Dear members of our campus community, 

I am pleased to announce, after a review of the many survey responses from students, faculty and staff this semester, that SUNY Oswego will embark on the grand challenge of FRESH WATER FOR ALL. 

Aligned with Impact Five of our strategic plan, the goal of The Grand Challenges Project is to encourage our campus to “…work toward finding solutions for the grand challenges of our time” in a 21st century way.  Our campus community will come together in fall 2018 – across all disciplines, departments and divisions – to take on the multi-faceted sustainability issue of fresh water.

The Grand Challenges Project will give Oswego students, faculty and staff from all disciplines a unique opportunity to tackle the impact that FRESH WATER FOR ALL has across every aspect of our global community. 

Grounded in shared goals, integrative skills and technologies, and a multidisciplinary approach to problem solving, The Grand Challenges Project reinforces the fact that today’s solutions need to include many stakeholders across a spectrum of informed scholarship, creative activity and opinion.

In the coming weeks and months, the Grand Challenges Oversight Committee will be working across disciplines to provide our campus community with a variety of multidisciplinary initiatives related to fresh water—from social justice issues to global sustainability and access, from the science of pollution to artistic interpretations of fresh water issues to media coverage of fresh water power politics.  Look for the committee’s upcoming “Request for Grand Challenge Project Briefs” if you’re interested in a micro-grant to add a fresh water assignment to your existing syllabi, or are interested in a collaborative, interdisciplinary or civic engagement project involving the topic.  

Our own back yard is full of fresh water.  It is a precious, iconic asset of our community.  However, water portability and access can be a matter of life and death across the globe.  I look forward to working with all you of on this effort, which will empower our campus to develop deeper perspectives and find solutions to the far-reaching challenge of FRESH WATER FOR ALL.  

President