Suny (stylized as SUNY) is a public university system in New York State, United States. It is one of the largest comprehensive systems of higher education in the United States, with 64 campuses across the state. The system comprises four distinct types of institutions: community colleges, research universities, specialized colleges, and consortia.
The SUNY system has been accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education since 1938. Its schools have been accredited by a variety of other accrediting bodies over the years. As of 2019, there are seven Ivy League-affiliated SUNY schools: Cornell University, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, Yale University, and the joint health sciences graduate school between Cornell and Columbia known as Weill Cornell Medicine.
SUNY was established in 1948 by Governor Thomas E. Dewey through an executive order following a recommendation from a commission he appointed to study higher education in New York State. The original plan was for each county to have its own community college supported by county taxes; however this proved to be too costly and instead SUNY became a statewide system with its own tax support. This arrangement gave rise to some famous schools such as Binghamton University which was originally Broome County Community College before it joined SUNY in 1965.
The first director of SUNY was James Houghteling who served from 1948 until 1950 when he resigned due to ill health. He was succeeded by John Simpson who served until 1963 when he resigned to become president of Syracuse University. In 1964 Stanley Gault took over as acting director until his death in 1966 at which point Ewald Bitterlich became acting director followed by Samuel Babbitt in 1967 who served until 1968 when Houghteling returned as director and remained in that position until 1971 when he again resigned due to ill health coinciding with budget cuts made by then governor Nelson Rockefeller which forced many campuses to close or merge with others leading to much public outcry throughout the state