Major Change Coming for Two New York Colleges! Will UAlbany Be Impacted?

Two New York state colleges are already getting a jump on their New Year's resolutions.

Both schools are going through changes after officially being recognized as universities, as opposed to colleges. It's a great time for both of these institutions, who join an elite group of state university centers here in New York.

For the other 63 campuses in the SUNY system, and specifically, the other four university centers, however, the landscape of higher education is rapidly changing.

Will the other universities be able to keep up?

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SUNY New Paltz, SUNY Oswego Gain Recognition as Universities

A report from New York Upstate detailed the recent change of name for SUNY Oswego, on the heels of being officially recognized as a university. The change, which took hold on January 1, will see the moniker go from “State University of New York College at Oswego” to “State University of New York at Oswego.”

It's a small change, but a significant one for the now-university. Interestingly enough, the change that happened at Oswego was actually the second of its kind to happen that same day.

Also on January 1, the State University of New York at New Paltz was also officially recognized as a university, too. It did not need to undergo a name change, as it did not have the word "college" in its title after rebranding in 1994.

So, two more of the 64 campuses in the SUNY system are now classified as universities. They join the four other university centers: Stony Brook, Buffalo, Binghamton, and our good friends over at UAlbany.

What about those other four schools, though? What happens to them now?

In the short-term, nothing, but that doesn't mean that the educational landscape will remain the same forever. While the six university centers are all under the SUNY "umbrella", they are also all individual institutions, with individual enrollment goals.

There are only so many students per year that will be looking to attend SUNY schools. So, there will inherently be more competition to have those students enroll at one university versus another.

Competition breeds success, or so they say. If that saying holds true, then the best outcome from all of these changes will be six strong university centers in the SUNY system, all of which are striving to improve and provide the best education to the students of New York.

Will any of that come true, and will these universities make the grade? Only time will tell.