CHAPTER VIII
The Emergence of a Mature
Public Research University
1976 to 1994
mmett Fields left the Presidency in the Summer of 1977.
His successor, first as Acting President in 1977-78 and then
as President from 1978 to 1990, was fifty-three-year old
Vincent O’ Leary, the first Albany President since John Sayles
to be drawn from the faculty and the man who was to have the fifth
longest tenure as chief executive in the institution’s history.
A California native, O’Leary took degrees at San Francisco State
College and the University of Washington, and by the time he was
appointed professor in the newly organized School of Criminal Justice
at Albany in 1968, he was a nationally recognized expert in the field of
parole and probation with extensive experience and an impressive list
of publications, O'Leary also brought to the Presidency important
personal qualifications. He was immensely energetic and articulate, he
was politically astute, and his service as chair of the Select Committee
and as a member of the Task Force gave him an unmatched knowledge
of the University,
(Opposite) Physics Professor Alain Kaloyeros,
a Presidential Young Investigator, is a princi-
pal researcher in the University’s new Center
for Advanced Technology (CAT) for Thin
Films and Coatings, approved by Governor
Cuomo and funded in 1993 by the New York
State Science and Technology Foundation.
Here he is pictured with graduate students
Cheryl Wyetzner, Greg Braekelmann, Ishing
Lou, and Aaron Burke. Burke studied with
Professor Kaloyeros as an undergraduate
before beginning graduate study at Albany.
(Photo by Mark Schmidt.)
177
Vincent O'Leary was named President in 1978
after serving for a year as Acting President. He
was previously Dean of the School of Criminal
Justice.
178
The institution O'Leary presided over in 1977 was far removed in
size and mission from the College for Teachers of the 1950s, and as a
university Albany had discovered that institutional maturation can be
just as harrowing as human adolescence, The challenge of creating a
mature public research university in a rapidly changing American
society tested the mettle of the University community. The character of
undergraduate education had been challenged by the student upheavals
of 1970. The quality of Albany's doctoral programs, the heart of any
university, had been severely scrutinized, And the fiscal crises of the
mid 1970s had threatened the University’s ability to respond.
O'Leary proved to be a leader vigorous enough to take on these
challenges. He began in the late 1970s and 1980s by recruiting a new
management team—vice presidents who constituted a kind of “cabinet”
that worked very closely with him. Among them were young leaders
possessing strong credentials nationally in scholarship and administration
and laying claim to bright futures: Judith Ramaley, a biologist, from
1982 to 1987 served as Albany’s first female Executive Vice President,
then left for an executive vice chancellorship at the University of
Kansas; John Shumaker, Vice President for Academic Planning and
Development from 1985 to 1987, later became president of Central
Connecticut State University; Warren Ilchman, a political scientist,
succeeded Ramaley, and later assumed the presidency of Pratt Institute.
Frank Pogue went from Albany’s Vice President for Student Affairs to
the vice chancellorship of SUNY, Jeanne Gullahorn (Research),‘ Mitchel
Livingston (Student Affairs), and John Hartigan (Business) joined holdover
Lewis Welch (University Affairs) in refilling those and other vice-
presidential posts. Between 1977 and 1981 each school or college got
a new dean; seven new deans and ten new department chairs were
recruited from other universities. The new administrators brought
with them a fund of experience at other institutions that helped guide
the University toward maturity.
The single most pressing issue of the 1980s was money, or more
accurately the lack of same. While state funding approximately doubled
between 1979 and 1989, it hardly kept up with the rate of inflation,
and the 1980s saw annual budgetary “mini-crises.” O’Leary’s response
was to elaborate and institutionalize the planning and budgetary processes
begun by the Select Committee, the Task Force, and Fields. Every unit
of the University developed a plan, the plans were reviewed, and
resources were allocated accordingly. Annual “budget panels” of faculty,
staff, and students provided valuable input into the process. In addition,
SUNY Chancellor Clifton Wharton fought for and in 1986 won some
freedom from the burdensome oversight of state government, O'Leary's
new system worked. The financial difficulties were controlled, and
resources were used prudently, While there was a campus-wide obsession
with resource problems, there was also a campus-wide sense that they
were being handled in a rational and equitable fashion.
It was becoming clear at the same time that the State of New York
was not able to provide all the financial resources necessary for a major
public research university. In the 1980s state appropriations (less tuition)
constituted less than half of the University's reyentues. Hence Albany
like other institutions looked for supplemental funding. Tuition and
various fees for service increased, although Albany still maintained its
position as an excellent “buy” among the nation’s colleges and universities.
In addition, from 1979 to 1989, external research funding trebled.
Finally in 1988 O’Leary recruited Christian G. Kersten as Vice President
for University Advancement to undertake a major capital campaign.
In the 1980s, providing an academic infrastructure—space and services—
for a large and complex university posed a major challenge, Total
enrollments reached about 16,000 by 1980 and hovered around 16,500
thereafter. The University also became increasingly complex. In 1989 it
offered forty-eight baccalaureate, sixty-five master’s, and twenty-eight
doctoral programs and awarded nearly 2,500 bachelor’s, more than
1,000 master’s, and nearly 125 doctoral degrees.
How did 16,000 students, more than 700 teaching faculty, and
several hundred support staff fit on a campus designed for about 10,000
students? To some degree they didn’t, Space for every University activity—
faculty offices, instruction, research, University Libraries, student activities,
and physical education—was always at a premium, many felt cramped,
and complaints abounded. The University responded in several ways.
The Uptown Campus was modified to make the most efficient use
of existing space. Lounge areas and conference rooms disappeared to
make way for faculty offices and laboratories, The Library installed
Jeanne Gullahorn has been Vice President for
Research and Dean of Graduate Studies since
1986; Frank Pogue was Vice President for
Student Affairs from 1983 to 1987. (Photos
by Edward Wozniak)
179
In 1983 the University officially inaugurated
the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and
Policy with a convocation and processional
along State Street. Grand Marshal Eugene
Mclaren of chemistry leads the processional,
followed by Rockefeller College founding
Provost Warren Ilchman and Alice Rivlin,
former director of the Congressional Budget
Office and convocation speaker.
180
more compact shelving. When student demand
for on-campus housing declined, some residence
hall units were converted to faculty offices.
Research centers often moved off campus to
rented space.
The Downtown Campus was completely
rehabilitated to become the home of the Graduate
School of Public Affairs and other professional
schools. A refurbished Page Hall became a
popular venue for lectures, films, and musical
performances. The Thomas E, Dewey Library
for Public Affairs and Policy occupied the old
Hawley Library. The new occupants of the
Downtown Campus had mixed feelings about
these developments. Some felt isolated from
the Uptown Campus, and faculty who attended
meetings or taught classes on the Uptown
Campus were not enthralled with the three-
mile “commute.” Still, the professional schools
were in close physical proximity to state offices
with which they often worked, and the handsome
buildings of the College for Teachers were
preserved and used.
The long-term space problem could be eased
only with new construction; that, however, came
very slowly and used both state and private
funds. Alumni House, financed by alumni and others, was completed
in 1976 and provided facilities for the Alumni Association as well as
attractive space for meetings and conferences. A 1991 addition housed
the ever-more-active University Advancement program, Freedom
Quadrangle, a 410-bed apartmenttype residence facility designed for
graduate and advanced undergraduate students, was opened in 1988.
