Oswego State was granted more than $1 million from the SUNY Investment and Performance Fund for three projects.

Thirty-two project grants totaling $18 million were awarded to SUNY campuses in effort to support SUNY’s Completion Agenda. SUNY’s Completion Agenda aims to boost the number of degrees awarded from 93,000 to 150,000 by the year 2020.

“These projects grow out of efforts we have already been pursuing with notable results,” President Deborah Stanley said. “This welcome infusion of resources will allow us to prove and formalize programs that other campuses can then replicate to help even more students finish college and go on to successful careers.”

One of the rewarded project grants totaling $750,000 went to a project called SUNY Undergraduate Mathematics Success (SUMS). SUMS is a program aimed to increase retention and graduation rates of science, technology, engineering, math and education and will eventually be aimed toward all students who find math challenging. An on-campus and online math tutoring center will be created during this project, along with a weeklong summer bridge camp for students.

The Oswego State Math Success Camp will be a fully-funded experience for incoming freshmen with an education or math-related major that have been accepted to the camp. The classes will be taught by Oswego State professors, with the evening work being supported by current Oswego State student mentors.

The program will begin in summer of 2016, the week immediately before the fall classes begin.

“I think that’s a great idea, but I think it should be moved to sooner than the week before move in,” said Nicole de Beaumont, a freshman math education major. “I wish I was a prospective student and could participate next year; it sounds awesome.”

The second project, Start Now, received $275,000 and will formalize and expand an existing program which directs prospective students that were not accepted at Oswego State to Jefferson Community College.

At Jefferson Community College, these students will develop study skills, earn credits and become successful at completing college-level work. Once they have finished, they can transfer into one of Oswego’s four-year programs. The students will be held to the same academic standards and policies for transfer admissions as other transfer students.

The third project proposal was created by SUNY Upstate Medical University. They partnered with Oswego State, Onondaga Community College and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry to participate in the institutes work. The program is expected to start in fall 2016.

The project proposals were created by Oswego State’s SUNY Excels/Tomorrow Plan Advisory group, with the help of additional faculty and staff members. The group is chaired by Stanley and is made up of more than 50 faculty, staff, students, administrators and College Council members. The members help to guide the newly launched institution based strategic plan titled “Tomorrow” and the system-wide plan, “SUNY Excels.”

“We are grateful to the governor, the Legislature and Chancellor Zimpher for their vision in providing this additional support that will benefit New York citizens and communities,” Stanley said.