bus systems, carpooling, and bike-and-ride sharing programs.
The campus designated April 2010 as UAlbany environmental sustainability month, with lectures, a regional student competition for the best renewable energy business plan, and campus greening projects.
UAlbany and its College of Engineering & Applied Sciences house the only degree programs in the US that focus on both environmental and sustainable engineering.[75]
Student life[edit]
Student Association[edit]
The University at Albany Student Association is a student run, non-profit, corporation which organizes and funds much of the student oriented activities on campus. The SA funds and recognizes 200 student groups, plans concerts, speaking engagements, and comedy shows. The SA impacts students in the classroom as well, through funding of general education courses. Modeled after the U.S. government, SA consists of three branches: executive, legislative (unicameral Student Association Senate), and judicial (Supreme Court).
The Student Association is funded directly by the undergraduate student body of the University at Albany, State University of New York.
The Student Association owns a 1,000-acre (400 ha) wilderness retreat facility in the Adirondack Mountains called Camp Dippikill.[76] The cabins and campsites at Dippikill are open to reservations from the university undergraduates, graduate students, alumni, faculty and staff. Dippikill is one of the largest student government-owned assets in the United States.
The university has been home to scholars, scientists, and writers, including 2017 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry Joachim Frank; 2018 Wolf Prize co-recipient Omar Yaghi, a University of California, Berkeley chemist; Herman Aguinis, a George Washington University School of Business professor and president of the Academy of Management; Alanna Schepartz, a Yale University chemist and a National Academy of Arts and Sciences inductee; Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison; Pulitzer Prize winner William Kennedy; gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk;[87] Broadway actress and three-time Tony Award nominee Carolee Carmello;[88] Turing Award winner Richard E. Stearns; Harvard sociologist[89] Robert J. Sampson and Scott Waldman (biochemist, MD) Samuel M.V. Hamilton Professor of Medicine at Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University.
