Richard S. Fogarty: Save SUNY, For All Our Sake
[Richard S. Fogarty holds a B.A. from SUNY Geneseo and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is an associate professor of history at UAlbany.]
A few years ago, at a Virginia college at which I then taught, a colleague asked a student from New York, "Why, if you could have attended college in the finest state system of higher education in the country, did you come all the way to Virginia for your degree?" The student had his reasons, and my colleague understood that one can get a good education outside the SUNY system. He himself had only rarely even visited our state. But what struck me was the excellent reputation of SUNY far beyond the borders of New York.
A second story involving SUNY has unfolded more recently at the University at Albany. President George M. Phillip announced that catastrophic cuts in state aid had led him to propose measures that would eliminate five academic programs: French, Italian, Russian, classics and theater. All five are humanities disciplines, and the loss of the first four would leave only Spanish, Chinese and Japanese as options for students wishing to major in a foreign language....
Read entire article at Albany Times-Union
A few years ago, at a Virginia college at which I then taught, a colleague asked a student from New York, "Why, if you could have attended college in the finest state system of higher education in the country, did you come all the way to Virginia for your degree?" The student had his reasons, and my colleague understood that one can get a good education outside the SUNY system. He himself had only rarely even visited our state. But what struck me was the excellent reputation of SUNY far beyond the borders of New York.
A second story involving SUNY has unfolded more recently at the University at Albany. President George M. Phillip announced that catastrophic cuts in state aid had led him to propose measures that would eliminate five academic programs: French, Italian, Russian, classics and theater. All five are humanities disciplines, and the loss of the first four would leave only Spanish, Chinese and Japanese as options for students wishing to major in a foreign language....