State University of New York at Oswego

Updated on Oct 22, 2023

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Type Public Endowment $11.5 million Undergraduates 7,400 Graduation rate 60.6% (2014) President Deborah F. Stanley		Established 1861 Academic staff 1039 Acceptance rate 51% (2015) Phone +1 315-312-2500 Colors Hunter green, Gold
Motto To Learn, To Search, To Serve Address 7060 New York 104, Oswego, NY 13126, USA Undergraduate tuition and fees Local tuition: 7,581 USD (2015), Domestic tuition: 17,231 USD (2015) Notable alumni Al Roker, Steve Levy, Jerry Seinfeld, Linda Cohn, Alice McDermott Similar State University of New Y, State University of New Y, State University of New Y, The College at Brockport, State University of New Y

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State University of New York at Oswego, also known as SUNY Oswego and Oswego State, is a public college in the City of Oswego and Town of Oswego, New York, on the shore of Lake Ontario. It has two campuses: historic lakeside campus in Oswego and Metro Center in Syracuse, New York.

SUNY Oswego was founded in 1861 as the Oswego Primary Teachers Training School by Edward Austin Sheldon, who introduced a revolutionary teaching methodology Oswego Movement in American education. In 1942 the New York Legislature elevated it from a normal school to a degree-granting teachers' college, Oswego State Teachers College, which was a founding and charter member of the State University of New York system in 1948. In 1962 the college broadened its scope to become a liberal arts college.

SUNY Oswego currently has over 73,000 living alumni. Oswego State offers more than 100 academic programs leading to bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and certificates of advanced study. It consists of four colleges and schools: College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, School of Business, School of Education, and School of Communications, Media and the Arts. In 2011, SUNY Oswego marked its 150th anniversary with a sesquicentennial celebration campaign to honor its rich tradition and heritage. SUNY Oswego is the only SUNY campus to offer a degree in Software Engineering.

Campus

Founded in the city of Oswego by Sheldon to train teachers to meet pressing educational needs, the college moved to its current location on the shore of Lake Ontario in 1913 after Sheldon Hall was constructed. The current campus is located on 690 acres (2.8 km²) along Lake Ontario. Development of the campus was planned by the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, who designed the major buildings.

The campus today consists of 46 buildings with classrooms, laboratories, residential and athletic facilities. Recent years have witnessed the launch of a $700 million campus-wide renovation and renewal program, with the new Campus Center acting as the social hub of campus.

Marano Campus Center Complex

The college's new social hub, known as the Marano Campus Center Complex, which opened in the fall of 2007, includes new construction and renovation of the existing Swetman/Poucher complex. The $25.5 million 111,492-square-foot (10,357.9 m²) Marano Campus Center portion, the new construction, includes a convocation hall and ice arena, food court, box office, fireplace lounge, breakfast nook and reservable spaces. The renovated portions of the building house The Compass (student services); The Point (student involvement); a student media center with WNYO, WTOP and The Oswegonian newspaper; Copy Center; and Freshëns Cafe. Academic departments in the Campus Center include English and creative writing, modern languages and literatures and philosophy, while the Office of Learning Services stands ready to assist students who need help outside the classroom. In addition, the College Honors Program is located in the Campus Center.

The Tyler Art Gallery

Within Tyler Hall is the Tyler Art Gallery. The gallery has two gallery spaces that showcase local and traveling exhibitions, exhibitions of faculty work and student exhibitions. Tyler Art Gallery has a mission as a teaching gallery, which means that it is regularly used by the students and faculty at SUNY Oswego as the interface for direct encounters with original works of art of professional quality. The gallery serves as the training base for the museum studies program and allows students to be involved in the day-to-day operations of the gallery. The Student Art Exhibition Committee curate and have sole responsibility for the annual exhibition of student work. Tyler Art Gallery's permanent collection comprises European, African and American drawings, prints, paintings, ceramics and sculpture that date from the 18th century to the present, including several works by artist Sasha Kolin. One subsection of the permanent collection, the Grant Arnold Collection of Fine Prints, contains over 500 prints by American printmakers from the first half of the twentieth century.

Other buildings

Physically separate from the main campus, on the other side of New York State Route 104, is the south campus, consisting of Laker Hall (indoor sports, coaching classrooms, and athletic training rooms), Romney Fieldhouse (a Quonset hut that hosted the Laker hockey program until fall 2006) and several athletic fields. In addition, more than 400 acres (1.6 km²) of Rice Creek Field Station (for biological research and public programs) are on the South Campus.

A variety of living options are available through 11 residence halls:

Lakeside Area: Scales, Waterbury, Riggs and Johnson Halls. Riggs, Waterbury, and Johnson were recently renovated; the latter is the home to the First-Year Residential Experience. Scales Hall is scheduled to undergo renovation beginning at the start of the Spring 2017 semester.

