5.0 Academic Program Directions
The University at Albany 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. Albany also has strong programs
in cultural and area studies, life sciences, management, planning, public
health, and other selected areas in the social sciences, humanities and the
arts, which are poised to move to significantly higher levels of national
reputation.
5.1 Undergraduate
Undergraduate students at Albany
pursue bachelor degrees in 100 discipline-based and interdisciplinary programs.
The curriculum blends a strong liberal arts foundation with interdisciplinary,
collaborative, and increasingly individualized studies, focused on the
development of discernment as well as interpretive and analytical skills.
Albany will increase the numbers
of students who are involved in research or service-oriented activity that is
available at a comprehensive research university. As benchmarks of such
activity, Albany will use the percentage of students who:
·
Register in courses involving
research under the direction of a faculty member, from the current level of
approximately one-quarter to one-third;
·
Participate in an off-campus
internship experience, from approximately 50% to at least 60%; and
·
Have spent at least one
semester abroad to at least 10% through expansion and promotion of
opportunities for study abroad.
The University expects to develop
undergraduate degree options in environmental science building on existing
strong programs in atmospheric and earth sciences, biology, public health, and
public policy, as well as affiliations with the National Weather Service and
the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. In addition to
environmental science, the University is moving forward proposals to establish
new undergraduate degree programs in forensic molecular biology and
international studies. These initiatives reflect faculty strength and student
interest in these emerging areas of study.
The University will also strengthen and
advance honors program initiatives and special curricula for honors students,
including contemplation of an honors college. In addition, Albany will continue
to create and promote combined degree programs to provide expanded
opportunities for students to pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees more
efficiently in a shorter timeframe.
These and any other academic
programs the University develops in the future will be reviewed for consistency
with mission, demonstrated market need, and evidence of academic quality. As
the University adds new programs it will continue to review existing programs
for relevance and enrollment strength. When appropriate, the University will
consider deactivation and/or discontinuance of programs.
In view of the existing and
projected shortage of teachers in New York State, SUNY System Administration
encourages the development of collaborative arrangements between sister SUNY
campuses. The School of Education will continue to foster collaborative
relationships with four-year SUNY campuses to provide the very best educational
opportunities for future teachers. The
School of Education will focus on its five-year BA/MA program to educate its
students for the teaching profession.
5.1.1 General
education
The General Education program at
Albany is a central and important component of the undergraduate curriculum. It
seeks to infuse breadth, coherence, critical inquiry, and public responsibility
into the intellectual life of every undergraduate. Albany regularly reviews its
General Education program and has been
working with the Provost’s Advisory Council on General Education in developing
a General Education program that meets the requirements of the Board of
Trustees’ Resolution 98-241, and will have this program in place for first-time
students entering in fall 2000. With the implementation of the new General
Education program, Albany will move from a program that focused on lower
division students, to one that involves students throughout their entire
undergraduate career. Indeed, several
courses have been targeted as courses to be taught primarily as upper-division
courses, so that they can be taught in smaller sections and integrated with
experiences in the major and/or minor.
5.2 Graduate
The University at Albany offers over 115
doctoral, master’s, and graduate certificate programs. The largest doctoral
programs are in psychology, criminal justice, sociology, curriculum and
instruction, and educational administration and policy studies, with strong
enrollment in 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. Albany faculty are highly regarded for
the quality of their graduate teaching and scholarship, for their commitment to
individual students, and for their success in mentoring and placing graduates
at the conclusion of their degree programs.
Albany’s national ranking as #17 among
Research 1 Public Universities by Graham and Diamond[4]
for combined science, social science, and arts and humanities and the strong
rankings that its programs in atmospheric sciences, criminal justice, education,
psychology, public administration and policy, and sociology have garnered in U.S. News and World Report underscore
the University’s reputation for academic excellence.
In evaluating the success of
Albany’s strategic goal of providing graduate and professional programs that
are competitive regionally, nationally, and internationally for students of
exceptional quality, the University will use the following benchmarks for
success:
·
Maintain, and if possible, improve the current high national
status of its programs in criminal justice, public administration and policy,
and atmospheric sciences;
·
Raise the national rankings of a number of its programs including:
- Psychology and sociology—currently in the second quartile in the
most recent NRC Survey of Research
Doctorate Programs in the United States.
Albany intends to improve the ranking of these programs by eight to ten
rankings within the second quartile in the 2003 study, setting a clear
trajectory for moving to the first quartile in the subsequent NRC study.
- Physics (where Albany emphasizes materials science) was ranked in the third quartile
of all doctoral physics programs in the U.S.
