SUNY Poly’s Utica campus is situated on more than 400 acres of wooded terrain, complete with several small streams and ravines. Since the opening of its first building, Kunsela Hall, in 1984-85, the campus has grown to include seven major buildings and three residential complexes. In 2011, a $60 million capital investment project was completed with the opening of three new buildings, including the SUNY Poly Student Center, Field House and Oriskany Residence Hall. In 2015, SUNY Poly will open the Computer Chip Commercialization Center (Quad-C), a critical component in Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s $1.5 billion Nano Utica initiative. Wireless Internet access is available in all residence halls and campus buildings.
Kunsela Hall was the first and remains the largest campus building. Completed in 1985, Kunsela contains admissions and most administrative offices, and a number of faculty offices. It also houses traditional and special-purpose classrooms, a computer center, a 240-seat lecture hall, the college bookstore, and the Gannett Gallery, which hosts a variety of art exhibits. Plans are underway now to construct 2 large classrooms in the A-wing plus a high-end distance learning room for linking with outside institutions. These spaces should be ready for use by the spring of 2016.
Donovan Hall, which opened in 1988, is the central academic building. In addition to its laboratories, Donovan also features a variety of special purpose classrooms and small lecture halls, and is home to a number of academic and faculty offices. The building’s architecture echoes SUNYIT’s early days when the college operated in several locations, including former manufacturing buildings in west Utica.
Facing Kunsela Hall is the Cayan Library, which opened in 2003. Housing the campus library collections and archives, the building offers private study rooms and a variety of settings for reading and studying; dozens of computer work stations in the first-floor reference area; a 30-seat instruction/ meeting room; a café; and a second-floor study room with a fireplace. It also is home to the information technology services help desk and the SUNY Poly learning center.
Near Cayan Library, Kunsela and Donovan Halls is the Student Center. Intended to promote student engagement and enhance student life programs, this Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver building gives students a unique gathering place. An open design creates flexible spaces for multi-purpose events, as well as a large food court. Other building features include a café, theater, game room, student radio station, and Student Association offices. The 43,000 square foot building is equipped with advanced audio/video systems and a wall-sized visual media display.
Located north of Donovan Hall and the Student Center is the 95,500 square foot Wildcat Field House, which features a fitness center, two full-sized basketball courts, four volleyball courts, indoor practice facilities, a running track, an expansive training room, team rooms, and athletic department offices. Completed in 2011, this facility accommodates 3,500 spectators and is home to intercollegiate athletics, intramural, and recreation programs. It is a popular venue for both campus and community events.
Just east of the Field House are a new synthetic turf field, baseball field, and softball field. Other outdoor playing fields include soccer, intramural and practice fields. A five-mile hiking/cross country course stretches across the northern and western portions of the campus, and a mile-long wooded trail is bordered by two man-made ponds near the ravine in the center of campus.
The Campus Center is located west of the academic campus core, across a pedestrian bridge above a wooded ravine. Opened in 1988, the Campus Center dining room and kitchen areas were renovated in 2011 to include seating for up to 600 students. The upper mezzanine with lounge seating and a fireplace is a popular place for students to enjoy a casual lunch. The Campus Center also features a gymnasium with a maple-floor basketball court for the SUNY Poly Wildcat teams, team locker rooms, indoor exercise track, racquetball court, and saunas. The residential life and housing office is located on the second floor of the Campus Center.
To the north of the Campus Center is Oriskany Residence Hall, a residential facility primarily used for first-year students. The 85,000 square foot complex consists of a three-story main building with two smaller two-story wings. Oriskany provides living accommodations for 240 students as well as classroom spaces for special events. The campus health and wellness office and counseling center are located on the first floor of Oriskany.
To the west of the Campus Center across a second pedestrian bridge is the Adirondack Residence Hall complex. Opened in 1992, Adirondack consists of 25 two-story townhouse-style buildings, connected to form the borders of two triangular commons. Each building contains four, four-person suites in a mix of one- and two-person bedrooms. The Mohawk Residence Hall complex opened in 1996, and consists of 12 two-story townhouses with a commons area and laundry facilities. Each living room suite at Mohawk is equipped with an air-conditioning unit. Residents of Mohawk can park in three lots located west and north of the complex.
The merger this past year between SUNYIT and the College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering (CNSE) has opened new and exciting opportunities for academic programs and for advancing the Private-Public Partnership endorsed by SUNY and state leadership. The Computer Chip Commercialization Center (Quad-C) is a good example of that partnership. The Quad-C promises to be an economic boom for the Mohawk Valley region, providing new high tech jobs for the surrounding communities. In addition, this significant facility will provide internships for a variety of our students from many different career paths.
Another exciting opportunity for hands-on learning will be the Center for Global Advanced Manufacturing (CGAM) being built in Donovan Hall. This is a $10-m project made possible by grant funding from the Regional Economic Development Program. This project will include renovation of approximately 13,600 sf for new learning laboratories, prototyping centers, design studios, and support spaces. It will also include a 2,500 sf addition for a project based learning lab. The bulk of the funding, up to $6-m, will be for new equipment for use both by students and outside manufacturing facilities.
SUNY Poly’s Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering are located at the 1.3 million-square-foot NanoTech megaplex in Albany, NY, which is home to more than 3,500 scientists, researchers, engineers, students, faculty, and staff. The campus is a fully integrated research, development, prototyping, and educational facility that provides strategic support for onsite corporate partners including IBM, Intel, GlobalFoundries, SEMATECH, Samsung, TSMC, Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron, ASML and Lam Research.
In addition, SUNY Poly operates the Smart Cities Technology Innovation Center (SCiTI) at Kiernan Plaza in Albany, the Solar Energy Development Center in Halfmoon, CNSE’s Central New York Hub for Emerging Nano Industries in Syracuse, the Photovoltaic Manufacturing and Technology Development Facility in Rochester, and the Smart System Technology and Commercialization Center (STC) in Canandaigua. SUNY Poly also manages the $500 million New York Power Electronics Manufacturing Consortium, with nodes in Albany and Rochester, as well as the Buffalo High-Tech Manufacturing Innovation Hub at RiverBend, Buffalo Information Technologies Innovation and Commercialization Hub, and Buffalo Medical Innovation and Commercialization Hub.