To ease the shortage of physical education facilities, the University in
1986 erected a $500,000 vinyl-nylon “bubble” and in 1992 opened a
handsome 4,800-seat Recreation and Convocation Center equipped
with basketball, squash, racketball, and handball courts, an indoor
track, and high-tech training rooms, A privately financed Albany Collegiate
Inter-Faith Center (the “New Chapel House”), located on the edge of
the Uptown Campus, was opened in 1988; it offered students a place
for worship and was often used as well for small conferences by
University groups.
The computer transformed every aspect of University life during the
1970s and 1980s. Courses were first available on the campus in the
mid 1960s, and by 1983 the Department of Computer Science was
offering a Ph.D. The computing power available on the campus increased
exponentially, Central mainframes, which in 1983 could handle three
million instructions per second, increased their capabilities ten times
by 1990. During the 1980s, offices converted from typewriters to a
word-processing system, and student user rooms appeared in both
academic buildings and residence halls. Personal computers sprang up
like spring flowers in faculty offices and student residences; all had easy
access to the University Computing Center, other University offices,
and national data bases and computing facilities through networking.
Administrative and academic information flows were similarly
transformed. Student academic records were computerized. By 1987
students had access to a computerized degree-audit system that enabled
them to track their way through Albany’s degree requirements. The
following year the Student Information Retrieval System (SIRS) gave
University personnel on-line access to student records.
The implications for research and instruction were profound. At
one end of the spectrum, scientists gained access to super computers; at
the other end, undergraduates found that word processors greatly
enhanced their writing. Everywhere there was emphasis f
on something loosely called “computer literacy” and on i
quantitative studies.
The University Libraries, too, were affected both by
financial stringencies and by the advent of the computer,
The extraordinary growth rate of collections in the 1960s
was reduced by half in the 1970s and 1980s, and
acquisitions policies were redesigned to support curricula
and graduate research, Since 75 percent of the acquisitions
budget was represented by serials, by 1990 the rapidly
(Top) In 1986, ground was broken for
apartment-style residence halls across Fuller
Road from the main campus. Albany Mayor
Thomas M. Whalen III, former chair of the
University Council, joined President O'Leary
and Alan V, Iselin, chair of the University
Council between 1982 and 1990 before
becoming a State University of New York
Trustee. (Photo by Edward Wozniak)
(Bottom) In 1980 the Campus Center's
Assembly Hall was converted into a Middle
Eastern room for scenes from the motion
picture thriller Rollover, starting Kris
Kristofferson and Jane Fonda.
i
Faculty through the 1980s and 1990s earned
national reputations for their research and teach-
ing and played an important role in the life of
the University and the community at large. They
included Margaret Stewart (top), Distinguished
Teaching Professor of Biological Sciences, well
known for her environmental work; and Distin-
guished Service Professor of Physics James
Corbett (bottom, at left), one of the pioneering
faculty members in that department in the area
of advanced materials, Corbett is pictured with
physics Professor William Lanford, right, the
son of Oscar Lanford, the Dean of the College
in the 1950s.
182
escalating cost of journals forced an actual reduction in the number of
periodical subscriptions. The computer made possible an integrated
catalog, circulation, reserve and acquisition on-line system and gave
users access to local data bases and to collections in the Association of
Research Libraries (1975) and the Research Libraries Group (1984).
The millionth volume was added in 1982, and by 1989 that number
had grown to 1.3 million, with an additional 2.4 million microform
items, 400,000 government publications and 7,000 periodical subscriptions.
By then the main library building was simply too small to support the
collections and their heavy use. A library “annex” plan developed in
the 1990s would ease problems by housing a state-of-the-art electronic
library focused on information storage and retrieval.
At the heart of the University were its faculty members. They
supervised the educational program, taught the students, both
undergraduate and graduate, and did the research that distinguished a
university from a college. Most had been recruited during the great
growth spurt of the 1960s. Their numbers stabilized, then declined
slightly during these years. Most counts reported between 600 and 700
full-time and varying numbers of part-time faculty,
Improved faculty quality—essential if Albany was to mature as a
research university—was difficult to accomplish when there were almost
no new positions to fill, the faculty was relatively highly tenured, and
turnover rates were low. The two keys to improving the faculty in these
years were tenure and promotion decisions and effective recruiting.
By 1980 the University had in place a rigorous system of faculty
review for tenure and promotion which sought to guarantee procedural
due process, openness and equity. Not all agreed that those laudable
goals had been achieved, but the highly publicized and controversial
tenure cases so characteristic of the late 1960s and early 1970s slowly
disappeared.
When openings occurred by virtue of resignation, retirement, or
tenure actions, the University was better positioned to recruit well than
it had been earlier. It was better known, recruitment was conducted far
more systematically, and salaries remained very competitive. An Albany
position looked very attractive to a young scholar facing.a nationwide
academic depression.
Two generalizations suggest that the quality of Albany faculty improved.
First, as we shall see, there was a significant improvement in Albany's
graduate programs, and faculty quality was always a key element in such
judgments. Second, SUNY established a series of distinguished
professorships in the early 1970s, Successful candidates received special
titles and salary increases, but only after passing external scrutiny. At
this writing, Albany faculty members had won ten Distinguishéd Teaching
Professorships, twelve Distinguished Service Professorships, and nine
Distinguished Professorships.
The faculty also became more diverse during these years. There were
more women and minorities on the faculty in the 1990s than there had
been two decades earlier. Women made up nearly half of the faculty in
the mid 1930s but only about 15 percent by the mid 1980s; the figure
rebounded to 24 petcent in 1992-93 as a result of vigorous affirmative
action efforts. The faculty counted about eight percent of its numbers
from minority groups in 1993,
University faculty continue the tradition of service to the University and the
community: Edward Cowley (below right) began in the Milne School before
becoming the third art professor in the University's history. He was found-
ing chair of the Department of Art, whose faculty have been central to the
development and sustenance of the art community in the region; two Collins
Fellows, so honored for their service and devotion to the University are:
music Professor R, Findlay Cockrell (below), well known in the Capital
Region as an ambassador of music, performing frequently throughout the
area, and psychologist Shirley C, Brown (right), who has served two terms
as a member of the New York State Board of Regents.
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Research centers, organized in interdisciplin-
aty fashion around specific study areas, proli-
ferated in the 1980s. They included the Center
for Stress and Anxiety Disorders, directed by
Distinguished Professors of Psychology David
Barlow, and Edward Blanchard (above). The
Center is the top-funded center of its kind in
the nation, and Barlow has been honored by
the National Institute of Mental Health with
a Merit Award, which provides up to ten years
of federal support for his research.
184
The Center for Women in Government, established in 1978
by Linda Tarr-Whelan and Nancy Perlman with support from
the Ford Foundation; works to identify and remove barriers
to equal employment opportunities for women in the public
sector: In 1983 the Center conducted a Comparable Worth
Study, commissioned by the Governor's Office of Employee
Relations and the Civil Service Employees Association, which
served as the basis for New York’s pay equity plan to eradicate
sex and race-based discrimination in setting salaries in the
State system. (Left) Announcing the study are, from left,
Ronnie Steinberg, director of research and implementation
for the Center, Perlman, who was its executive director, and
Karen Burstein, Commissioner of Public Service.
The faculty as a whole was responsible for overseeing
the educational programs of the University through a
Faculty Senate created in 1966. But the spirit of inclusiveness abroad in
the late 1960s and 1970s converted the Faculty Senate into a University
Senate, At various times students, librarians, and non-teaching professionals
became members. For a time in the early 1970s, members of the
classified civil service, ranging from custodians to secretaries, also
participated in the governance system.
