Can Stony Brook University balance equity and ambition?

Can Stony Brook University balance equity and ambition?

Shortly after becoming governor of New York, Kathy Hochul made an announcement that caught the higher education world off guard: The state, which has generally considered all of its public universities to be equal, would begin treating two universities as “vessels.” badge”.

Even more surprising, their choices for the elite label did not include Binghamton University, which has often been considered New York’s best public academic university. Instead, the governor said the distinction would go to Stony Brook University, on Long Island, and the University at Buffalo, in her hometown.

For Stony Brook leaders, the promotion was no surprise at all. It was the next step in a yearlong campaign to transform the institution from a well-regarded regional school, where nearly half of the students are from Long Island, to a world-renowned research institution, or, as administrators like to say , the “Berkeley of the East.”

The flagship designation is only honorary. “It has rhetorical power, more than anything else,” Stony Brook President Maurie McInnis said in an interview. But in the two years since the announcement, Stony Brook has moved aggressively to live up to its new title, widely advertising its new status to recruit students and donors.

Its place in US News & World Report’s college rankings has jumped from 93rd to 58th. It has secured funding that will nearly triple its endowment, including one of the largest gifts to a university in U.S. history. And it won the rights to develop a climate solutions lab on a large chunk of real estate on Governors Island, surpassing some of that in New York. largest and most prestigious institutions.

But some observers wonder if the school’s progress will come at the expense of equity. They suggest that other schools in the State University of New York system may receive little attention. They also worry that Stony Brook, where 16 percent of students come from families in the bottom quintile of American income levels, could transform into a more elite school in every way.

John Friedman, chair of the economics department at Brown University, who has done extensive research on the role of universities in promoting social mobility, said this kind of drift is almost inevitable: “I think making it more selective “It will make it more difficult to attract the same number of low-income students as before.”

The SUNY system as it exists today was established in the 1950s, cobbled together from existing teachers’ colleges, agricultural colleges, and other institutions, including the University at Buffalo. Part of the original goal was to establish high-caliber public universities throughout the state, so that no New Yorker would be far from it.

Stony Brook, which opened in 1957 as part of that effort, was relatively modern in design, a far cry from the stately Gothic Revival style of some Ivy League schools, reflecting both its recent origins and its concentration on science and technology. technology.

More than half of students commute daily and it has never been known for having a strong university culture. But even in the early days, the leaders of both Stony Brook and Buffalo were ambitious.

Still, Stony Brook became known for its success in helping poor students: In 2017, it ranked third in the country for social mobility, according to metrics designed by Friedman and his colleagues. More than half of its students come from low-income homes finish in fifth place with highest income nationally after earning their degrees.

Equity has always been “part of Stony Brook’s DNA,” as Ms. McInnis put it. She said the school has often attracted teachers who appreciate its “public service mission.”

When Stony Brook assembled a committee to elect a new president in late 2019, leaders saw it as an opportunity to revive its global ambitions, said Rich Gelfond, CEO of IMAX Corporation and president of the university’s fundraising arm.

He said the trustees (including Jim Simons, who taught in the math department before making billions as a hedge fund manager) sought a trustee who understood the levers of power in public higher education.

Ms. McInnis, an art historian who joined in 2020, was a smart veteran of two of America’s most prestigious public universities, the University of Virginia and the University of Texas at Austin.

“She really knew how to navigate” this world, Gelfond said.

Early on, McInnis convinced donors to create a $75 million fund that she could personally use for “strategic opportunities.” When the city announced in the summer of 2021 that it would launch a global competition for the Governors Island climate center, McInnis raised $7 million to put together a detailed proposal. Stony Brook recruited other institutions, including the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Pratt Institute, and IBM, to join as partners.

“When I saw that, I immediately knew it was something we had to compete for, and that, frankly, we had to win,” he said.

They did it. Meanwhile, the governor awarded the flagship label and chose the state’s two large research universities to receive it.

But legislators representing Binghamton and Albany were dismayed; at least five signed letters to the governor, expressing concern that her decision would put their own local universities at a material disadvantage.

Last February, Ms. Hochul said she wanted the state to provide a 50 percent match of any donation made to the endowment funds of New York’s four largest universities, which also included Binghamton and Albany. The Legislature approved the matching plan in the spring.

Four weeks later, Simons and his wife, Marilyn Simons, announced that they would donate $500 million to Stony Brook, believed to be the largest unrestricted gift ever received by an American public university.

The Stony Brook Foundation, the university’s fundraising arm, had lobbied for the state’s matching program, Gelfond said, knowing it would help with appeals to donors, and then used the program to persuade the Simons to make the historic donation.

United University Professors, the union that represents SUNY professors, is concerned that the new flagship designation will lead to the abandonment of smaller institutions, such as community colleges and technical schools, said Frederick Kowal, the union’s state president. He said this has happened in other states, such as California, where public universities are grouped into different tiers.

For their part, leaders at Stony Brook and SUNY tend to argue that it is not a zero-sum game. If Stony Brook can contribute more federal research dollars, it could raise the profile of the SUNY system overall and also spur economic development, said SUNY Chancellor John King.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Simons Foundation, Anastasia Greenebaum, said they “do not believe that supporting Stony Brook gives the school an ‘advantage’ over other state schools, nor does it create tiers. “Any SUNY school that receives additional financial support so it can excel does not demean or undermine other schools.” They said the improvements to the university ultimately benefited New Yorkers who are able to attend.

Prospective students and their parents also appear to be taking note of Stony Brook’s growing stature. For the current academic year, the university received more than 50,000 applications from first-year students, a 24 percent increase from the previous year. The freshman class was also the largest in its history, with 3,567 students. (Applications have also increased at other SUNY schools, thanks in part to an application fee waiver the state introduced last year.)

On the one hand, the school’s growing popularity is a sign of success. On the other hand, it raises concerns about the balance between growth and inclusion.

“There is a limit in terms of growth, even on a campus like Stony Brook,” said Mr. Kowal, the union president. “How big willpower they get? Are we talking about the state of Ohio, with tens of thousands of students, or are we talking about Chapel Hill, which is smaller? At that point, it becomes more selective.”

Stony Brook administrators noted that over the past decade, more low-income students have enrolled, even as admissions have become more selective.

McInnis said she is focused on the immediate concerns. As more money flows in, she said, the first priorities will be to hire more faculty and upgrade older facilities on campus. “The next president will love me and thank me,” she said.

As to whether the growth could compromise the school’s already established success as an engine of social mobility, Ms McInnis said: “I think that’s something future leaders will have to keep an eye on.”