With the release of its report card May 17 moderated by Benita Zahn ’76, SUNY took the unprecedented step of measuring the university system’s performance against New York’s greatest social and economic needs, including the alignment of SUNY’s research capacity to statewide job growth and the state’s ability to capture a greater share of the global green energy market, among other measures.

Benita Zahn ’76, left, moderated the May 17 presentation of the SUNY Report Card by Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher, right.

“Part of what makes the Report Card unique is that it doesn’t merely measure SUNY’s value in terms of the number of degrees it bestows or the breadth of its curricula, but by the tangible, long-term impact SUNY will have on the economy and quality of life in New York State,” said Zimpher. “No other university system in the country is doing this. We are thinking outside of the SUNY box — inviting the public to measure the system’s actions against its ability to address our state’s greatest needs.

The inaugural SUNY Report Card establishes a baseline for
providing the public with a comprehensive look at the status of SUNY’s goals and initiatives across a broad spectrum of critical areas, including: student diversity and creating greater access to higher education, SUNY’s impact on the state economy and reducing energy consumption.

SUNY Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley said, “The SUNY Report Card is a great start at using metrics to help provide focus and direction as we work to bring excellence and accountability to every aspect of our entire State University system, and it will only improve as we further refine the metrics to give us the best and most helpful information. The SUNY Report Card will also help citizens understand what a great resource we have now in our state’s higher education system and ways we can make it even better and harness its full power for the greater good of New York.”

See the Report Card online at suny.edu/powerofsuny/reportcard

As they prepared to return this summer, they had a chance to share their stories with representatives of the international partnership that is supporting a Brazilian research experience for them and 13 other SUNY students this year and another 15 next year.

Officials from Sovereign Bank/Banco Santander, the State University of New York system and Brazil’s State of Alagoas visited SUNY Oswego in May to preview the work that 15 SUNY students will do this summer at Oswego’s global laboratories in Brazil under the first phase of a $160,000 Santander-funded project.

Officials from Sovereign Bank/Banco Santander, the State University of
New York system and Brazil’s State of Alagoas visited SUNY Oswego in May and heard Bellinger’s and Buckner’s presentations. Banco Santander awarded $160,000 to SUNY to support student participation in ongoing research at Brazilian sites in Oswego’s new network of global laboratories.

“We strongly believe that future leaders will be global leaders,” said Eduardo Garrido, director of the Santander Universities program at Sovereign Bank, a U.S. subsidiary of Spain-based Banco Santander. “This has to be fostered.”

Emerging scientists

Buckner gave an illustrated presentation of her work in Brazil’s Pantanal wetlands with Cleane Medeiros of Oswego’s biological sciences faculty. She participated in a survey of reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates, gathering data that will help protect the habitat.

“I’ve had dreams of being a scientist forever,” the senior zoology major said. This summer she returned in search of ideas for her doctoral research. A McNair Scholar at Oswego as well as a participant in the college’s Honors Program, Buckner has been accepted to pursue a doctorate at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Bellinger reported on his work last summer studying the period luminosity relationship of Cepheid stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, working with Shashi Kanbur, Oswego’s faculty fellow and a member of the physics faculty. “You can’t see the Magellanic Cloud from the northern hemisphere yet it holds all the data that I’m researching,” Bellinger said.

This summer the junior double major in computer science and applied mathematics worked on computational quantum physics at the Federal University of Alagoas in Maceio.

‘Tight-knit collaboration’

SUNY Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley last year traveled to the Brazilian state of Alagoas, the fast-developing northeastern region of Brazil, to sign three agreements that established some of the first global laboratories in Oswego’s planned world-spanning network, including agreements with the federal university and the state of Alagoas.

In turn, Eduardo Setton, secretary for science, technology and innovation for the state of Alagoas, came to Oswego and heard Buckner’s and Bellinger’s presentations. Setton spoke of the tech park in Maceio and the opportunities for international collaboration there through such agreements as SUNY Oswego has established.

Kanbur described Oswego’s network of global laboratories, which he is helping to develop, as “absolutely unique,” and Bellinger added that his experience supports that claim: “My friends at private universities have expressed envy that we have such fantastic opportunities at our public university.”

