Chancellor Johnson announces SUNY initiatives

By: Jaimie Albright

Editor-in-Chief

SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson presented her second State of the University System address Thursday January 31 at the Albany Capital Center.

“New York State has done a wonderful job of removing tuition as an obstacle. With our Tuition Assistance Program, or TAP, and the governor’s Excelsior scholarships, 55 percent of SUNY and CUNY students pay no tuition,” Johnson said. 

Johnson looks forward to continuing to work with the governor and the legislature to further the SUNY mission, to learn, to search and to serve.

Johnson announced a new educational partnership agreement with US Air Force Research Laboratory information directorate, headquartered in Rome, New York. The effort will focus on quantum information science- the new frontier of computing.

“We also know we have more work to do to increase the diversity of our faculty,” Johnson said, “we’re at the frontlines of teaching, research and scholarship.”

To diversify SUNY’s faculty, Johnson is implementing a program called Promoting, Recruitment, Opportunity, Diversity, Inclusion and Growth, or PRODI-G.

The initiative will be led by Senior Vice Chancellor for strategic Initiatives Teresa Miller.

“A comprehensive solution to a complex problem,” Johnson said, “using research informed, data driven best practices.”

The plan is to employ 1,000 early-to-mid career professors from underrepresented groups by 2030. Salaries will be lifted for the first 3 years after a PRODI-G faculty appointment.

“It’s hard to be what you can’t see,” Johnson said. “As over one-third of our faculty approach retirement, we want to make sure that all of our students see it and be it.”

Chancellor Johnson has a goal to attract talented students from the time they are in middle school and high school and do everything possible to inspire them to aspire to lead a rewarding academic life which will stem from their involvement in the SUNY system.

Johnson also discussed the SUNY Online platform which attracts adult-learners, working students, members of the military, parents or others with family obligations. 

42 percent of SUNY students were enrolled in at least one online class in the 2017-2018 academic school year, 6 percent of these students learning entirely online. 

“Despite our technologically sophisticated economy,” Johnson said, “New York trails 10 other states in exclusive online learning. I mean, come on, we’re New York. We should be number one! If SUNY leverages the full force of our entire system, we can do much more.”

Johnson highlights the importance of flexibility with the expansion of SUNY Online. 

This platform will assist in building new partnerships with businesses in urgent need of skills and use machine learning to give students new tools. “We will use it to link our students, faculty and staff into a lifelong knowledge learning network.”