VESTAL — The plan has been pitched and now it’s just a matter of waiting for final state approval before Binghamton University can get to work on a $70 million research and development facility and plans to boost enrollment and staffing at the university.
The plan is part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s NY SUNY 2020 Challenge Grant initiative, which will provide a $35 million capital construction grant to the state’s four SUNY university centers — Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, and Stony Brook — to boost academic and research programs while also providing long-term academic enrichment and economic development.
Binghamton University’s proposal to Gov. Cuomo, SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, and leaders of the New York State Legislature consists of two parts, according to university President Harvey Stenger. The first component is to increase both the undergraduate and graduate student populations at the university.
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Currently, Binghamton University has 11,861 undergraduate students and 2,885 graduate students. The plan is to increase the number of undergraduate students by 400 students a year for the next four years, Stenger says. At the same time, Binghamton will increase the number of graduate students by 100 per year.
“We are, right now, the smallest of the SUNY (university) centers,” he says, so there is a real desire to expand the university’s student base. Fortunately, he says, Binghamton has the strong applicant pool it needs in order to accomplish this. In fact, applications for admission this year are up about 1 percent to 32,000 applications for 2,500 open freshman slots this fall, he says. The school will accept another 700 transfer students.
Along with having a large number of applicants, Binghamton also has a high-quality pool of applicants with an average SAT score above 1,300, he says, so increased quantity will by no means equal diminished quality.
In the past, Stenger explains, the university was limited by its physical size, but has been making strides to amend that with numerous building projects over the past 10 years that will allow the university to now accommodate more students.
The university will also add 150 faculty members, an 18 percent increase; 175 staff members; and 60 research professionals over the next four years, Stenger says. The university currently has 2,500 faculty and staff.
The second component of Binghamton’s plan is the construction of a $70 million Smart Energy Research and Development Facility. Binghamton focused on energy research, he says, because the university has already made strides in that area — Binghamton University hosted its first ever Energy Innovation Day this past April — and also because both Buffalo and Stony Brook submitted projects that included a focus on health care.
Both are areas where there is plenty of need for new people and new ideas, Stenger says. Binghamton’s facility will focus on four areas of alternative-energy research: solar and thermoelectric energy harvesting, energy storage, energy efficiency in electronic systems, and sensor development for energy-resource management.
Binghamton will fund the construction project with $20 million from the state, $15 million from SUNY, and $35 million in campus funds including $15 million in private funds, $10 million in cash, and
$10 million from grants and contracts awarded from various agencies such as the National Science Foundation along with equipment donated from research equipment and research instrument manufacturers.
The project will boost Binghamton’s economic impact on the region in several ways, including the creation of 252 construction jobs over the next three to four years. University officials expect the completed project to increase the university’s economic impact by as much as $77.5 million annually, reaching an impact of $1 billion on the state by 2017.
That impact will come from both the research gains achieved in the Smart Energy facility as well as from the 2,000 new students and 400 new faculty members the university will have, according to a university release about the project.
Stenger, along with several Southern Tier business and community leaders, presented the plan to Cuomo, Zimpher, and the legislature on April 25 and are now awaiting his approval on the project before it can move forward, Stenger says.
The presentation and plan was positively received by both Cuomo and Zimpher, according to a story by Katie Ellis on the website of Inside Binghamton University. Cuomo said, “The leverage that you bring in the plan, I think, is extraordinary — the work you’ve done to identify the private-sector jobs, which to me this is all about, and that you are also in the right area, the growth area,” the article stated.
Once it is approved, the university will spend this summer designing the building and preparing the site. Construction will begin in the fall of 2014, with a spring 2017 completion date. The building will be ready for students in the fall of 2017.
A PowerPoint presentation about the plan is available online at www.binghamton.edu/think/docs/NYSUNY-2020-Binghamton-9am.pptx and the executive summary is available at www.binghamton.edu/think/2020execsummary2012.pcf.
