Our Priorities, Key Objectives, and Success Measures

Stony Brook University will achieve its vision by pursuing four priorities: 

• Transforming Learning and Teaching
• Growing Our Research Enterprise for Impact
• Serving Communities as a Public Flagship
• Reimagining the Way We Work

Each of these priorities contains multiple objectives that will serve to focus our attention and coordinate our activities over the next five years, and we will track our progress against each priority using several success measures.

Transforming Learning and Teaching

Evolving our world class education and student support by expanding high-impact and collaborative learning and providing comprehensive support from recruitment through graduation and beyond.

• Key Objectives
  • Expanding Student Access to connect students with diverse backgrounds, passions, and experiences to transformational educational opportunities and advance our longstanding commitment to social mobility.
  • Fostering Student Success in all facets of our students’ lives at Stony Brook, ranging from academic achievement to emotional and social well-being to economic stability.
  • Supporting Innovative and Inclusive Pedagogy to empower our faculty to strategically leverage emerging technologies, design student-centric, cutting-edge curricula in multiple modalities, and develop interdisciplinary and interprofessional education opportunities. 
  • Enhancing Experiential Learning to facilitate practical, hands-on experiences in the classroom and beyond that enable our students to develop workforce-ready skills and habits while meaningfully contributing to our local and global communities.
  • Developing Globally-Engaged Learners who bring innovative thinking, commitment to the betterment of society, and expertise to their careers, communities, and the world.
• Past, Present and Future Actions

  SBU was established in 1957 for the purpose of preparing secondary school teachers of math and science. In the decades since, we have matured rapidly into an R1 institution, a member of the American Association of Universities, and a New York state flagship university. We now enroll roughly 26,000 students across more than 10 schools and colleges, which offer 60 undergraduate majors, 100 graduate master’s programs, and 50 doctoral programs. Leveraging what we have built thus far, SBU is well positioned to continue on this transformational trajectory. As we look to the future, we will direct our attention and resources to access and affordability, the student experience, curricular and pedagogical innovation, and impactful experiential and interdisciplinary learning opportunities to create a supportive and nurturing academic environment.

  Recognizing that the cost of education, compounded by the cost of living on Long Island, can be prohibitive to many students, SBU will ensure that all students have access to an affordable education that provides a considerable return on investment. SBU will build on its historical commitment to social mobility and equitable access to higher education by continuing to invest in existing programs that provide all of our students with the support they need to manage both the expected and unexpected costs of education. We will also develop and expand upon new and emerging initiatives such as the Simons STEM Scholars, the United University Professions FAST Fund, and the GSO Emergency Relief Fund, and seek federal funding targeting student support to ensure that all students have access to affordable and innovative undergraduate, graduate, and professional education. 

  Furthermore, we will enhance our student experience to foster a vibrant, active, and supportive campus environment and advance a sense of community and pride among our students that lasts for the remainder of their lives. To do so, we will deliberately target initiatives in student life, campus housing, athletics, arts and culture, and student support and advising, with a focus on strategies to strengthen retention and a sense of belonging on campus. Investments in a broad array of units across our campuses will be critical to promoting the overall education, health, well-being, and success of our students.

  In alignment with our robust student experience, our faculty play a leading role in fostering dynamic, engaging, and interdisciplinary learning environments and curricula across our campuses. We will reinforce our culture of innovation in pedagogy and empower our faculty to respond to shifting learner needs through emerging technologies and student-centric design. To do so, we will leverage our Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching and invest in Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs), other specialty learning spaces, and central innovation spaces across our campuses. We will also encourage our faculty to engage in inclusive teaching practices, enrich our learning environments, and enhance our students’ educational outcomes by promoting access to mentorship opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate students.

  Finally, through first-hand, practical, and interprofessional educational experiences, we prepare our students to succeed in their subsequent studies and professional careers while also cultivating well-rounded, empathetic leaders. We will continue to provide experiential learning across the domains of research, study abroad, internships, service learning, and entrepreneurship to undergraduate, graduate, and professional students while also strengthening support services like the Career Center, the Center for Service Learning and Community Service, and the Center for Interprofessional Innovation. We will also bolster programs that pair students with researchers and practitioners, such as those offered by programs such as URECA (Undergraduate Research & Creative Activities) and the Emerson String Quartet Institute, providing formalized practical instruction, mentorship, and career preparation. By encouraging experiential learning that enhances and supports our curricula and academic programs, SBU supports character and leadership development that fulfills and reaches beyond career preparation.

