University High-Tech Initiatives
Receive State Backing of $30-35 Million

By Joel Blumenthal

The key word was “partnership” on Monday when Governor George E. Pataki announced at a Capitol news conference that the State of New York will provide up to $35 million in support for two University high-technology initiatives that will spur future job growth in the Capital Region.

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, representatives of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, President Hitchcock, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President R. Byron Pipes, SUNY Chancellor John Ryan, Board of Trustees Chairman Thomas Egan, Vice-Chairman Erland Kailbourne, and leaders of the Capital Region business community all were present at the announcement.

Pataki announced a partnership whereby the State will provide $5 million a year for five years to fund a joint University/Rensselaer bid to attract a major Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) Focus Research Center, to be located at the University’s Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management (CESTM).

In addition, Pataki said, the State also will provide $10 million for the University to expand CESTM and create up to 100 high-tech jobs, by building a new wing that will house a pilot semiconductor manufacturing and workforce training facility.

“Around the world, the computer industry has taken note of the success of Silicon Alley in New York City,” Pataki said. “Now they will take notice that the Hudson Valley and Capital Region can compete with Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas, for the high tech jobs of the future. The $30- to $35-million State investment could attract $175 million in private industry investment.”

The Focus Research Center would be operated jointly by Rensselaer and Albany, in partnership with Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It would be a principal research and development site for the SIA, which includes the major manufacturers of semiconductors and related products, in the area of interconnects, an essential component of computer chip technology.

The $5 million annual State grant will position Rensselaer’s Center for Advanced Interconnect Science and Technology, directed by professor Shyam P. Murarka, and the University’s Center for Advanced Thin Film Technology (CAT), directed by physics professor Alain E. Kaloyeros, to obtain the SIA Center.

The $10 million State grant is a result of the applied research conducted at the CAT, which, since its inception in 1993, has generated more than $35 million in funding and equipment, resulted in nine inventions and yielded approximately two dozen high-technology products. The Pilot Manufacturing/Workforce Training facility is intended to complement both the Focus Research Center and IBM’s new 300-millimeter semiconductor development plant.

Noting that total outside investment resulting from the research could reach $2 billion, Senator Bruno said the initiative was “one of the most important announcements the Governor could be making. When the Capital Region prospers, all of New York State prospers.”

“This is a wonderful example of partnerships,” said President Hitchcock, noting the bi-partisan support for the two institutions’ efforts “to leverage the outstanding research being conducted by our faculty and students into commercial applications, which will result in economic growth.” After thanking Chancellor Ryan and the SUNY Trustees, she said to President Pipes, “Byron, I look forward very much to working with you.”

Pipes replied, “This will bring national recognition to our region in the vital area of microelectronics. Our research strengths are complementary,” he said, looking at Hitchcock. “It is our cooperation that will endure.”

Representing Speaker Silver were Assembly members Ronald Canestrari of Cohoes, who said the region will become an “economic powerhouse” in the semiconductor industry, and Jack McEneny of Albany, who noted that the Rensselaer-Albany partnership shows the strengths “of the entire Capital Region.”

Chancellor John W. Ryan submitted a $1.596 billion 1998-99 SUNY budget proposal to the Board of Trustees on Nov. 25 that requests an 18 percent increase over 1997-98’s capital budget and emphasizes the need to increase enrollment at the community college level.

In making his proposal, the Chancellor noted the progress he believes the system is making in boosting full-time enrollment, in fund-raising and in putting its finances in order. “I want to build on the bi-partisan vote of confidence we received last year from the Governor and the Legislature,” said Ryan.

This year’s budget calls for a more than $85 million increase in State appropriation for the SUNY campuses, including salary increases for all faculty. Several initiatives are outlined in the proposal, including new SUNY scholarships to entice the state’s best high school seniors to enroll in SUNY institutions.

At the top of the Chancellor’s priority list, however, is an increase in the base aid to the system’s 30 community colleges and the 200,000 students they serve throughout New York State. Foremost among the objectives for increased support, according to a SUNY communiqu&;, is to prevent the need for tuition increases.

