Stripping the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering from the University at Albany would be devastating to the Capital Region's SUNY center.
SUNY should be building up its "centers" by making them larger and more comprehensive research universities on the level of a University of Michigan or UCLA.
Those universities have law schools, medical schools, engineering schools — all under the umbrella of the university. Stripping the University at Albany of the CNSE is the complete opposite direction of building comprehensive research universities. Stripping the CNSE from UAlbany will ensure UAlbany is relegated to a second-class research university. How can it be a top research university if you strip it of the main research college?
The top research universities like University of Michigan, UCLA and SUNY Stony Brook and Buffalo belong to the American Association of Universities. UAlbany will never gain admission without a powerful research engine like the CNSE.
Stripping the University at Albany of the CNSE will cripple this once-growing SUNY center and it will never recover. The university's obituary can start with this news: "Nano plan appeal grows," March 16.
Patrick Flandreau
University at Albany MBA '97, San Diego, Calif.