Oswego Digs into Science Project

With sharpened focus on the cutting edge of science, technology, engineering and math, SUNY Oswego leaders broke ground on a campus-transforming, roughly $120 million build Sept. 17.

President Deborah F. Stanley called the massive makeover of Piez Hall into the Science, Engineering and Innovation Corridor the college’s “boldest and most ambitious project yet.”

In roughly three years, an innovative four-story structure will wrap around part of Piez Hall — more than a quarter-million square feet in all.

“This will kindle the kind of innovation and discovery that will impact this community, this state and the world,” Stanley told a crowd of staff, students and various officials gathered on part of the worksite at the corner of Centennial Drive and Takamine Street. “Our region will see the economic stimulus.”

Former state Sen. James Wright ’71 praised the project for its potential to create jobs and improve the quality of life in the region both during the construction phase and afterward as a world-class producer of STEM graduates. The facility will give students the cutting-edge instruments and environment they need to succeed, J. Mitchell Fields of the SUNY Construction Fund said.

“We work really hard to provide these opportunities for students,” he said, calling the Fund and SUNY Oswego partners in building future New Yorkers.

Dozens of those aspiring science professionals were on hand to show off research they performed with faculty before the groundbreaking ceremony.

China native Fengrong Wong ’11 said she was able to share her research at the American Chemical Society’s national meeting in Boston this summer.

“The sciences field in America is the best in the world and a lot of the articles that are published are written in English,” said Wong, who spoke very little English when she arrived. “I wanted to immerse myself in it.”

She came to Oswego as an exchange student and stayed because of faculty members like Kestas Bendinskas, who worked with her on scientific research as well as her English.

“This is the only school where the professors are so accessible,” said psychology major Kiri Jarvis ’11, who was also presenting her research at the groundbreaking ceremony. The new science complex will only add to an already great program, she said.

“When I heard about it, I thought it was just incredible,” Jarvis said. “I’m jealous I won’t get to take classes there,” she said.

Distinguished Teaching Professor and Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Kenneth Hyde, who will retire at the close of this semester, expressed a similar sentiment in his remarks. He described the building project as a final leap forward in developing the math and science program that he has been a part of since Piez Hall opened four decades ago.

“Our founders had an idea and that idea came from energy and that energy was positive,” college Engineering Advisory Board Chair David E. Smith ’87 said. “If you leave one positive thought here today, things will manifest as time goes on.

— Shane M. Liebler

PHOTO CAPTIONS:
Top: The SUNY Oswego community and officials break ground on the Science, Engineering and Innovation Corridor.

Bottom: Fengrong Wong ’11 was one of dozens of students presenting research at the groundbreaking event.