“For hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, the community colleges are the front line of access to higher education. Increasing the base aid support now would be a positive step toward maintaining their affordability,” said Chancellor Ryan.

The plan would increase the base aid for Community Colleges by $150 per funded student, building on last year’s $50 per student increase. Base aid support per student would increase to a total historic high of $2,050 per funded student.

Albany’s Pat Foti, associate dean for transfer affairs, cheered the SUNY initiative. “First of all, more and more students are using the two-year college route today in order to obtain the baccalaureate, so we are reaching out to an ever growing group of potential students,” he said. “Any state or even county support to the community colleges would be very much appreciated by the four-year campuses.

“In addition, the harsh fact is that there has been an obvious decline in transfer applications from two-year students to the four-year campuses of SUNY. This includes Albany, where we’ve had to work extremely hard to maintain transfer numbers and quality. The private colleges in the state have been offering a lot to these students in terms of transfer scholarships and even very liberal policies regarding acceptance of transfer credits.

“So SUNY has got to do more to build the enrollment at the community college level, to increase the pool of excellent transfer students available to the four-year campuses.”

The budget proposal requests $562 million for the capital budget as compared with $476 million requested last year. Its focus is on “critical and deferred maintenance projects,” according to the Chancellor’s office.

While major construction projects as outlined by the University’s Master Plan are outside the aegis of the current SUNY proposal, some of the funding for increased maintenance will go to Albany for the upgrade of emergency lighting, roof replacement on the Downtown Campus, and the improvement of health and safety conditions through the installation of exhaust risers/fume hoods for the Fine Arts Building and the initial design for new safety showers and eye washes for the science buildings.

The budget proposal also calls for nearly $20 million in operating funds for new and expanded scholarships for students and faculty, study abroad programs, economic development initiatives, and technology and distance learning expansion.

It proposes the creation of the Chancellor’s Scholarship, designed as a four-year, tuition-paid merit-based program to attract graduating valedictorians and salutatorians in New York high schools who qualify for aid and chose to attend a SUNY campus; and the Eminent Scholars Program, which supports the efforts of campuses to attract and retain the nation’s best and brightest faculty by helping to fund new distinguished chairs and named professorships at all campuses. It will leverage state tax dollars through a matching grant program.

stantial private support and encourage increased fund-raising at our campuses. The Chancellor noted that such public-private programs to enhance academic excellence have been successfully implemented in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Virginia. Additionally, the plan calls for an increase in funds to support salary increases for all faculty as recently negotiated through state-UUP agreement.

Ryan also has proposed the establishment of new study abroad programs. “to equip students with language skills, cultural knowledge and international experience enabling them to succeed in the global workplace.” The funds, to be administered on a competitive challenge program basis, will be targeted at university and college programs that include immersion in a second language. Funds would be used to provide travel stipends for State University students and encourage the development of new pilot programs.

University employees are 64 percent of the way toward their $75,000 goal in the campus’s SEFA/United Way campaign. With several weeks to go before the conclusion of the annual campaign, 343 employees have contributed or pledged $47,660 toward the overall goal of $75,000.

Faculty coordinator Helen Desfosses of public affairs and policy and of Africana studies said she was optimistic that the University would meet or exceed its target.

“Every pledge, no matter how modest, moves us closer to 100 percent participation,” Desfosses said. “It’s gratifying to see such a strong University response to this point.

“Unfortunately, the need this year is greater than ever. Every food bank in the area is reporting enormous increases in the need for help and this is paralleled in every social services area.”

Pledge packets were mailed out to University employees last month. Employees have three options for giving: cash, check or payroll deduction. They may designate their gift to one or more charities listed in the SEFA brochure that accompanied the mailing.

Money goes to support a network of agencies that address a range of health and human service needs in Albany, Rensselaer and Saratoga counties. Desfosses said that supporting the United Way represented an investment in the community. “Every contribution helps people right here in the Capital District,” she said.

“Even a very modest contribution can make a difference and allow the University to be a partner in developing solutions to many of our community’s problems.”