Many faculty were unhappy with what they perceived as the erosion
of their educational prerogatives. Faculty interest and participation in
the Senate declined, and Senate meetings often seemed devoted to
trivial issues (“pets, pistols and parking,” as one senator put it). The
nub of the matter was student participation. Some argued that students
had their own political structure in Student Association, that the
Senate should be left to the faculty, and that students should be |
removed. Others, however, saw the Senate as a useful institution
representative of the University as a whole. Consequently in 1981 a
compromise was worked out in which students gained continuing
membership while faculty senators gained separate access to the President
and the right to have a separate count of faculty votes on ‘certain
educational issues. During the 1980s both the size of the Senate and
the relative numbers of students were reduced in an effort to create a
more effective and deliberative body. Still, the governance system as a
whole continued to work, mostly because of conscientious and well-
staffed Senate councils.
In the 1980s, Albany succeeded in establishing strong graduate
programs, and new initiatives were undertaken despite severe financial
constraints. Between 1980 and 1989 the University added twenty-seven
new graduate programs. Some resources for graduate programs became
available from the retrenchments of 1975-76 and the University’s
termination of four additional graduate programs during the 1980s.
New money came with the New York State-funded Graduate Research
Initiative begun in 1987; GRI funding enabled Albany to create thirty-
five new faculty positions and eight postdoctoral associate positions in
several targeted areas.
Departments faced program reviews in the late 1980s with far more
confidence than a decade earlier. The ninety-one reviews conducted
between 1980 and 1989 were directed more to program improvement
than to possible termination. Rating graduate programs and departments
became a major national enterprise during the 1970s and 1980s. By the
end of the 1980s several Albany programs—atmospheric sciences,
accounting, sociology, psychology, criminal justice, Germanic languages,
public administration, social welfare and the D.A. in English—had
achieved national recognition using indices ranging from reputation to
scholarly productivity and professional contributions,
The quality and reputation of graduate programs were closely tied to
faculty research, and success in research was often measured by the
level of external funding. Research funding doubled between 1975-76
and 1979-80 and trebled again by 1988-89, By 1989 external research
and training support of over $38 million was equal to nearly half of the
campus’s state appropriation, comparable to that of the centers at
Buffalo and Stony Brook, and four times that of Binghamton. Albany
had joined the ranks of the top one hundred institutions in the nation
in federally-funded research and development.
Graduate student enrollment reached about 4,500 during the 1980s.
Close to 40 percent of the graduate students were full-time, the Schools
of Business and Education having particularly heavy part-time enrollments.
The arts and sciences colleges and the School of Education each had
about 30 percent of the graduate students; the other 40 percent were
distributed among the professional schools. The quality of Albany's
graduate students was in general quite high, with high-demand programs
such as clinical psychology receiving applications the equal of any in
the nation,
Richard Nathan, Distinguished Professor of
Public Policy and Provost of the Rockefeller
College since 1989. (Photo by Joseph Schuyler.)
185
Political activism returned in
the 1980s, including protests
to encourage the State Univer-
sity of New York to adopt a
policy of divestment of holdings
in companies doing business
in South Africa until apartheid
was eradicated. (Photo by
Student Photo Service.)
Challenged by a description
in a national college guide that
Albany students lacked “school
spirit,” Student Association
leaders Patty Salkin, ’85, and
Ivan Shore, ’85, organized the
world’s largest game of musical,
chairs to put the University at
Albany in the Guinness Book
of Records, 5,060 students and
faculty turned out for the game,
ultimately won after four hours
by Pete Serafi, '86, of Scarsdale.
(Photo by Hai Do, courtesy of
the Albany Times Union.)
186
Albany's research and graduate programs developed a
distinctive “public policy” orientation during these years. In
the 1960s there was a general assumption that Albany, given
its location, might logically develop such an emphasis. But it
was President Emmett Fields who articulated the goal of
forging an alliance between the University and the community
in the 1970s. The boundaries of the University were to
become the boundaries of the state. Policy studies were to
occupy a position of special prominence.
The new direction was not greeted with universal
enthusiasm, Some thought it ill-advised to put scarce resources
into a new initiative, Others feared political interference, But O’Leary
had faith in the University’s ability to conquer new research territory,
and enthusiastically supported the new orientation with resources.
Between 1977 and 1980 all but two of fifteen departments judged to be
in a position to engage in policy analysis received additional and/or
upgraded faculty positions.
In order to strengthen policy-oriented educational and research
programs, O’Leary in 1981 clustered Criminal Justice, Social Welfare,
Information Science and Policy, and the Graduate School of Public
Affairs into a new unit, the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public
Affairs and Policy, headed initially by Warren Ilchman and later by
Richard Nathan. Closely related was the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute
of Government, a SUNY-wide institute located near the Downtown
Campus. It worked closely with faculty in Rockefeller College, and was
headed by the same individual who was Provost of Rockefeller College.
The University had no medical school. But in 1985 Dr, David Axelrod,
New York’s Commissioner of Health, helped bring about a collaboration
between. the University and the New York Staté Department of Health,
resulting in the establishment of the University’s School of Public Health,
It coupled the resources of the nation’s largest and most sophisticated state
health research facilities, the Wadsworth Laboratories, with the campus’s
strength in science and its commitment to public policy. Three years later
the Albany Medical College became a partner in the endeavor. Soon over
150 jointly-appointed faculty and a core of independently recruited full-
time faculty were developing graduate programs in public health.
Michael Corso, ’83, '84, was elected President
of the Student Association in 1982-83,
187
Richard “Doc” Sauers, Albany’s basketball
coach and faculty member in Physical Educa-
tion since 1956, marked his 600th career
victory in 1992, making him the winningest
coach in National Collegiate Athletic Associa-
tion Division II history.
188
In the late 20th Century much of the best research and instruction
was often found in interdisciplinary and problem-oriented centers and
institutes. Such clusters of faculty and students were not new at Albany,
but they proliferated in the 1970s and 1980s; a 1990 report listed forty-
eight, supporting a wide range of services and research interests.
One of the most visible was the New York State Writer's Institute,
established in 1983 by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and Albany faculty
member William Kennedy. He used some of his MacArthur Foundation
“genius” grant to get the Institute started, and it soon received state
funding. It gained additional national recognition by helping recruit
novelist Toni Morrison for a prestigious Schweitzer Chair at the University,
and maintained a high public profile by hosting campus visits by
outstanding authors, sponsoring conferences (notably one on non-fiction
writing featuring Norman Mailer, Garry Wills, and others), and producing
a nationally syndicated “Bookshow” on public radio, hosted by the
Institute's associate director, Professor of English Tom Smith.
The international dimensions of the University's teaching and research
blossomed during these years. By 1990 the Albany campus administered
study-abroad programs in fourteen countries. Linkages were developed
with a number of foreign universities. Two of the most notable examples
were in China: a joint Ph.D. program in Sociology with Nankai University,
and School of Business faculty exchanges with Fudan University. Albany
faculty became well-traveled: to Indonesia, improving that country's
educational system; to Somalia, educatirig managers; and to Brazil,
helping develop budgeting systems and merit-selection procedures for its
civil service system.
