The ideal dynamic between SUNY-ESF and Syracuse University is a relationship in which the schools are independent in their services, but uphold a strong academic partnership.

A recent agreement between SU and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry is representative of efforts to achieve this goal, as the schools have unveiled the paired announcements of a five-year services agreement and the renewal of a joint academic and research-based collaboration between the universities — an arrangement that is a step forward for both institutions.

The deal will have SUNY-ESF provide its own health and wellness and information technology (IT) services to its campus community, with SU acting as an administrative aide in the transition.

From this vantage point, SUNY-ESF will be able to reap the benefits of securing its own health and IT services, a move that will allow the college to be more compatible with the existing SUNY system rather than depend on SU as a third-party organization.

This greater sense of independence will allow SU to have less of a stake as a private institution in SUNY-ESF and more of a focus on channeling its efforts to address the needs of its own student body — a contributing factor as to why the deal was established in the first place.

Kevin Quinn, SU’s senior vice president for public affairs, said that the decision to have SUNY-ESF provide its own services to its students was the outcome of SU experiencing a heightened demand for health resources.

“Given our increased demand, we mutually agreed that SUNY-ESF beginning to provide its own health and wellness services to its students would, at the end of the day, be in the best interest of both institutions and both groups of students,” Quinn said.

Sustaining this viewpoint to consolidate shared services will prove beneficial for both institutions as SU begins to see the onset of increased enrollment rates. These students will be subject to the university’s outdated facilities that require proper restoration and modernization, an initiative the university can successfully shoulder by moving forward to improve its own facilities rather than those shared with SUNY-ESF.

It is understood that this transitional phase will take time, resources and extensive efforts from both institutions to make it possible. And while the updated services may be challenging to adjust to, continuing to forge ahead on this path to assume independence of facilities will lead to the most cost-efficient way of consolidating resources in a approach that will advance each school.

In this way, each institution will be able to focus on improving its own respective campus and university functions, but work collaboratively to ensure that a strong relationship is nurtured between SU and SUNY-ESF though academia. The more efficient the schools are apart, the more effective they will be working together — whether that is rooted in academics, policy or research.

Published on February 17, 2016 at 2:05 am

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