Local & State Headlines

ASU participates in faculty exchange

• Diversity is the driving force behind an Albany State University-City University of New York faculty exchange program.

Holly McCarthy

ALBANY — Albany State University is teaming with City University of New York to broaden the horizons of the institutions’ campuses through a new faculty exchange program.

Henry Vance Davis, dean for recruitment and diversity at CUNY, visited ASU Wednesday for a campus tour and to meet with staff members.

The newly developed program will result in the exchange of faculty by a target date of fall 2009. Faculty members participating in the program could stay anywhere between a semester or an entire year and would probably come from the science, technology, mathematics and engineering fields, Davis said.

Davis said the “cross-pollination” of faculty increases the level of excellence for both students and faculty by learning from diversity.

“That diversity is not just race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or ability,” he said, “but also geographical location and institutional perspective.”

CUNY does not share ASU’s historically black university status, but Davis said both institutions focus on educating an underserved population and first-generation students.

He said a large, urban university collaborating with a smaller, more rural one would “develop new thinking on the part of both the faculty who are involved and the programs that are involved that could enhance both institutions and expand the definition of excellence.”

The visiting dean praised ASU president Everette Freeman, saying he was “a visionary” for supporting the program.

“This is an institution that has a wonderful history and has served the population very well,” Davis said. “I think it will be good for us to be able to say that we have a partnership with an institution like this.”