Some other centers of graduate instruction saw major changes. The
well-established School of Education reinvented itself in the late 1970s
and 1980s, shifting its focus from teacher preparation to graduate education
and discipline-based educational research, often with a public policy
emphasis. The College of Humanities and Fine Arts, which felt the
brunt of the late 1970s program-pruning (four doctoral programs and
two departments lost, reduced enrollments and resources) bounced back.
Enrollments stabilized, new interdisciplinary programs were established
(Chinese Studies and Women’s Studies, for example), and a second
D.A. program in Humanistic Studies was added in 1984.
Graduate study and research were
reshaped by the new public policy orientation
and by the emphasis on improving quality.
But the institution never forgot that it was a
university and could remain one only if it
offered advanced graduate study and research
in fields central to the definition of a
university, particularly the liberal arts and
sciences. Hence in the late 1980s the
University sought to reestablish doctoral
programs in history, English, French studies,
and philosophy.
In the late 1960s, undergraduates had
complained of neglect. A decade later they
Intercollegiate and intramural
athletic programs:continued to
be strong through the 1980s
and new ones were added in
both men’s and women’s
sports. (Above) Albany Crew,
aclub sport, makes use of the
nearby Hudson River and
participates in the city’s Knick-
etbocker Regatta, Zoraida
Davis, '91, (left) recorded the
most triples of any player ever
in Division HI women’s soft-
ball and finished her soph-
omote season as the team’s
leading batter. As a junior
she was named to the All-
Championship Team when
the Lady Danes won the New
York State Women’s Collegiate
Association Championship.
189
190
began to receive new attention, Since SUNY
budgets were enrollment driven, Albany's funding
depended on its ability to recruit and retain a
strong undergraduate student body. But recruiting
some 2,000 quality freshmen and another 1,000
transfer students annually became more difficult
in the 1980s as the number of New York high
school graduates declined.
Yet the caliber of incoming undergraduates
remained very high. “Traditional freshmen,” that
is the 70 percent of entering freshmen students
admitted under conventional standards, were
very able indeed. The SAT scores of such students
entering in 1987 and 1988 ranked Albany ninth
nationally among public doctoral universities,
behind Virginia, Michigan and Berkeley but
ahead of the University of North Carolina, the
University of Wisconsin, and UCLA.
Albany students came overwhelmingly from
New York; a quarter of the 1986 freshman class
came from New York City, nearly a third from
Long Island, and about a seventh from the Capital
District. Most Albany students were no longer
“first generation” college students; over half of
the arriving freshmen in 1986 had at least one
parent holding a bachelor’s degree. Entering
students were primarily middle class, although a
quarter came from families with incomes of more
than $50,000 and another quarter frori families
with incomes of less than $20,000, There was a
(Top) In 1986 President O'Leary welcomed Governor
Cuomo and New York State Sen. Kenneth LaValle
were on hand for the University's Commencement
and the graduation of their daughters Lisa LaValle
(above) and Madeline Cuomo (left). The Governor
offered the Commencement address and Senator
LaValle received the Medallion of the University
for his service to education.
notable increase in the number of “non-traditional” undergraduates,
particularly older students (faculty found them particularly well-motivated),
And by 1993 the student body was becoming significantly more diverse
ethnically and racially.
Undergraduates in the 1960s had been relatively confident in their
ability to move into well-paying jobs upon graduation and hence enjoyed
the luxury of participating in the counter-culture or working for social
change. Students in the 1970s and 1980s, observing the changed
economic circumstances in America, became markedly career-oriented.
Hence the programs they chose changed with the market for college
graduates. Beginning in the early 1970s students began to flood the
School of Business, and during the 1980s a third of entering freshmen
announced their intention to major in business or accounting. Students
perceived career opportunities in other areas as well: psychology, computer
science, social welfare, and even teacher education. And it sometimes
seemed as if everyone wanted to become a lawyer!
Popular areas became greatly overcrowded; the School of Business
had to limit enrollments, for example, But the University was able to
convert crowding from a problem into an opportunity. Students initially
denied admission to courses or majors of their choice were directed
into other fields where they often discovered both a vocation and the
virtues of a liberal arts education. As students proceeded through their
four years, their aspirations for graduate study increased, careers became
less important, and liberal education seemed more significant.
In the 1970s, when Albany had no general education requirements,
the breadth of an individual’s education depended on how well he or
she chose from among the wide range of courses available. A substantial
minority of students were taking few courses outside the college of their
major field, sometimes too safely navigating the minefields of degree
requirements and academic regulations,
For this and other reasons meant to re-instill the ideal of liberal arts
education, general education requirements returned in the 1980s. An
experimental program was offered to about 300 students in 1980, and
two years later a full-blown General Education Program came into
being. It required students to take two courses each in six rubrics of
general education. A “Writing across the Curriculum” component,
The computer has transformed every aspect
of the University’s life since the late 1970s,
including providing an on-line catalog in the
University Libraries. The University will begin
construction in 1994 of an “electronic” library
that will provide information-retrieval capa-
bilities and instructional technology. (Photo
by Joseph Schuyler.)
191
added in 1986, required every academic
department to offer “writing intensive courses”
integrating writing with the subject matter of
the course, A “human diversity” requirement
was added in 1989, but by that year the
whole program was under review, Freshmen
entering in the Fall of 1993 were responsible
for a revised set of requirements, striving
toward a more coherent, critical and active
engagement with the core disciplines.
The whole issue of undergraduate teaching
was systematically reevaluated. While Albany
students and alumni were generally satisfied
with the quality of instruction, they complained
about being closed out of courses. For their
part, faculty pointed to rising student/faculty ratios and to increased
research and administrative obligations. Everyone agreed that teaching
could always be improved and that incentives for good teaching as
compared with research should be enhanced. Student course evaluations
were taken more seriously in tenure-and promotion decisions; if outstanding
TET EEE
case of freshmen, were assigned faculty mentors who helped them adjust
to University life. Some departments had their own academic support
services, and a Writing Center offered assistance to those having difficulties
developing writing skills. The academically talented also received attention.
They were encouraged to participate in the University’s honors programs,
beginning with special honors general education courses in the first two
years and continuing with departmental honors programs.
The results were generally good, as measured by one of the most
highly praised selfevaluative systems in the nation, run by the Office
for Institutional Research, Retention and graduation rates at Albany
were typically better than at the other three university centers, and the
three-year retention rates at Albany were among the highest in the
nation for public universities. Albany students also proved very successful
in competing for admission to graduate schools and law schools. In a
long series of “outcomes” studies, both alumni and undergraduates
expressed a high level of satisfaction with their Albany education. Most
of the alumni reported that they would come to Albany if “they had it to
hE
oT
vi
An aerial view looking south of the University
at Albany in 1981. With Washington Avenue
and the main entrance in the foreground, the
four residential quadrangles, clockwise from
top left are Indian, Dutch, Colonial and State,
named for the periods of New York State
history. Following the initial construction of
the Uptown Campus, there was no additional
expansion at the University through the 1970s
and most of the 1980s despite marked increases
in enrollment. (Photo by Gary Gold, ’70)
i
teaching did not guarantee tenure, teaching competence became a
prerequisite for it. The creation of the rank of Distinguished Teaching
Professor in 1972 and other SUNY and campus awards for teaching
excellence added further incentives.