Josh McKeown, Oswego’s director of international education and programs, agreed. “We have built something special,” he said. “Our students can so seamlessly enter into a research program in another country because of the close relationship of our international faculty with researchers abroad.”

Oswego’s agreements in Alagoas are among nine the college has with universities and states in Brazil. “That’s really a tight-knit collaboration. I’m proud of Oswego for forging these alliances with such an important country,” said Sally Crimmins Villela, SUNY’s assistant vice chancellor for global affairs.

President Stanley noted that Oswego is deepening the relationship as it sends more students to the country to participate in hands-on research while gaining understanding of another culture, and she said she hopes to bring students from Brazil to Oswego. “Banco Santander’s support is helping our global laboratories come into full blossom,” she said.

You know something strange is going on when you read a headline like “SUNY students press for tuition increases.”

At Oswego, we have been on a wonderful trajectory in so many ways — expanding in the sciences, creating innovative arts events, enriching our region’s workforce and cultural sphere, engaging schools and businesses in fruitful collaboration, renewing our campus with state-of-the-art facilities, thrilling fans with athletic prowess, partnering with researchers and educators around the globe, and offering our students world-class opportunity as they interact with our faculty and our alumni.

The path our college is on is a tremendous source of encouragement for our students and pride for our alumni.

Yet we all know that we need revenue to continue to be the vibrant and innovative college that you read about in every issue of this magazine and witness with every visit to campus.

Still suffering from the recession, New York is not providing sufficient resources for SUNY: If the latest round of cuts (on the table as I write) go through, Oswego will have been cut $11 million over three years. At the same time, our tuition is artificially low, the lowest in the Northeast.

Our students recognize that the quality of their education and their future are imperiled by this state of affairs. Hence the headlines, as the Student Assembly joins SUNY’s friends in calling for a five-year tuition plan with increases that are fair and predictable.

As someone who values the experience you had at Oswego and who wishes to see current and future students reap the full benefits that an Oswego education should afford, you can help us achieve revenue
solutions by advocating for your alma mater at every opportunity.

I ask you to step back and picture the kind of New York you want to live in — confident, robust and radiant, offering opportunity to all our citizens. SUNY is indispensable to this vision, which is why your support for us now is so important.

Deborah F. Stanley, President

Thinking outside the box helped David Troilo ’80 create an interdisciplinary major that combined his interest in psychology with animal behavior and neuroscience. The freedom Oswego gave him to create his own course of study allowed him to go on to graduate study and a successful career in developmental visual neuroscience.

David Troilo ’80, vice president and dean of academic affairs at the SUNY College of Optometry in Manhattan, shares his research on eye development with Oswego students in September.

He hopes to return the favor. On a recent visit to campus, Troilo expressed the desire to work with SUNY Oswego and current students with an interest in healthcare careers to revitalize a “pre-health” course of study that would lead to a degree in optometry.

Now the vice president and dean of academic affairs at SUNY College of Optometry, Troilo returned to his alma mater to give a Science Today lecture in September on the experimental control of eye growth. It was fitting, because as an undergraduate, he had made a connection at a similar type of guest lecture that helped propel his career in academe.

Oswego professors also helped pave the way for his lifelong interest in research, among them Leland Marsh and Peter Weber of biology. Marsh taught the young Troilo that the essence of research is creating new knowledge, while working alongside Weber in the lab gave Troilo the hands-on experience that helped him grow.

Troilo’s love of neuroscience was cemented during his years at Oswego. “It stems from the work I did here,” he says. Two post-doctoral studies — at Oxford and Cornell universities — would help his scholarship mature.

He has become one of the premier researchers in the country on the development of the eye from birth to maturity and the development of refractive state. His work can help the tens of millions of patients with refractive errors like myopia.

Now he has come full circle, with a key academic position at a SUNY school. His goal is to make SUNY Optometry one of the top research institutions in optometry in the world.

He also sees a big potential at Oswego for cross-disciplinary studies. “Smaller schools like Oswego can do that more easily,”
he says. “Take the strengths of different departments and combine them in creative ways.”

— Michele Reed