  Nurturing ambition and a sense of purpose, SBU’s accessible and transformative education will develop knowledgeable and compassionate leaders who positively impact the world. 

• Representative Success Measures
  • Retention and graduation rates
  • Course pass rates
  • Graduate and alumni outcomes
  • Student satisfaction

 

Growing Our Research Enterprise for Impact

Driving innovation and creativity in research and scholarship by increasing public-private partnerships, expanding intra- and interdisciplinary collaboration, and investing in infrastructure and support for our researchers.​

• Key Objectives
  • Supporting Researcher and Scholar Success through strategic hiring, mentoring and training, and effective and equitable approaches to expand our capacity for transformative work across disciplines.
  • Facilitating Interdisciplinary Collaboration to catalyze the development of new lines of inquiry, methodologies, and networks that enable Stony Brook to pursue large, complex grant opportunities and address the world’s most pressing challenges.
  • Incubating Ideas Locally and Disseminating Discoveries Globally to improve lives by growing the scholarly, creative, translational, innovative, and entrepreneurial activity of our world-class faculty, staff, and students.
  • Incentivizing and Nurturing External Partnerships to facilitate a symbiotic exchange of ideas, resources, and talent within an ecosystem of community, government, industry, and institutional partners so that we can elevate our collective impact on the world.
• Past, Present and Future Actions

  At SBU, our faculty, staff, researchers, health professionals, and students are committed to the pursuit of discovery, fundamental understanding, and practical knowledge for the public’s benefit. Our people are at the center of our research enterprise, and the contributions of many world-class researchers have accelerated our University’s ascent to prominence in a relatively brief period of time. Upon transforming our research capabilities in the 1960s and ’70s, our researchers made breakthrough discoveries that ranged from determining the age of the moon by analyzing lunar rocks to constructing the first MRI image using a Varian A-60 NMR spectrometer, the latter effort of which was recognized with the 2003 Nobel Prize in Medicine. SBU’s unique assets, like the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, enhance our impact by making research produced on campus available to the public. 

  As an AAU institution and as a university that has recently been recognized by New York as a public flagship, we have our sights set building upon our existing foundation of institutional excellence by  doubling the size of our research enterprise over the next 5 years. Additionally, in this pivotal decade for expanding largescale government-funded research, we will look to align our research with relevant governmental initiatives. Through the growth of our productive research-active faculty and high-impact initiatives such as the New York Climate Exchange on Governors Island, we can achieve an even greater impact on the world.

  To achieve these aspirations, it will be critical to provide our researchers and scholars with the support that they need to be successful. A recent state appropriation of $100 million will help us develop new state-of-the-art research facilities, equipment and overall infrastructure while making concurrent investments in areas like faculty and staff recruitment, mentoring, and training. These investments will enable us to extend the impact and reach of research initiatives across existing centers of excellence such as our Cancer Center, Humanities Institute, Institute for Advanced Computational Science, and others. At the same time, these investments will provide critical support to new and transformative research endeavors that will be launched over the next several years.

  In addition to these investments, we will continue to deepen interdisciplinary collaboration across our campuses. Many of the most challenging problems of our time will only be solved through the thoughtful contribution of faculty, researchers, and health professionals from multiple disciplines. These problems span from emerging technologies in AI and quantum information to pressing issues impacting our society including climate change and sustainability, global poverty, cancer, and infectious diseases. With vast expertise across our colleges and schools, centers and institutes, and Stony Brook Medicine’s world-class health assets, SBU is uniquely positioned to address these challenges. By building effective, interdisciplinary teams, we will provide faculty of all disciplines – from the humanities to the sciences to the professions – with the ability to formulate and pursue answers to questions that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries. 

