SUNY brass embraces call to help create jobs

State University of New York leaders Thursday welcomed the call to join Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's administration in an effort to create jobs throughout the state.

In his State of the State address this week, Cuomo said that he would set up several regional economic councils to coordinate development funding and that the SUNY system would play a leadership role.

Stony Brook University President Samuel Stanley Jr. said, "We are really poised to help in this effort. We appreciate the opportunity that is coming our way from the governor and lieutenant governor."

Cuomo said Wednesday that SUNY's role would be to serve as a "one-stop shop" to coordinate various state agencies and county and local governments.

Calling higher education "the key economic driver," Cuomo said in his speech, "We look to partner with our great SUNY system . . . in making this a reality."

At a meeting Thursday in Albany for SUNY leaders to work on implementing the strategic plan they've been working on for some time, a beaming SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher called that acknowledgment "our proudest moment" and said the school embraced the challenge.

Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy, who will help set up the councils, addressed the group, saying, "You will play a major role."

Duffy said there would be 10 or 11 councils "from Long Island up to Buffalo, and the North Country down to the southern tier." The boundaries of the councils were still being drawn. Each council will determine its priorities for government-funded projects and what would generate the most jobs. "It's all about jobs, jobs, jobs," Duffy said.

Referring to SUNY and other institutions, he noted, "Higher education is going to be at that table from Day One. We want your ideas, we want your suggestions, we want your knowledge."

Each council will come up with job development plans and compete against the others for up to $200 million in funding, the governor said.

By approaching the challenge of job creation locally, Cuomo said, each area could create its own plan to take advantage of its assets.

"These plans are going to have to come from the bottom up," he said in his remarks. "Let's empower the local communities to plan their future and help themselves."

Stony Brook's Stanley, who is co-chairman of a SUNY committee seeking to encourage development of current and new businesses, said Long Island had several areas of strength, citing information technology, energy and life sciences.

Lucia Cepriano, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Farmingdale State College, serves on a leadership development team and worked Thursday on defining goals and ways to measure the system's strategic plan, which focuses on business, education, health, energy and housing. She called it "an impressively ambitious project."