West Campus, formerly called "New Campus": Cayuga, Seneca, Oneida and Onondaga Halls. Onondaga Hall was constructed in a suite style, allowing communal living of up to six students per dormitory.

Main Campus: Hart Hall Global Living and Learning Center, Funnelle Hall

Mackin Complex: Lonis and Moreland Halls, located in the city of Oswego and consisting of single-occupancy dorms for upperclassmen

West Campus, along with Laker Hall, Hewitt Student Union (which hosted most of the student organizations until the Campus Center's opening in 2006), Tyler Hall, Culkin Hall (the administrative building), Penfield Library, Lanigan Hall (consisting of large lecture halls) and Mahar Hall are all built in the Brutalist style and date to the early 1970s.

Due to a shortage in residential rooms in fall 2008 caused by greater enrollment and on-campus living requests than expected, several rooms were offered in renovated conference/hotel space in Sheldon Hall. A new townhouse village with apartment living was constructed south of Glimmerglass Lagoon, and opened in the fall 2010 semester. Students with 45 credits who are enrolled full-time, and have lived on campus for a complete semester (as a transfer student) or three semesters (entering Oswego as a freshman), are allowed to live there.

In the fall of 2013 the outdated Science and Mathematics building, Snygg Hall, was closed, and the new Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation was opened to all STEM students: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The building, built onto the older Piez Hall, offers views of the college's Lakeside Community and Lake Ontario from the meteorology observation deck.

Fewer than 100 feet (30 m) from Johnson Hall is Shady Shore, the home of college founder Dr. Edward Austin Sheldon. It often has served as the residence for the college president throughout the years, including the tenth and current president, Deborah F. Stanley.

Accreditations and awards

SUNY Oswego has received numerous accreditations and awards throughout the past two decades, including being named as one of only 28 "Top Up-and-Coming Colleges" in the nation by US News in 2010.

SUNY Oswego's Graduate School of Business has been named by both Princeton Review and US News as one of the best business schools in America, among more than 1,400 colleges nationwide. SUNY Oswego was ranked No. 18 on the US News list of the best public campuses in the Northern region in 2011. Its MBA program has been internationally accredited by AACSB. In 2005, SUNY Oswego was ranked No. 10 in the nation on a master level institution for sending students abroad for a semester according to the Open Doors report by the Institute for International Education.

SUNY Oswego's School of Education is accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. Oswego's School of Business has international accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. SUNY Oswego is one of the few colleges in New York state whose art, music and theater departments are all nationally accredited.

In addition to SUNY Oswego's vibrant community and encouraging professors, students are offered one of the largest overseas study programs in the northeast. Universities around the world work directly with SUNY Oswego to provide students with internship opportunities and valuable learning experiences.

Schools and colleges

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

School of Business

School of Communication, Media and the Arts

School of Education

Library

Penfield Library is an academic library that supports the instructional, research and service goals of SUNY Oswego, one of 64 campuses of the State University of New York. It is named after Lida S. Penfield (1873–1956), once chair of the English department. The current 160,000-square-foot (15,000 m²) facility opened in 1968, replacing a library of the same name in what is now Rich Hall. The library is home to the Millard Fillmore and Marshall Family Papers and numerous digitized collections including the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter (Safe Haven) and the Millard Fillmore papers.

Penfield librarians provide research help for SUNY Oswego students through "Ask a Librarian" services via chat, e-mail, phone, and texting, in person, and through extended appointments with subject librarians.

Athletics

The university offers 24 intercollegiate varsity sports. SUNY Oswego's athletic teams are known as the Lakers. Oswego is a member of NCAA Division III and teams compete in the State University of New York Athletic Conference for most sports. Women's ice hockey plays in the ECAC West, as that sport is not offered by the SUNYAC.

Oswego is traditionally a rival of Plattsburgh State. The rivalry currently manifests mostly in ice hockey; in the 1990s and early 2000s, Oswego fans would regularly throw bagels onto the ice when the Lakers scored against Plattsburgh, a tradition that ended in 2006 with the move to the Campus Center. The “Puck Flattsburgh” spoonerism is a common rallying cry. Oswego and Plattsburgh also had a rivalry in football, but Oswego ceased sponsoring the sport in 1976, with Plattsburgh following in 1978.

National Championships

On March 18, 2007, the Oswego State men's ice hockey team won the 2006-07 NCAA Division III ice hockey National Championship, the first NCAA championship ever for the school.