  We must also look beyond our campuses to find ways to harness and coordinate the intellectual energy of our faculty to address meaningful goals in conjunction with existing and new partners. By deepening collaboration with existing partners like Brookhaven National Laboratory and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory while developing new partnerships across the region and world through initiatives like the New York Climate Exchange, SBU can amplify its impact and continue to grow its research enterprise. At the same time, we will enhance the innovation ecosystem on campus and beyond by expanding and deepening partnerships across the state and nation – including those with industry and funding agencies. To do so, we will build on successful, longstanding initiatives like the Strategic Partnership for Industrial Resurgence, as well as more recent collaborations with industry partners. We will also support our faculty, staff, and students in commercializing their discoveries and in becoming essential partners to industry and leaders in the state’s economic development.

  As we look to our future, we envision SBU continuing to be a wellspring of scholarly and creative activity that advances our fundamental knowledge of the world, encourages creative and interdisciplinary thinking, and contributes to the development of innovative new technologies and solutions. 

• Representative Success Measures
  • Research expenditures
  • Faculty awards
  • Inventions and patents 
  • Revenue from royalties and licensing
  • Tenured / tenure-track faculty and retention rates

 

Serving Communities as a Public Flagship

Serving as a resource to New York State and beyond by promoting reciprocal engagement, advancing cultural and economic development, and increasing access to quality health care.

• Key Objectives
  • Transforming Health Care to improve health and well-being through personalized health solutions, innovative delivery platforms, and broad partnerships.
  • Catalyzing Economic Development to bolster New York and the nation’s competitiveness and capacity for innovation while advancing equitable economic opportunities for all.
  • Advancing the Educational Ecosystem to strengthen pipelines from K-12 schools and pathways to educational attainment, expand lifelong learning offerings, and enhance access to transformative educational opportunities.
  • Confronting Global Grand Challenges by developing innovative, equitable, and interdisciplinary solutions that can be scaled and applied in New York and across the world.
  • Fostering Community and Cultural Engagement to cultivate a vibrant and inclusive community on and around our local campuses and global sites.
• Past, Present and Future Actions

  SBU’s roots lie in teacher preparation; SBU offered the opportunity for residents of New York to become secondary teachers at no charge, providing them with the skills to teach mathematics, science, and engineering in their communities. While maintaining these roots in our local community, SBU has become a global University with a presence in New York state, Kenya, Madagascar, and South Korea and has established a worldwide network of research collaborations and learning experiences. Our global presence and commitment to local communities will enable us to make powerful impacts on the economy and our society. 

  In our local communities, SBU is well-positioned to address challenges to the social determinants of health such as poverty and healthcare inequities. Many New York residents experience healthcare challenges including the disparate impacts of illness and a general lack of access to the care they need. With our existing strength in the health sciences and health professions and our world-class hospital system, SBU strives to eliminate health inequities by improving health outcomes and closing any gaps in healthcare disparities that have been rooted in historical injustices, biases, and discrimination. Through initiatives like the Center for Health Equity and the Center for Healthy Aging and by incorporating innovative delivery platforms and solutions such as digital and on-demand health care services, we can work to close those gaps. 

  Furthermore, as a SUNY flagship University, we have the responsibility to address economic and educational gaps in New York. To address an unemployment rate that is higher than the national average and that particularly affects communities of color and individuals with lower educational attainment, Stony Brook will focus on initiatives in financial literacy, workforce development, and re-skilling and upskilling in the state of New York. To do so, we will build upon our foundation of civic engagement, outreach, and economic development while cultivating our K-12 partnerships and programs. Numerous pre-college programs like help high school students develop the skills necessary for a successful college career, familiarize them with the demands of university coursework, and introduce them to the learning environment and resources of a major university before they enter college full time. Additionally, we will use the investment in our research and scholarly capabilities to add jobs in the communities we serve and develop a workforce prepared to flourish in these newly added occupational arenas. 

  In addition to these societal challenges, we have also seen a decline in community engagement and connectedness.  SBU takes great pride in being a cultural and community leader, bringing together people from all corners of the globe right here on Long Island. Through events like the Stony Brook Film Festival, CommUniversity Day, and the Southampton Writers Conference and leveraging assets like the Humanities Institute, we aim to invigorate connection and engagement for all who interact with the SBU community. We will continue to encourage arts and cultural activities that represent the best of New York to our global audience.