In the late 1980s the University also tried to connect more closely
the academic and non-academic life of undergraduates, Some classes
were conducted in the residence halls, and a few faculty lived there,
interacting with students and providing special programming. Special-
interest housing was revived, giving undergraduates with similar academic
interests an opportunity to live together. In 1993 there were twelve such
Turning renewed attention to the undergraduate housing areas including such interests as Romance languages, business
i i 1980s, the University institut ‘ r ' ‘
Experiences the)? eU prereley and economics, honors, science, and the visual and performing arts.
ed initiatives such as a Presidential Scholars
program and University Honors, as well as
academic support services to assist those experi-
1
\ The University became more attentive to the special needs of students
encing difficulty. Sung Bok Kim, Dean of Un-
at opposite ends of the academic spectrum. Students in academic difficulty
dergraduate Studies, (top) and Carson Carr Jr, could find “peer” tutors (for a fee), could attend study groups in any of
Associate Dean and Director of the Educational
Opportunities Program, (bottom) have been in-
strumental in developing many of these programs,
|
|
eighteen freshman/sophomore level courses in ten areas, and, in the
192 i
193
Dr. David Axelrod, New York State Commis-
sioner of Health from 1979 to 1991, was
instrumental in bringing about the establish-
ment of a School of Public Health at the
University in 1985. The School is a unique
collaborative agreement that combines the
academic resources in science education at
the University with one of the nation’s largest
and most sophisticated health research labora:
tories. Here Axlerod addresses the 1990
Commencement after receiving the Medallion
of the University,
194
do all over again.” Undergraduate education at Albany was far from
perfect, but the University had good reason to be proud of its success.
The Student Association for more than a half century had provided a
focus for student culture. It remained influential in the 1970s and 1980s,
in part because it elected students to the Senate, but more because the
mandatory student tax, through the '80s, was generating more than
$1 million dollars annually. The SA budget was a fiscal lifeline to many
of the ninety to 160 student organizations recognized on campus.
But student interest in the association waned. Turnouts for SA
elections were usually low. An attempt in the 1980s to bring graduate
students into SA (with its builtin mandatory tax) failed. Periodic
referenda to renew the mandatory character of the student tax often
came dangerously close to failure because of low student turnout. And
surveys of student opinion showed a decline in satisfaction with student
government between 1978 and 1988.
Student living arrangements varied. Demand for residence hall and
off-campus housing fluctuated with their
relative costs and convenience. Residence
halls were crowded between the mid 1970s
and the mid 1980s; on occasions there
was doubling and even tripling-up. The
overflow was housed in facilities such as
the old Wellington Hotel in downtown
Albany. In the 1980s, students, often
pursuing greater personal freedom, began
moving off campus in larger numbers.
Most off-campus students settled in
areas close to the bus line connecting the
two campuses. The combination of their
numbers and lifestyles generated “town-
gown” tensions. Year-round residents often,
complained of the consequences of
crowding and student life styles: noise,
parties, trash, and parking.
The City of Albany had in 1974 passed
a so-called “grouper law,” limiting
apartment occupants to no more than three unrelated persons. But the
law was largely ignored until the mid 1980s, when a University study
estimated that about 1,500 students were living in violation of it. In the
Fall of 1989 a University-city task force examined the situation and
urged the city to enforce its regulations aggressively, while asking the
University to clearly inform its students of acceptable behavior. It also
sought the creation of a mediation service to deal with specific problems.
Social activities remained a central element of undergraduate student
culture. Indeed, Albany gained some reputation as a “party campus;”
the 1991 Princeton Review College Guide asserted that Albany students
“fall into the ‘party away your free time’ rut.” Dress, like social life,
remained informal.
The Greek societies had traditionally played a major role in
undergraduate social life, but had almost disappeared during the 1970s.
In 1980 the University identified only three Greek groups on campus,
and none were noted in that year’s Torch. But during the 1980s they
made an astonishing comeback; in 1991 the University counted at least
twenty fraternities and eight sororities whose total membership included
Following the 1986 Commencement
ceremony, Governor Cuomo took a few
minutes to chat with the student members
of Purple and Gold,
195
Efforts to provide access and support for dis-
abled students through the 1980s and 1990s
have led to increased participation by students
with disabilities in all aspects of University
life. Sheri Dinkelsohn was Commencement
student speaker in 1989.
196
one out of four Albany undergraduates. Some were local, more had
national affiliations (the SUNY ban on such groups had been rescinded
in 1976). Some occupied space in the residence halls beginning in
1985; others operated “unofficial” houses from downtown residences.
Many areas of student life reflected larger cultural changes occurring
in American society. The sexual revolution of the 1960s became more
complicated in subsequent decades. The fear of AIDS introduced a new
cautionary note. The emergence of the women’s movement changed the
terms of male-female relations. By the late 1980s, “date-rape” became a
significant issue on college campuses. Many more gays and lesbians
came out of the closet and joined organized advocacy groups.
Student use of “recreational” and other drugs had been a major
cause for concern in the 1960s, but it is very difficult to track their use
in subsequent years. A 1991 campus study suggested that nearly half of
those Albany students surveyed had used marijuana at least once in the
previous year, and some estimated that 8 to 10 percent of the student
body used cocaine or other “hard drugs.”
But the “drug of choice” for Albany students was clearly alcohol.
Public expectations of teachers meant that Albany students before the
1960s either were teetotalers or consumed their alcohol in private. But
the 1960s brought changes: fewer students aimed to become teachers,
the cultural shifts of the decade emphasized personal freedom and
experimentation, and the University loosened its traditional regulation
of student life. Thus alcohol played a central role in the public social
life of the campus in the 1960s and 1970s. .
The problem became more complicated when between 1983 and
1985 the state raised the legal age for purchase of alcohol from eighteen
to twenty-one. Since the vast majority of undergraduates were under
twenty-one, the University sharply restricted alcoholic beverages at
public functions and attempted to limit their use in the residence halls.
Alcohol usage went underground and off campus, but probably did not
decline much, The University’s multi-faceted substance abuse prevention
effort promised to test the University’s educational expertise as much as
more traditional academic issues.
Idealistic student political activism declined in the 1970s but then
revived in the 1980s around different issues. The right of Albany
students to cast their votes in polling places on the campus was a
heated issue in 1983. Other student activists concentrated on apartheid
in South Africa and the civil war in Nicaragua. The large Jewish student
population made itself heard on Middle Eastern issues and on the
plight of Soviet Jewry. Most political activists were vaguely liberal, but
diverse voices were heard in the political arena; forty student members
of The Coalition Against Pornography protested the University Cinema’s
presentation of an X-rated film on campus in 1985.
Student groups appealed to almost every imaginable interest, On a
page headed, “Here’s Where to Get Involved,” the ’87-’88 Viewpoint
listed more than 120 student organizations. They ranged from the
Accounting Club to the Young Americans for Freedom, from the
Amateur Radio Club to the Taikwon Do Club, from the Dance Council
After nearly disappearing in the 1970s, Greek
life at Albany experienced an astonishing
resurgence in the 1980s, as was evident at
1991’s Fountain Day. About one in every four
undergraduate students was a member of one
of forty-nine Greek organizations, (University
Photo Service.)
197
had a long history on campus.
Polo
ne (the
Others, such as the Wat
Club or Don’t Walk
latter with a emphasis on campus
security), embodied newe cern
All-University activities were
ed. An
relatively scarce but sp
April 1985 game of musical chairs
involving 5,060 students, faculty
and staff put Albany for the first
time into the Guinness Book of
Records, The annual “Fountain D
enabled the campus
nmunity to
celebrate the coming of warm
weather and the play of decorative
fountains, Purple and Gold, a new
honor and © organization,
formed some of the. functions
defunct Myskania. Torch
ight became a moving ritual for
ing students.
