The State University of New York (SUNY) is a very large public college/university system which proposes to develop a SUNY alliance for minority participation. The four SUNY institutions that offer engineering programs are taking the lead on the proposed initiative. The four institutions are Buffalo, Binghamton, New Paltz, and Stony Brook. While these institutions offer the engineering programs in the SUNY system, the disciplines involved in the proposed initiative will also include applied science, mathematics, physical sciences, and biological sciences. A variety of successful minority programs already exist throughout the SUNY system. The proposed SUNY-AMP proposes to provide alliances among these programs and establish new programs to meet the specified goals of the proposal. In particular, it is expected that the number of minorities receiving bachelor degrees will increase twofold from 241 underrepresented minority SMET graduates to 480 by the year 2000. Likewise, the expected increase in the master's degrees will be from 27 to 60; in the case of Ph.Ds the number of degrees will increase from 4 to 24. Central to this proposal are four stated goals: (1) Increase the number of minority students that are accepted into the coalition of SUNY schools; (2) Help minority students excel rather than merely avoid failure; (3) Expand research opportunities for minority students; and (4) Double the number of SMET bachelor degrees awarded by underrepresented minority students. In part, the alliance can be seen as a coalition of four different regional alliances each centered around the four institutions mentioned above.