  On a global scale, SBU is poised to combat our society’s grand challenges. We are particularly well positioned to lead in addressing one of the preeminent challenges of our time, the climate crisis. By cultivating climate science and climate justice, we will combat climate change, including its disparate impact on the health of people across the planet, especially traditionally underserved communities. Through the nascent New York Climate Exchange, we will convene the world’s leaders and climate experts to develop and deploy dynamic solutions to our global climate crisis. 

  SBU is uniquely positioned to serve as a global convener across myriad challenges and opportunities due to our location in New York, our global reach, and our multicultural student population. Leveraging existing programs like the Turkana Basin Institute and the International Student Fellowship at SUNY Korea as well as Stony Brook campus units like the Office of Global Affairs as salient examples, SBU can continue to invigorate the global communities we serve. 

• Representative Success Measures
  • Total economic impact 
  • Quality scores for SBU health care services
  • Educational, industry, research, and other partnerships
  • Alumni engagement
  • Philanthropic giving
  • Earned media
  • Carbon and sustainability footprint

 

Reimagining the Way We Work

Strengthening operational maturity and effectiveness by modernizing our technology, developing consistent and equitable policies and procedures, and investing in our infrastructure and facilities.​

• Key Objectives
  • Growing and Recognizing Our People to foster a culture of innovation and performance excellence, expand professional development opportunities, and create capacity for our staff and faculty to thrive.
  • Investing in Physical Infrastructure and Facilities to reflect the creative potential of a public flagship, expand housing availability, and advance meaningful collaboration and campus well-being.
  • Upgrading and Innovating Our Technology Infrastructure to enable increased coordination, communication, and efficiency through state-of-the-art digital platforms across the University.

  • Modernizing Processes and Optimizing Policies to advance equity, consistency, transparency, integrity, and accountability across our operations. 

  • Expanding Our Institutional Resources through philanthropic giving, academic entrepreneurship, and grant funding to ensure that Stony Brook can invest in its mission for the public good.
• Past, Present and Future Actions

  The commitment and resolve of our faculty, staff, researchers, and health professionals is central to all we do and accomplish at SBU. This was on full display over the last three years in particular as our University community adapted repeatedly to the demands and challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, we want to equip our people with the support that they need to continue striving to be innovative leaders and industry changemakers as we collectively write the next chapter of SBU's history. This will include a targeted deployment of new resources and intentional efforts to foster a culture of continuous improvement and reduce obstacles that unnecessarily complicate and slow down our work. As we set out to achieve each of the key objectives within this priority, we will empower our people to articulate and propose solutions to critical issues, both internal and external, facing our University through formal mechanisms of agency and shared governance.

  The future of how we work must include a focus on the quality of both our physical and technological infrastructure. In May 2023, the state increased our overall capital and critical maintenance budget by approximately $5 million. This funding will provide important resources for us to address deferred maintenance, renovate and modernize many of our buildings, and undertake new construction projects. With several of our buildings coming of age at the same time, we have an opportunity to create modernized, sustainable, and expanded spaces in which our people can live, learn, and collaborate. The funding from the state will also enable us to replace outdated information technology systems to enhance collaboration, security, rapid and effective information dissemination, knowledge-sharing, and the user experience across our campuses. Beyond this state appropriation, we will continue to expand our institutional resources through fundraising, grant funding, and other mechanisms so that we can continue to invest in our public good mission for years to come.

  These investments in our infrastructure, facilities, and technology will be complemented by a renewed focus on modernizing our policies and optimizing our processes. To that end, SBU has taken recent steps towards ensuring clarity, consistency, and equity in key academic processes while also seeking opportunities to reduce barriers that hinder the success of our faculty and staff. Additionally, through initiatives like HR Now, we are streamlining and redesigning HR processes to support better service and new opportunities for employee recognition, engagement, and success. We will also be expanding and enhancing opportunities for training, professional development, and mentorship to support our campus community through change and help our people grow in meaningful ways. Our goal is to foster a vibrant and equitable environment on our campuses that enables our university community to thrive and positions SBU as an industry leader and employer of choice. 

  Over the next five years, we have an opportunity to recognize the hard work that our community has put into making SBU the place that it is, and that it will become, while at the same time committing to their continued growth, development, and well-being. 

• Representative Success Measures
  • Faculty and staff satisfaction
  • Deferred maintenance
  • Employee retention rates
  • Financial sustainability ratios