SUNY College at Old Westbury history

By the Spring semester, political divisions led to protests that disrupted the educational program and President Wofford decided to leave at the end of 1969 to become President at Bryn Mawr College.

Harris Wofford, “Creating Experimental Partners of a State University With Students as Full Partners,” Paper before the UNESCO Meeting on New Models on Higher Education in Asia and the America’s, January 1970.

Another planning year ended, and the College reopened in Fall 1971 with a student enrollment of 571.

When the college reopened in 1972, the first catalog also articulated a commitment to “culture learning,” or what today would be called “multi-culturalism,” to ensure students’ awareness of their engagement in a larger world.

Harris Wofford, “How Big the Wave,” in Five Experimental Colleges: Bensalem, Franconia, Antioch-Putney, Fairhaven and Old Westbury, ed. by Gary MacDonald (New York: Harper and Row, 1973).

After John Maguire left the College in 1981 to become the Chancellor of the Claremont system in California, Clyde Wingfield, who had previously headed New York City University’s business-oriented Baruch College, became the next president.

By 1998, when President Pettigrew retired, the College had reached a low point in nearly 10 years in both enrollment and funding.

In September 1999, the SUNY Board of Trustees appointed Calvin O. Butts, III, as the fifth president of the College.

Launched the Office of First Year Experience (2003) and other retention strategies to increase persistence among first-time freshmen

Launched the College’s first graduate programs in Accounting and Taxation in 2004 which have now expanded to include 12 degree offerings in Adolescence Education , a degree in Liberal Studies, and a degree in Mental Health Counseling

Developed the Old Westbury Honors College in 2008, which welcomes 40 new students each year

Sanford Levine “The Empire State Creates a University,” in SUNY at Sixty: The Promise of the State University of New York edited by W. Bruce Leslie, John B. Clark, and Kenneth O’ Brien (Albany: SUNY Press, 2010).

United States News and World Report (http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best- colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges/campus-ethnic-diversity), accessed April 5, 2012.

Completed first phase of Campus Library renovation in 2014

Sadik, a 2019 biological sciences graduate, will do field research to identify the current implementation of preventative medicine to address and recognize Intimate-Partner Violence (IPV) in Mauritian Community Health Centers.