Intercollegiate athlet:
ularly with the addition of
1993 Albany
par
women’s teams, In
fielded ten women’s and eleven
men’s squads. Their fortunes, of
cou
, varied from year to year,
the mid 1980s being especially s
Il team compiled a
game win streak, only to lose in
championships, The wrestling team
1985-86 and often sent individual wrestlers to national and in
ful. In 1985-86 all eight winter
eason play. Women’s gymnastics
ment in 1985, The 1984 women’,
year had a 24-
Is of the NCAA
rd and the following
the quarter-fir
1 an impressive 17-2
ational
Purple and Gold is an honorary service society
that continues the traditions of Myskania. Here
members of the organization in 1991 join
President Swygert and Mrs. Sonja Swygert.
meets. The track and cross-country teams boasted several top-ten NCAA
team finishes and a hoard of All-American individuals in the late 1980s.
“Doc” Sauers continued his winning ways and became one of the
most successful Division 1 coaches in NCAA history. 1991-92 marked
the thirty-seventh consecutive non-losing season for Sauers-coached teams
at Albany (still unbroken) and brought him his 600th varsity basketball
win. Football coach Bob Ford, in his first sixteen years at Albany,
compiled the highest winning percentage of any Division III coach in
the nation. The 1985 football team was ECAC champion. Both Sauers
and Ford sent assistants on to head coaching positions at other institutions.
The University in 1989 considered moving to NCAA Division I in
all sports except football, While a campus committee reported that
Albany was well positioned for such a move by virtue of size, academic
quality, aspirations and facilities, the process was suspended in 1991
when fiscal challenges from the state again threatened University programs.
By most criteria, the University had developed a highly successful
sports program. Yet it never became
the focus of University life that some
people hoped for and others feared,
The University presided over
student activities through its student
affairs office, That function had been
downgraded in the 1970s with the
end of in loco parentis. The Middle
States visitation team in 1980 thought
that student services had been short-
changed and urged the University to
recreate the position of Vice President
for Student Affairs, Consequently in
August of 1983 Frank Pogue, a
sociologist who had for a decade
chaired the Department of African
and Afro-American Studies, was
appointed to the position.
Pogue and his successor, Mitchel
Livingston, sought to provide direction
and leadership in all facets of student
life. Their most notable goal was to
improve the quality of life in the
residence halls and reconnect it with
academic concerns. But the division
also oversaw a variety of student
support services such as the University
Health Center, Middle Earth, and counseling personnel.
Rules governing student behavior were outlined in a brochure called
Student Guidelines, Enforcement was in the hands of Student Affairs and a
student judicial system developed in the late 1960s. The student-run
system worked well in the area of residential life, but dealing with
academic dishonesty cases was more complicated. Faculty/student panels
heard such cases, but often struggled to find appropriate sanctions. A
failing grade in the course in which cheating occurred sometimes seemed
too lenient while suspension or expulsion often seemed too harsh.
Distinguished Service Professor Edna Acosta-
Belen, (top) 69, Ph.D. '77, is a member of the
Department of Latin American and Caribbean
Studies, one of several new departments
established to teach and research issues in
ethnic and cultural studies. Anthropologist
Dean Falk (bottom) has received national
attention for her theories about the evolution
of the human brain. (Acosta-Belen photo by
Gary Gold,’70. Falk photo by Joseph Schuyler.)
201
(Above) Each fall President Swygert honors
members of the University faculty who have
edited journals or authored books during that
year at the Authors and Editors Recognition
Program, where the works are displayed.
(Opposite) Tom Smith, professor of English,
associate director of the New York State
Writers Institute and host of the nationally
syndicated public radio program “The Book
Show,” is the featured speaker. (Photos by
Deborah Neary.)
202
When Institutional Research surveyed students on their level of
satisfaction with their Albany experience, academic areas fared well.
But students in 1991 were less satisfied with college social activities, the
bus service, financial aid services, campus food, recreation and intramurals,
parking, and the bookstore than their counterparts had been thirteen
years earlier.
Americans have had great confidence in education, In the 1840s the
Normal School was asked to train teachers who, through the common
schools, would eliminate all of the social vices of the day. In the 1960s,
students and faculty looked to the university for a solution to Vietnam.
The issue of the 1980s and 1990s was “diversity.” Optimists believed
the university had an opportunity to solve within its own community
one of the world’s most perplexing problems. Pessimists feared that the
competing interests and values so central to diversity could destroy the
university as an institution,
“Diversity” refers to the emergence in American society of self.
conscious cultural groups who challenge the dominant culture. On the
Albany campus such groups began to appear in the late 1960s, The
earliest were African-Americans influenced by the “black power” movement,
but they were quickly joined by other ethnic groups: Hispanics, Italians,
and Jews. By 1975-76 there were on campus nearly a dozen student ,
organizations with an ethnic or national identification. Racial and ethnic
groups were joined by feminists and gay and lesbian activists,
All of these interests cultivated group self-consciousness; some showed
separatist tendencies. Traditionally African-American Greek societies
appeared on campus, and in 1985 a black sorority sponsored the First
Annual Minority Homecoming Pageant, complete with minority
homecoming king and queen.
The new cultural groups raised an important educational issue.
Whose culture is to be transmitted to the next generation? Over a period
of a quarter century the new cultural groups gained access to the
undergraduate curriculum. New departments appeared: Africana Studies,
Puerto Rican Studies (subsequently part of a merger that created Latin
American and Caribbean Studies), Judaic Studies, Women’s Studies,
and Hispanic and Italian Studies. In addition, new undergraduate
general education requirements included a “diversity” component.
The University embraced diversity as a positive principle that gave
voice to new groups and enriched the fabric of university life. The
academic calendar began’ to observe the Jewish holidays, Affirmative
action programs brought more women and minorities to the faculty.
Albany took justifiable pride in its efforts to provide access to the
physically handicapped and special help to students with learning
disabilities. Everyone rejoiced when Michael Corso, a blind communi-
cations major and honors student, was elected Student Association
president in 1982. Diversity committees explored “all avenues. for
increasing diversity . . .” In the late 1980s the University undertook a
successful campaign to recruit minority undergraduates in such numbers
that the composition of the student body would ultimately resemble
that of New York's population.
Programs to minimize group tensions and help the University’s
diverse population live together were also developed. Incoming freshmen
in the Fall of 1988 read Toni Mortison’s novel, Beloved, concerned
with racial issues, and those the following year read Jonathan Kozol’s
moving report on the plight of New York City’s homeless, Rachel and
Her Children. The annual World Week celebrated a range of international
cultures. Sexuality Week, begun in 1983, presented a variety of lectures
and workshops. In 1986, Gay and. Lesbian Pride Week offered speakers,
workshops, and films in addition to a candlelight vigil for victims of
AIDS. Speech and behavior that offended the sensibilities of “minority”
204
A newer Albany tradition since 1978 has been “Fountain Day,” originally con-
ceived by Student Association Vice President Fred Brewington, '79 to celebrate
the Human Awareness Program (HAP) with “HAP Day.” The celebration marks
the day in spring when the University’s Main Fountain begins operating again.
Virtually the entire University community gathers for the noon-time festivities.
