OT - SBU is better

[Nitwit]

The Simons Foundation just announced a $500 Million gift to Stony Brook University. Coupled with matching donations from NY state government and other philanthropic entities, a total of $1 Billion is being given to Stony Brook going a long way to elevating its status to the flagship state university of New York State. I believe their President, Maurie McInnis, has been there for less than three years.

 

[BobPSU92]

Stony Brook to the b1g. This is what we’re up against.

 

[Nitwit]

Apparently this guy Simons was once a professor at SBU before he went on to make his billions via hedge fund investments. He’s a physicist/scientist type who already has a Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at the university in his name. Think - Pegula, but with more $$$ donated.

 

[psykim]

I live in NY and both my kids went to SUNY schools. UB (Bufffalo) has great medical programs and my younger son got his DPT there. My other son got his Bacherlor's and MBA at SUNY-Oswego. In state tuition is much cheaper than PSU.However, the graduate tuition at the medical type programs like physical therapy are twice the undergraduate tuition. In reality while SUNY Buffalo has had decent football teams, their sports programs sure are not like many top schools like PSU, OSU, Michigan, Wisconsin, and many others. They do not have one main hub like University Park-so it is a much different system than Penn State. I sure do not see any major efforts to make top sports programs in the SUNY system currently, although at times efforts were made at Buffalo. Some top private schools in northern NY like Clarkson and St. Lawrence have been division one in a sport or two like hockey.
I graduated many years ago from PSU as a graduate student and do give financial support to PSU. I must admit much of my loyalty to PSU was based on love for their football program and Joe Paterno. My kids had good college experiences but no real loyalty to their universities and I would not think they would ever donate much to their campuses or feel a need to visit them again.

 

[Zenophile]

Apparently Stony Brook is a pretty interesting place.

 

[RochLion]

I live in NY and both my kids went to SUNY schools. UB (Bufffalo) has great medical programs and my younger son got his DPT there. My other son got his Bacherlor's and MBA at SUNY-Oswego. In state tuition is much cheaper than PSU.However, the graduate tuition at the medical type programs like physical therapy are twice the undergraduate tuition. In reality while SUNY Buffalo has had decent football teams, their sports programs sure are not like many top schools like PSU, OSU, Michigan, Wisconsin, and many others. They do not have one main hub like University Park-so it is a much different system than Penn State. I sure do not see any major efforts to make top sports programs in the SUNY system currently, although at times efforts were made at Buffalo. Some top private schools in northern NY like Clarkson and St. Lawrence have been division one in a sport or two like hockey.
I graduated many years ago from PSU as a graduate student and do give financial support to PSU. I must admit much of my loyalty to PSU was based on love for their football program and Joe Paterno. My kids had good college experiences but no real loyalty to their universities and I would not think they would ever donate much to their campuses or feel a need to visit them again.

Same here. All three of my kids went to SUNY (yeehaw!). Binghamton, Albany and Buffalo. Very cheap tuition and actually a great value in my mind. One draw back I think is that it's tougher to get into certain classes, say to work on a minor, than maybe private schools. But to your point, none of them have any affinity toward their school. If they gather with old classmates it would probably be outside of the college.

 

[GrimReaper]

Apparently this guy Simons was once a professor at SBU before he went on to make his billions via hedge fund investments. He’s a physicist/scientist type who already has a Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at the university in his name. Think - Pegula, but with more $$$ donated.

Yeah, think Pegula, then multiply it by four when it comes to net worth.. Jim Simons is also a a major benefactor of MIT and Berkeley and has given away about $4bn, with $1.2bn going to Stony Brook.

 

[LionJim]

Stony Brook has a terrific math department, just saying.

 

[IrishHerb]

Stony Brook has a terrific math department, just saying.

Yes. My son in law's PhD advisor, Simon Donaldson a field medal winner, is at Stoneybrook now (at least he was last year).

 

[Hugh Laurie]

Have a friend who lives in Northport LI whose father was a commercial pilot for 33 years. Her brother in law was the private pilot for Jim Simon and her son Tim after getting his degree from Embry-Riddle later became the private pilot for Jim Simon's cousin Robert Lourie. She and her pilot husband had the distinction of meeting both Jim and Bob at Christmas parties at the Phipps estate which I thought was pretty cool.

 

[BW Lion]

The Simons Foundation just announced a $500 Million gift to Stony Brook University. Coupled with matching donations from NY state government and other philanthropic entities, a total of $1 Billion is being given to Stony Brook going a long way to elevating its status to the flagship state university of New York State. I believe their President, Maurie McInnis, has been there for less than three years.

And you felt compelled to post this why?

 

[Nitwit]

And you felt compelled to post this why?

Because the size of this donation to a neighboring state university has the potential to change the competitive landscape of higher education within which Penn State operates. It certainly makes SBU a player. In many fields, it already was more highly regarded. While PSU is struggling to solve its insolvency problems, SBU is now flush with unrestricted cash.

 

[ScratchNotAPick]

Wow. Thanks for posting. I wasn’t aware of the $$$ and I’m an ‘83 grad of SUNY SB and live in Stony Brook. Ha.
It’s amazing to see how the campus has grown though since those days, especially the STEM fields. The medical and research facilities have become a behemoth. Building everywhere. SB Medicine even just took over an abandoned Sears at a local mall to convert to some type of facility.
Jim Simon’s Renaissance Technologies has quite a secretive campus here.
Too bad SB sports stink. Guys LAX is OK and the women are actually good, but outside of that, nothing. One of the big claims to fame is former relief pitcher and grad Joe Nathan. He gave $1 million to baseball for a revamp of the field.