Albany intends to improve the ranking of this program by eight to ten
rankings in the third quartile in the 2003 study, setting a clear trajectory
for moving to the second quartile in the subsequent NRC study.
- Enhance national
recognition of its programs in
biomedical sciences and biological sciences (functional genomics), English, and
public health;
- Strengthen the already high rankings of its programs in counseling
psychology, curriculum and instruction, information science, reading/literacy,
and social welfare in the next round of U.S.
News and World Report rankings or in rankings of other neutral
organizations; and
·
Improve the quality and rankings of at least half of all other
graduate programs, while maintaining the rankings of the remaining programs as
reflected in national rankings and other objective indicators.
Competing successfully for the nation’s
best graduate students requires that Albany match the stipends offered at the
best research institutions. Graduate stipend levels in SUNY have fallen behind
in comparison to national peer institutions.
·
System Administration recognizes its responsibility to:
Make an even more compelling
case for graduate education and to try to find ways of making substantial
additional funds available. Avenues that will be explored include (1) review of
how Graduate Assistant/Teaching Assistant funds are allocated across the
System, with the intention of awarding funds based on program quality and
student outcomes, and (2) possible earmarking of System funds for stipends; and
Examine the possibility of
securing additional flexibility for university centers with respect to graduate
tuition policy.
Albany’s School of Public Health
is New York State’s only public School of Public Health. Located on the
University’s East Campus, the School offers both master’s and doctoral degrees
in public health and in the five core discipline areas that constitute the
profession. The School of Public Health is unique in the nation, being a joint
venture of the University, the New York State Department of Health, and Albany
Medical College. Many of the School’s faculty members work on a daily basis
within the field of public health, administering major State health programs or
studying scientific or policy-oriented public health problems of national
significance. Albany intends to extend these public health assets throughout
the State and to deliver instruction using distance learning technologies and
through partnerships with institutions in both Syracuse and New York City.
To assure the future of this
unique program, Albany plans to:
·
Regularize the University’s
relationship with the Department of Health through an updated Memorandum of
Understanding; and
·
Increase the number of faculty supported by the University’s
budget to the number originally envisioned for the School. The goal is to
increase the current number of University-supported faculty to 25 over the next
three years. Related faculty support
(staff, graduate student stipends, equipment, supplies, etc.) will be part of
the expanded budget. Decanal recruitment
and continued success in achieving accreditation depend on faculty and financial
resources at least at this level.
System Administration supports this
overall direction and long term plan for the School, and will work with the
campus to seek State funding to realize these goals.
The University at Albany also supports a
premier doctoral education program in education. Graduates of its doctoral
programs are serving in professional roles associated with teacher education at
every four-year campus of the SUNY system and in state university systems
across the nation.
Environmental Science is an area of
research and education that is particularly strong at Albany. The University
offers recognized programs in atmospheric and earth sciences, as well as in
biodiversity. The program with the longest
tradition is Albany’s Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC). Albany intends to build on this strength by
developing and offering additional degree programs in the environmental
sciences. For example, Albany is
establishing a School of Materials and Applied Sciences. In addition, the campus seeks to move in the
direction of developing its assets and programs in computational science.
Another area in which Albany has
extensive experience is in legislative development, focusing particularly on
the development of government institutions in emerging democracies throughout
the world. This activity, coordinated
by the University’s Center for Legislative Development, draws on Albany’s very
substantial faculty expertise in comparative government, policy analysis, and
public affairs education. Albany
intends to build on its reputation in this area through research projects and
professional education initiatives for state and local governments in countries
such as Brazil, Egypt, Lebanon, and Costa Rica.
Albany is developing centers for
Comparative Functional Genomics (building on Albany’s faculty and facilities in
the life sciences and public health) and translation studies in Slavic
languages (in collaboration with the Jagellonian University in Warsaw, Poland),
as well as an Institute for International Studies that will serve as the
premier public resource for international education, outreach, and research.
Extended
Learning is a further way in which the University at Albany is increasing
access to its educational program. Through such academic programs, Albany is
strengthening institutional relationships with the community while, at the same
time, expanding the institution’s enrollment base. A strong effort has been launched to link the University’s faculty
and programs to a student clientele beyond the traditional, residential student
through innovative delivery mechanisms, including the use of a variety of
technologies. Albany has already formed active partnerships with industry
groups, individual organizations, governmental agencies, and other academic
institutions to design, re-package, or simply deliver existing programs which
meet their needs. Albany looks to expand its comprehensive activities on behalf
of continuing, life-long education to ensure that the University remains a
vital force for creating and attracting a workforce that has the skills and new
knowledge which will underpin the economic well-being of the Capital Region,
the state, and the nation.