Pictured (aboye) are a view of the fountain as the water went on in 1992, and
(opposite) spectators on the podium in 1993. (Photos by Joseph Schuyler.)
groups were frowned on, a forerunner of the 1990s debate about
laudable attempts to persuade people to avoid offensive language versus
infringement upon the academic freedom and free speech of others.
Vincent O'Leary announced his resignation as President in 1989.
His successor in the following year was forty-seven-year-old H. Patrick
Swygert. The University’s first African-American President had received
an A.B. (1965) and a J.D. (1968) from Howard University. Apart from
successful ventures into U.S. government service during the Carter
administration, he had spent most of his career at Temple University,
first as a law school professor and later in administrative positions
culminating with that of executive vice president. He came to Albany
with the requisite combination of academic credentials, administrative
experience, energy, and sense of direction.
Swygert’s early years as President emphasized continuity, but he also
began to put his own impress on the University. When he arrived in
Albany he announced that his first priority was “restoring undergraduate
205
206
The University at Albany New York State Legislative Delegation was organized
in 1993 under the leadership of Senator Hugh Farley, '58, of Niskayuna and
Assemblyman John McEneny of Albany. Gathered at the State Capitol in
April 1993 were (front row) Assemblymen Robert D'Andrea of Saratoga
Springs and Ronald Canestrari of Cohoes; Senator Farley; Assemblymen.
James Tedisco of Schenectady and Pat M. Casale of Troy; (back row). Univer-
sity Vice President for Finance and Business Carl P. Carlucci; John P. Berry,
director of the Senate Finance Committee Office of Budget Studies; Univer-
sity Vice President for Student Affairs Mitchel Livingston; Assemblyman
McEneny; President Swygert; Vice President for Academic Affairs Karen
Hitchcock; Assemblyman Anthony J, Casale, '69, of Herkimer; and Vice
President for University Advancement Christian G, Kersten. Unable to attend
the event were Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies Jeanne E.
Gullahorn and Senators Joseph L. Bruno of Brunswick, Howard C. Nolan Jr.
of Albany, Stephen M. Saland of Poughkeepsie and Ronald B. Stafford of
Plattsburgh; and Assemblymen Arnold W. Proskin, ’61, of Colonie and John
J. Faso of Kinderhook. (Photo by Joseph Schuyler.)
The 1993 Alumni(ae) Leadership,
from right to left: kneeling, Roberta
Greenbaum Bastow, '81, president;
Jason J. Friedman, ’85, vice presi-
dent; Frederick K, Brewington, ’79,
immediate past president. Second
row: Lorna Reamer, Alumni Office;
Board members Teresa Kerwin Lehr,
*60; Diane DiGiorgio, '80, ’85;
Barry Z. Davis, '74; Kristin Lang,
92; and Esther Siegel Hoffman,
°37, 40; Nadine Weltman Lahan,
"70, Gold Coast Florida Chapter;
Board members Maria Maglione,
’88; and Victor K, Looper, 70;
Susan Mindich McCullough, ’84,
Metro New York Chapter; Board
members Annette Gardiner DeLyser,
"49, '55; Claire F. Deloria, 56, °59.
Back row: Amy Doig Cullen, M.A.
'90, Alumni Office; Boatd member
Winsome Foderingham-Herard, '89,
"92; Helen E. Adams, M.S., 90, Alumni Office; Carol Livingston, Director of Alum-
ni Affairs; Board members Robert S, Peterkin, 66, 76; Kenneth T, Doran, "39; and
Stephen J. Colucci, '76, ’79, '82, chair Council of Classes; Konrad W. Maier, '54,
Western New York Chapter; Board members Paul D. Piccininni, ’77; and Arthur N.
Collins, 48; Matt Necon, '83, Los Angeles Chapter; Jonathan D. Waks, 90; Andrew
Paul, ’81, San Francisco Chapter; Board member Patty E. Salkin, ’85; Andrew Fox,’88,
Metro New York Chapter; Robert Giuffrida, 72, Capital District Chapter; Board mem-
bers Michael Olin '85, 86; and Harold C, Hanson, ’63; Jack Krull Jr., "79, Nation’s
Capital Chapter, Board member David A. Gellman, ’78, 79. (Photo by Magic Photo.)
Members of the University Council,
1993-94: Seated, from left, Athena C.
Kouray, Esq.; The Honorable John E.
Holt-Harris, chair; Martha W. Miller,
MA ’67; Standing, from left, Steven
N. Fischer, Vivian Hillier Thorne, '48,
representing the alumni(ae), A. Rita
Chandellier Glavin, Esq.; Athena V.
Lord; Professor Joan Schulz, repre-
senting the faculty; Carolyn Gillis
Wellington and John J, Poklemba,
Esq. Not present when photo was
taken were Karima Wilkins, ’94, re-
presenting the students, and Richard
A. Hanft, Esq. (Photo by Mark
Schmidt.)
207
Since 1991 the University has held its Com-
mencement exercises at the Knickerbocker
Arena, Albany County's civic center. Pictured
here is the 149th Commencement on May 16,
1993. The University will award its 100,000th
degree at the Sesquicentennial Commencement
in 1994. (Photo by Joseph Schuyler.)
208
instructional resources and improving the quality of the undergraduate
experience.” But he also made clear that the University’s commitment to
achieving racial and cultural diversity and helping diverse groups live
together remained undiminished. Maintaining and improving the quality
of the faculty and graduate programs and continuing and enhancing
programs of service to the surrounding community were also on his agenda.
As usual, the issue of money intruded itself into University aspirations.
In Swygert’s first two years, state appropriations for Albany declined
nearly 10 percent. Only by 1993 did the financial pressures appear to
ease a bit. The search for private money became even more important.
The Campaign for Albany, the major fund-raising effort of the University,
had set a goal of $25 million by the Sesquicentennial year, 1994.
William Kennedy, Professor of English, (below) put Albany
‘on the map in the early 1980s with his series of novels set in
his native city. Following receipt of a MacArthur Foundation
“genius award” in 1982 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in
1983, Kennedy established a Writers Institute at the Univer-
sity, now funded by the New York State Legislature with a
statewide mission. In 1987 the film based on Tronweed was
filmed in the city and premiered at Albany's Palace Theater.
(Photo by J. S. Carras, Troy Record.)
The University began celebrating its international dimensions
in the 1980s with World Week, (above) a series of events and
activities featuring students and faculty from other nations,
Novelist Toni Morrison, (below) who received
the Governor's Arts Award in 1986 from Gov.
Cuomo, joined the University at Albany
faculty from 1985 to 1989 as the holder of a
prestigious Schweitzer Chair in the
Humanities, funded by the New York State
Legislature, While she was at Albany,
Morrison published the novel Beloved, for
which she received the Pulitzer Prize for
Fiction. In 1993 she was awarded the Nobel
Prize for Literature.
Faculty through the 1980s and 1990s earned
national reputations for their research and
teaching and played an important role in
the life of the University and the community
at large. Ronald A, Bosco (above), Distin-
guished Service Professor of English, also
served two terms as chair of the University
Senate in the 1980s and co-chaired the
Mission Statement Task Force of 1991-92;
Shirley Jones (right), was named Distin-
guished Service Professor of Social Welfare
in 1993. (Photos by Joseph Schuyler.)
210
a
Swygert retained that goal but in a daring move extended the drive to
century's end and raised the final target to $55 million, the largest such
campaign in the history of any SUNY institution.
