SUNY Cortland

The State University of New York College at Cortland is an arts and sciences institution established in 1868. Previously Cortland Normal School and Cortland State Teachers’ College, it has been known by its current name, often shortened to SUNY Cortland, since 1961, but still offers a number of teacher training courses.

Based in the small city of Cortland, its 191-acre campus is situated between Buffalo, which is 160 miles away, and New York City, 200 miles away. Syracuse is 35 miles north, while the Pennsylvanian border is 50 miles south.

Its former campus was burnt down by a fire in 1919, while sections of the current site were ravaged by a blaze in 1983. Liberal arts entered the curriculum in 1963, a year before SUNY Cortland launched its first study abroad programme. It now has placements in Australia, Indonesia, Germany, Ghana, Venezuela and Belize, among other countries.

SUNY Cortland offers more than 100 courses in total at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Student numbers are highest on exercise science, physical education, sport management, childhood education and business education undergraduate programmes.

In 2013, tobacco was banned from the campus, where half of its undergraduates live. The university is SUNY’s first college to use entirely renewable electrical energy.

World Bank director Catherine Samali Kavuma, comedian, actor and writer Zane Lamprey, and four-time Olympic medal-winning swimmer George Breen all feature among SUNY College’s alumni.