5.3 Responsiveness to
local/regional/state needs
Vigorous efforts have been made 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 the
Capital Region.
Albany will assess the success of its
economic development activities by measuring factors that include the:
·
Number of companies participating in its Business Incubator
Program and that graduate from the incubator program and stay in New York
State;
·
Number of jobs created due to programs that exist on the East
Campus and at the Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management
(CESTM);
·
Number of companies that collaborate in research activities with
the University; and
·
New University research centers created through collaboration with
companies resulting in increased federal funding to the University.
Albany will monitor the impact of these
and other activities through regular Economic Impact Studies.
·
Along with the other University Centers, Albany has asked that
System Administration do more in the way of advocacy on behalf of the
significant economic impact that the University Centers have on the local,
regional, and state economy, as well as on the greater costs associated with
building world-class university centers whose research discoveries are the
basis of new technologies.
Another important linkage involves
strengthening public education through the Capital Area School Development
Association, which 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 School of Education will continue to play a major role in providing
advanced training for New York State teachers and conducting the research
necessary to support better teaching and learning.
Albany is
concerned about SUNY’s current practice of not including summer enrollments in
campus AAFTE targets or in the calculation of state financial support.
·
System Administration will explore the possibility of including
summer enrollments in the University’s budget model.
Other major assets located at the
University at Albany that contribute substantially to the cultural and
intellectual life of the region and the State include the New York State
Writers Institute, and the University Art Museum. The Writers Institute offers a rich and stimulating program of
free public readings, workshops, conferences, and special performance events by
award winning, nationally and internationally recognized poets, playwrights,
and authors of fiction and non-fiction. The University Art Museum maintains the
institution’s collection of more than 1600 pieces of contemporary art, and
offers a highly respected program of exhibitions throughout the year. The Museum hosts many visiting groups,
including many school groups from elementary and secondary institutions
throughout the region. The Museum’s exhibitions and educational activities are
open to the public, generally without charge.
5.3.1 Additional
partnerships for economic growth
Partnership with the private sector is a
core operating principle for Albany’s widely acclaimed CESTM facility, housing
the University’s Center for Advanced Thin Film Technology (CAT). CESTM has made
it possible for the University to move the best ideas of University researchers
into the marketplace and the CAT has grown into a leading resource for the
microelectronics industry, a place where businesses, in partnership with CAT
researchers, develop and test new concepts and technologies.
As stated earlier, the University at
Albany is committed to be proactive in relating the basic and applied research
conducted by its faculty and students to the public that surrounds and supports
it. Albany sees itself as increasingly linked with industry, business
(especially in the fields of microelectronics, software development, and
biotechnology), government, and non-profit agencies.
The concept of partnering with the
private sector is also visible on the University’s new East 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 Albany’s new Center for Functional Genomics. All of these research programs interact
closely with biomedical and pharmaceutical companies that are also located on
the East campus.
The
University-industry-government collaborative research and development programs
on-going at these sites embody a unique national model for technology transfer.
At both these sites, university research faculty interact in the same
facilities with research scientists from small, mid-sized and established
companies as well as government laboratories in areas of shared interest and
expertise. The fundamental and applied research programs of the faculty are,
hence, carried out in partnership with the R&D experts of growing
businesses. The shared use of sophisticated and costly equipment and facilities
is a further invaluable resource for scientists from the University, maturing
companies, and state laboratories. Such co-location provides a dynamic,
mutually beneficial environment that fosters distinctive opportunities for
research, for producing and attracting a highly talented and entrepreneurial
workforce, and for creating and producing new products, business, and jobs—in
short, all the ingredients for enhancing the economic vitality of the Capital
Region and the State. The University at Albany’s ability to expand in a major
way such innovative programs in support of economic development based on this
unique and proven model of technology transfer is now limited by space (land)
and resources (facilities and equipment). Concerted efforts must be made to
expand the land and facilities available to the University at Albany, both to
meet the institution’s needs as a nationally-ranked research university, and to
meet the needs of the State for the development of high-tech business.
The
prospective availability of the Harriman State office campus (which abuts the
Albany campus) is a once in a lifetime opportunity to develop an expanded
University at Albany campus that will support high-tech growth and allow the
University to continue to grow in service to the State.
The
University at Albany looks to System Administration for support and advocacy as
it seeks to obtain the resources (land and facilities) needed if it is to
fulfill its mission as a regional, state, and national leader in research and
development for economic growth. Sustained increased investment by SUNY and the
State will be instrumental in providing the necessary financial base for
leveraging competitive federal and industry support. Similarly, the University
will require greater autonomy in managing these resources and developing new
initiatives.
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