Elevating the Impact of SUNY Poly
Strategic Plan Update
SUNY Poly is proud of the campus-wide effort it has initiated to develop and deliver on an ambitious five-year strategic plan, “Elevating Impact.” With the first year (2024-2025) of the plan behind the institution, the SUNY Poly campus community continued to focus on leveraging years of hard work, critical analysis, and visionary thinking on the part of all areas to review and assess the implementation process and measure the progress the university is making in meeting the goals, objectives and actions of its strategic planning.
Here is a fractional sampling of the highlights directly tied to institutional progress that has been reported out by Pillar Chairs, members of the Strategic Plan Monitoring and Evaluation teams, and a SUNY Poly Steering Committee dedicated to ensuring that our operational/divisional action plans are in alignment with SUNY Poly’s Strategic Plan and that the process is accessible and transparent to the campus community.
Four Pillar Progress
Student Success
- The campus increased First-Year retention rate to 81%, already exceeding the 5-year goal!
- A housing demand study was completed and SUNY Poly is currently in the process of scheduling a kick off meeting between the architects and DASNY on a new Housing Master Plan effort.
- Increased engagement between the Center for Student Involvement and Student Government has resulted in the growth of club sports.
- SUNY Poly is effectively implementing best practice models of academic student advisement. Three Student Success Advisors were hired, and all First-Year students have been assigned to either a Student Success Advisor or an ACE Advisor.
Brand & External Partnerships
- The Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 digital enrollment marketing and branding campaigns resulted in 32.4 million online ad impressions, 182,728 clicks to our website, and 2,435 conversions/ engagements. This marketing activity helped contribute to SUNY Poly welcoming this fall the largest new, incoming class in the institution’s history.
- SUNY Poly established the new Office of Workforce Development, marking a significant step in SUNY Poly’s ongoing commitment to align education with workforce needs, support regional, statewide, and global economic development, and prepare our students and community members for success in high-demand, sustainable careers.
- The institution received a $400,000 NSF grant award. The “Enabling Partnerships to Increase Innovation Capacity” (EPIIC) funding will support SUNY Poly’s capacity for developing and maintaining workforce development-focused external partnerships that span a range of emerging technologies, and the exploration of satellite sites at industry partner locations.
Campus Infrastructure
- Conducted Donovan Hall electrical study.
- Designed renovations to Robotics Lab in Donovan Hall; final plans for locations of electrical dropdowns have been approved.
- Completed renovation of Adirondack Apartments.
- Hired staff to fill vacancies in facilities; created a project request plan for use by faculty, staff, and students.
Academic Excellence
- The Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) officially reaffirmed SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s accreditation through 2032-2033. The College of Business earned reaccreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the global leader in business education standards.
- The new Master of Science (MS) in Civil Engineering was approved by SUNY and the NYSED this summer; the graduate program will launch in spring 2026.
- The university launched 14 Research Centers and supported 18 “Seeds for Education” projects led by Poly faculty and staff
- SUNY Poly achieved a 68% increase in sponsored research activity, growing its expenditures from $1.2 million in 2023-2024 to $2.1 million in 2024-2025.