Under Swygert, resourcefulness and increased dialogue with and
support from the state government helped the University begin to i
address pressing needs and aspirations, Construction began in 1993
on a two-pronged extension to the Campus Center to provide more
room for student services, and the University hoped by the Ses-
quicentennial to break ground directly south of the Campus Center for
a digital-based, computer program and storage addition to the University
Libraries. The most pressing need remaining was space for organized
research, and in early 1993 the University announced plans to construct Fuerza Latina, a student group, celebrates
Hispanic heritage and culture with a cele-
bration on the podium. (Photo by Matt
Glynn, University Photo Service.)
a 75,000 square-foot Center for Environmental Studies and Technology
Management that would house the ASRC and National Weather Setvice,
Revitalized Greek life on campus is reflected
in this portrait of the 1993 Pan Hellenic Coun-
cil. Front: Raymond Lewis, Kevin Coleman,
First row: Carlos Melendez, Deborah Plaskett,
Tisa Howard, Bryan Carlen, Refina Bautista;
Quamin Ellis, Nichole Michaels, Claudette
Bazile, DeAnna Baker, Tanya Morrissey,
Marsha Bastien, Kimberly Smith, Darryl
Thorpe. Back row: Paul Buckley, Ian Ashe,
Talim Lessane; Anthony Parker, Nickki Gant,
Valerie Malland, Darrell Penn, Jamie Knight,
Kelsel Thompson-Feliciano, Fateema Jones,
Renee McNeal, Johnny Pacheco, Felicia
Richardson, Michael Williams, Alexandra
Guerrero, and Tardis Johnson, council
president, (Photo by Sean Sime, University
Photo Service.)
212
the Center for Advanced Technology, X-ray optics research, and high-
tech business development and incubation programs—the project to be
funded through a $10 million grant from the Legislature.
Resignations and retirements gave the new President an opportunity to
make some administrative appointments and at least one important
organizational change. Karen Hitchcock joined the University as its new
Academic Vice President in 1991. She was a cell biologist who came with
extensive administrative experience from a post as vice chancellor for
research and dean of the graduate college at the University of Illinois:
Chicago. Other administrative appointments included Carl P. Carlucci,
former secretary of the New York State Assembly Ways & Means
Committee, as Vice President for Finance and Business, Judy Genshaft as
dean of the School of Education, and Richard Hughs as dean of the School
of Business, Perhaps most important, a College of Arts and Sciences was
reconstituted in the Fall of 1993 with Judith Gillespie as its dean.
Some of the most welcome academic news came in 1992-93 with the
(Right) On December 10, 1991, the Univer-
sity launched a $55-million “Campaign for
Albany,” the most ambitious ever undertaken
by a SUNY institution. President Swygert was
joined on the occasion by, from left, Assembly-
man Ed Sullivan of New York, chair of the
Assembly Higher Education Committee;
Gary R. Allen, ’70, chair of the campaign,
Assemblyman Anthony J. Casale, 69, and
J. Spenser Standish, chairman of Albany
International and president of The University
at Albany Foundation. The Sesquicentennial
year goal is $25 million, with the balance to
be raised by the end of the decade. (Photo by
Edward Wozniak.)
Homecoming 1990 included presentation
of the first President's Outstanding Young
Alumni Service Award to Patty E. Salkin, ’85,
center left, and Frederick Brewington, ’79,
center right. President Swygert, left, and
Alumni Association President Susan VanHorn
Shipherd, ’64, join Salkin and Brewington
and their spouses Howard Gross and Adrienne
Brewington,
(Top) Mary Anne Crotty, MPA, ’82, is Gover-
nor Cuomo’s Director of State Operations.
(photo by Joseph Schuyler.)
(Above) A distinguished alumnae, Susan
Molinari, ’80, ’81, is the first Albany graduate
ever elected to Congress, now a second-term
member from Staten Island.
(Right) In 1991 President Swygert presented a
University chair to Barry and Nina Wagman of
Wantagh at the President’s Recognition Dinner
in appreciation of their two years of service as
national chairs of the Parents’ Fund. The
Wagmans have three daughters who attended
Albany—Tracey, '91, Julie, ’92, and Shari, '94—
and through their involvement in generating
support for the University represent a tradition
of parental involvement, They currently serve
as National Parents’ Chairs for the “Campaign
for Albany.”
214
long-sought approval to reestablish the history, English, French studies
and philosophy Ph.D,s. It marked an important milestone in the
history of the institution, Doctorates central to the definition of a
research university were once again offered at Albany, signifying a
renewed emphasis on traditional academic disciplines.
Between 1977 and 1993 the University at Albany matured. The
faculty steadily improved, Graduate programs were solidly established
and, in some cases, developed national and international reputations.
Research activities expanded several-fold and became an integral part of
the campus. First-rate students received a quality undergraduate education,
The report of the Middle States Association accreditation team in 1990
offered a resounding endorsement of the University’s decade of full
maturation, concluding that “Albany has made remarkable progress in
becoming a high quality center for undergraduate study and an impressive
graduate/research university in areas of public policy.”
The future directions of the University were articulated in a new
Mission Statement in 1992, prepared by a faculty committee—chaired by
Distinguished Service Professor of English Ronald A. Bosco and Graduate
School of Public Affairs Dean Frank Thompson—at Swygert’s initiative.
It reaffirmed the traditional goals of a public research university: the
advancement of knowledge, teaching, and public service. But it added
several special emphases, The University, it said, should foster the
ideals of justice, hold fast to the ideals of freedom of thought, inquiry,
and expression, and seek to profit intellectually from differences of
opinion and of culture, The document also made clear that the University
was a comprehensive public research university whose programs in the
arts and sciences and the professions reinforced one another and
whose graduate programs and research activities reinvigorated
Student leaders from the 1990s: William
Weitz, 92, (below) was President of the Student
Association in 1992, and was elected Student
Trustee to the SUNY Board of Trustees in
1993-94. Derek Westbrook, ’92, (left) was
president of ASUBA, a student assistant in
the Educational Opportunities Program, and
the Commencement 1992 student speaker. He
also won the 1990 National Council of Black
Studies Creative Writing Competition in the
undergraduate division.
215
Torch Night continues as one of the most
enduring student traditions at Albany, It
was renewed and enlarged in the 1980s,
216
undergraduate instruction. Finally, the Mission Statement reiterated the
University’s responsibility to build partnerships with academic, business,
cultural and governmental organizations.
As Albany approached its Sesquicentennial, it could look back with
pride on 150 years of contributions to public higher education, As a
Normal School in the 19th Century it was a leader in training teachers
for New York’s common schools, and as a College for Teachers in the
20th Century it became one of the nation’s premier institutions for
preparing secondary school teachers. In 1962 the institution entered a
new era, charged with becoming a modern public research university,
and by 1994 that transformation had been completed with distinction.
In their first 149 years, the Normal School, Normal College, College
for Teachers, and University had awarded 99,651 degrees, A total of
94,798 alumni(ae) were still living and contributing both to the institution
from which they had graduated and to the larger societies of which
they were a part,
Just as the members of the
University community could
look back with pride on their
past, so they could look for-
ward to their future with hope
and confidence. The Univer-
sity in 1994 was well placed
to achieve even greater distinc.
tion. The motto of the insti-
tution—Sapientia et sua et
docendi causa, “Knowledge
both for itself and for the sake
of teaching”~held firm.
Chancellor of the State University of New York D. Bruce Johnstone presents the Presi-
dential Medallion to H. Patrick Sw
ygert at the President's Inauguration on April 5, 1991,
217
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