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In nationwide publication, SUNY Canton president explains why he accepted the job

Posted 6/26/11

CANTON -- SUNY Canton President Joseph L. Kennedy is featured in an upcoming higher education publication designed to inform and educate industry experts and executives. Kennedy was recently …

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In nationwide publication, SUNY Canton president explains why he accepted the job

Posted

CANTON -- SUNY Canton President Joseph L. Kennedy is featured in an upcoming higher education publication designed to inform and educate industry experts and executives.

Kennedy was recently interviewed for the article, “SUNY Canton: Evolution of Excellence,” in the July issue of Education Executive magazine in which he discusses the task that lay ahead when he arrived in 1993.

In the article, Kennedy explains why he said yes to the job when most people wouldn't have entertained taking on the challenge.

Eighteen years later, Kennedy is the longest tenured active SUNY president.

"I say yes all the time," Kennedy said in the article. "Want to know why? Because you have to be open to new ideas and willing to take risks if you want to keep moving forward. What we've achieved didn't come from my efforts alone. It came from the hard work of our faculty and staff to develop new programs and come up with new ideas. I just had to be willing to support them."

When Kennedy's tenure began, he saw he wanted to take the two-year college in a different direction and add bachelor's degrees, believing it was a matter of survival for the college. With the support of former SUNY Chancellor Bruce Johnstone, SUNY Canton now has the same number of four-year bachelor's degrees as two-year associate’s degrees, all of which are geared toward preparing students for careers following graduation.

The college’s enrollment has grown rapidly and the physical campus itself has grown, most recently with a new athletic facility, and a new residence hall that opens in the fall.

The college has also added online degree programs, international study abroad, and dual degree opportunities, summer and winter academic sessions, and other new programs.

Kennedy has encouraged faculty members to earn higher degrees by having the college spend $1 million to help them do so.

The magazine Education Executive covers topics such as management, new technologies, marketing programs, security, facilities and operations, and financial and legal issues.

You can read the full article here