Clubs and student organizations

Oswego has over 180 clubs and organizations, many funded by the Student Association. These include the student-run television station WTOP, the student-run newspaper The Oswegonian, the first ever student-run volunteer ambulance corps (SAVAC), a collegiate-level synchronized skating team, the student-run radio station WNYO-FM, nationally competitive cheerleading, community service clubs, political organizations, the Shaun Cassidy Fan Club Improv Comedy Troupe, club baseball, and Oswego women's rugby. There are also groups that appeal to those with specific interests or hobbies, such as ALANA which includes the Black Student Union, the Latino Student Union, the Asian Student Association, the Caribbean Student Association and the African Student Organization. Other groups include the Financial Management Association, the Investment Club, the Christian groups BASIC (Brothers and Sisters in Christ) and CCM (Christian Campus Ministries),the Oswego State Pagan Association, a Muslim Student Association, the Pride Alliance (formerly the Rainbow Alliance; SUNY Oswego's only LGBT organization), the theater group Blackfriars, the Story Tellers' Guild (gamer club), (STG), the Pro-Wrestling Club (PWC), College Republicans, and the local chapter of the American Society for Information Science and Technology.

Greek organizations

Oswego has an array of Greek organizations (fraternities, sororities, or mixed) from both national and locally recognized chapters. Each semester, eligible students can "rush" a Greek organization of their choice.

Fraternities

Theta Chi

Delta Kappa Kappa (DK)

Delta Sigma Phi

Zeta Chi Zeta

Lambda Sigma Upsilon

Psi Phi Gamma

Sigma Alpha Epsilon

Tau Kappa Epsilon

Zeta Beta Tau

Phi Iota Alpha

Alpha Phi Omega (APO)

Sigma Tau Chi

Sigma Gamma

Lambda Upsilon Lambda

Sororities

Alpha Delta Eta

Alpha Epsilon Phi

Alpha Sigma Chi

Omega Phi Beta

Omicron Xi

Phi Lambda Phi

Phi Sigma Sigma

Sigma Delta Tau

Sigma Lambda Upsilon

Mu Sigma Upsilon

Delta Phi Epsilon

Other Greek organizations

Alpha Phi Omega, national service fraternity (co-ed)

Beta Alpha Psi, accounting/finance/information systems honor society (co-ed)

Beta Gamma Sigma, international AACSB business honor society (co-ed)

Delta Phi Alpha, the national German honorary society for outstanding students of the German language (Nationale Deutsche Ehrenverbindung; Oswego Chapter: Zeta Xi, 1967)

Lambda Pi Eta, national communications honor society (co-ed)

Mu Beta Psi, national honorary musical fraternity (co-ed)

Omicron Delta Epsilon, national economics honor society (co-ed)

Omicron Delta Kappa, national leadership honor society

Phi Kappa Phi, national all-disciplinary honorary society of academic excellence

Pi Delta Phi, the national French honor Society for academic excellence in French (Oswego Chapter: Theta Delta, 1975)

Pi Sigma Alpha, national political science honor society

Psi Chi, national honor society in psychology

Phi Alpha Theta, national honor society in history

Traditions

Bridge Street Run - The Bridge Street Run is a pub crawl that now takes place during the spring semester on the last Friday before finals week. Students put on white T-shirts, start at the Front Door Tavern on East 10th and Utica Streets, and make their way down Bridge Street (New York State Route 104) in Oswego. They stop at all participating bars along the way on or within a block of Bridge Street to have their shirts signed. The event has been a tradition in various forms at SUNY Oswego for over 30 years. The college officially discourages the practice. It was finally banned by the city in 2014; the following year, the college set up OzFest, a campus festival, to deter partiers from participating in the Bridge Street Run. However, students still continue the tradition each spring.

QUEST - Quest is a symposium dedicated to sharing the scholarly and creative pursuits of faculty, staff and student of the State University of New York at Oswego. Students usually work in collaboration with faculty mentors in preparation of their projects. The series also features a keynote speaker who discusses a topical issue in a field such as technology, science or politics. There are no classes before 5pm on Quest Day.

Torchlight Ceremony - Every year on the night before commencement day, the university holds the Torchlight Ceremony to honor each year's graduates and pass candlelights as "passing the torch." A representative of each year's graduate of SUNY Oswego is invited to this event to pass the torch.

Notable faculty

Doug Lea, current Interim Chair of Computer Science

Roy Lichtenstein, pop artist; taught in the Art Department 1958–1960

Sir Kenneth O. Hall, Governor-General of Jamaica (Feb 2006 - Feb 2009); served as Assistant Provost and Professor of History at Oswego

Robert O'Connor, Associate Professor in Creative Writing Department; author of Buffalo Soldiers)

Leigh Allison Wilson, author and Creative Writing professor

Notable alumni

Actor Al Lewis claimed that he attended the school from 1927 to 1931. Most of Lewis's claims about his early life are widely considered to be untrue.

References

State University of New York at Oswego Wikipedia

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