State University of New York at Oswego
State University of New York at Oswego is a public university in Oswego, New York, United States. It has a total student population of 6,756 and the campus size is. SUNY Oswego offers more than 120 undergraduate, graduate and professional programs in four colleges: School of Business, School of Communication, Media and the Arts, School of Education, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
History
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.Campus
Most of the campus is in the Town of Oswego, including the census-designated place. Portions of the campus are in Oswego City.Founded in the city of Oswego, the university was created to train teachers to meet pressing educational needs. SUNY Oswego moved to its current location on the shore of Lake Ontario in 1913 after Sheldon Hall was constructed. The current campus is located on 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.
The university's social hub, known as the Marano Campus Center Complex, opened in the fall of 2007, and includes new construction and renovation of the existing Swetman/Poucher complex. The $25.5 million Marano Campus Center portion, the new construction, includes the Deborah. F. Stanley Arena and Convocation Hall and several academic departments.
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, Romney Fieldhouse and several athletic fields. In addition, more than of Rice Creek Field Station are on the South Campus.West Campus, along with Laker Hall, Hewitt Hall, Tyler Hall, Culkin Hall, Penfield Library, Lanigan Hall and Mahar Hall are all built in the Brutalist style and date to the early 1970s.
Accreditations
accredited with additional accreditations. The institution's MBA program has been internationally accredited by AACSB. SUNY Oswego's School of Education is accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. Oswego's School of Business has international accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. SUNY Oswego programs in Electrical and Computing Engineering as well as Software Engineering are accredited by ABET. SUNY Oswego is one of the few universities in New York state whose art, music, and theater departments are all nationally accredited.Schools and colleges
- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences houses the departments of Anthropology, Atmospheric and Geological Sciences, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics, Electrical and Computer Engineering, English and Creative Writing, History, Human Development, Mathematics, Modern Languages and Literatures, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Criminal Justice, Sociology
- School of Business offers programs in Accounting, Business Administration, Finance, Human Resource Management, Marketing, Operations Management and Information Systems, Risk Management and Insurance.
- School of Communication, Media and the Arts houses the departments of Art, Communication Studies, Film Studies, Music, Theatre.
- School of Education offers courses in Counseling and Psychological Services, Curriculum and Instruction, Education Administration, Health Promotion and Wellness, Technology, Vocational Teacher Preparation.
Library
Athletics
| Men's sports | Women's sports |
| Baseball | Basketball |
| Basketball | Cross country |
| Cross country | Field hockey |
| Golf | Ice hockey |
| Ice hockey | Lacrosse |
| Lacrosse | Soccer |
| Soccer | Softball |
| Swimming | Swimming |
| Tennis | Tennis |
| Track and field | Track and field |
| Wrestling | Volleyball |
The university offers 14 intercollegiate varsity sports. SUNY Oswego's athletic teams are known officially as the Great Lakers but often referred to simply 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.
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, responding to a tradition where Plattsburgh fans threw tennis balls on the rink after goals versus Oswego. The tradition ended in 2006, after Oswego was assessed a delay of game penalty for the bagel throw: Plattsburgh scored on the ensuing power-play to win the game, which cost the Lakers a national tournament berth. In addition, the Campus Center arena was opened that year which allowed the university to more closely monitor and shut down fans who brought in bagels.
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. These include the Division I Men's Rugby team, the student-run television station WTOP, the student-run newspaper The Oswegonian, the first-ever student-run volunteer ambulance corps, and the Oswego State Esports Association.Greek organizations
Oswego has an array of Greek organizations from both national and locally recognized chapters.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 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 following a students death caused by a heroin overdose on campus; 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.
Presidents
- Edward Austin Sheldon, 1861–1897
- Isaac B. Poucher, 1897–1913
- James C. Riggs, 1913–1933
- Ralph Waldo Swetman, 1933–1947
- Harvey M. Rice, 1947–1952
- Foster S. Brown, 1952–1963
- James E. Perdue, 1965–1977
- Virginia Radley, 1977–1988
- Stephen L. Weber, 1988–1995
- Deborah F. Stanley 1995–2021
- Mary C. Toale, Officer in Charge, 2022–2023
- Peter O. Nwosu, 2023–present
Notable staff and faculty
- Soma Mei Sheng Frazier, author, editor
- Kenneth O. Hall, Governor-General of Jamaica ; served as Assistant Provost and Professor of History at Oswego
- Doug Lea, computer scientist
- Roy Lichtenstein, pop artist; taught in the Art Department 1958–1960
- 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.
Campus demographics
The CDP is within the Oswego City School District.
| Race / Ethnicity | Pop 2010 | Pop 2020 | % 2010 | % 2020 |
| White alone | 3,038 | 2,239 | 82.64% | 64.88% |
| Black or African American alone | 192 | 431 | 5.22% | 12.49% |
| Native American or Alaska Native alone | 8 | 23 | 0.22% | 0.67% |
| Asian alone | 119 | 176 | 3.24% | 5.10% |
| Pacific Islander alone | 3 | 0 | 0.08% | 0.00% |
| Some Other Race alone | 9 | 1 | 0.24% | 0.03% |
| Mixed Race/Multi-Racial | 62 | 119 | 1.69% | 3.45% |
| Hispanic or Latino | 245 | 462 | 6.66% | 13.39% |
| Total | 3,676 | 3,451 | 100.00% | 100.00% |
''Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.''