GOSHEN – SUNY Orange is seeking a $1.4 million match of public funds to support a project upgrading the campus’ IT infrastructure.
Following an incident last summer where the FBI became involved due to a security breach of the school’s servers, which were apparently being used for clandestine measures by the infiltrator, the college planned an upgrade of their entire information system.
According to SUNY Orange’s Chief Information Officer Brian McDonald,
despite the security issues brought to light by the attack, the entire
infrastructure – fiber connections, servers and data center were
deemed sub-par after an“exhaustive assessment” over the summer
of 2015. This lacking information infrastructure has affected the students,
said McDonald.
“The students today expect wireless anywhere they go and right now, we can’t offer them that and so part of this infrastructure upgrade will give them the capability to more connected seamlessly and become a little more engaged with the academic community,” McDonald said.
SUNY Orange’s entire information infrastructure rests in the bio-tech building which would house the project. College President Dr. Christine Young said that her predecessor had already budgeted money for a project at the bio-tech building but that legislature support and a public match in funding would be necessary to get the project going.
“If the legislature passes a resolution endorsing this project, then, we’ll be able to send that up to SUNY system and then SUNY will see that the local sponsor, the county, endorses this IT project and then SUNY will match the county’s resolution, dollar for dollar and then we will have, hopefully, the $2.8+ million to support our students with an IT infrastructure worthy of the students of SUNY Orange,” said Young. She added that to keep the IT infrastructure continuously current, after project completion, it will cost an additional $750,000 per year.
Young (left): “… an IT infrastructure worthy of the students of SUNY Orange”
In addition to asking for county support with the project, Young also informed the legislative committee of dwindling enrollment rates. She told the lawmakers that she sees the dwindling enrollment as, not being a result of technology infrastructure problems, but a result of the improvement in the economy making higher education seem less appealing to those who are financially comfortable. Young said that SUNY Orange is looking to combat low enrollment with new programs, more convenient ways for students to take classes, non-credit programming and summer classes aimed at off-semester students who are, during the school year, attending other universities.
The legislature has not yet taken action on the IT upgrade project, but Young said they will come back in April to present the formal request for county funding to them.
