”Once again, Plattsburgh State has been recognized as one of the best universities in the North by U.S News and World Report. In 2017, PSUC ranks up to the 71st best university of all regional northern universities. In addition, PSUC has also received great reviews from Value Colleges, Money Magazine and many other national publications and services.
Interim Associate Vice President for Strategic Enrollment, Mark Mastrean, discussed the changes that have occurred in PSUC throughout his 33 years in Cardinal Country.
“Diversity wise, Plattsburgh has radically changed since I started here,” Mastrean said, “In those years (since), we’ve greatly increased the number of international students on campus. There has been a lot of changes in the composition of the student body.”
In addition to the changes of PSUC’S population, Mastrean mentions the academic changes as well.
“Academic program wise, I think the college has been on a journey to become more and more responsive to the marketplace,” Mastrean said, “to be interested in what consumers want, rather than just develop programs and never think about the marketplace…now we think about what prospective students want, what kind of programs are they interested in and how can we provide those programs….we’re here to serve students…we need to put student’s success front and center.”
Mastrean then describes PSUC’s primary mission in regards to the different programs available.
“We’re defined as a comprehensive category,” Mastrean explained, “so our primary mission is not a research institution, our primary mission is to provide a wide-range of programs to provide to students,” Mastrean said.
“We hire faculty to teach students and to do some research. We don’t hire faculty to do mostly research and a little bit of teaching…we’re very focused on our mission with that regard.”
Mastrean goes even deeper by describing the evolution of programs offered in PSUC.
“Our comprehensive nature, academically speaking, we have the whole school of business and economics, that didn’t use to be the case when I started,” Mastrean said.
Mastrean referred back to when PSUC was a teacher’s college and described the evolution from that time.
“Professional studies program, we began of course as a teachers college,” Mastrean said. “We evolved to all kinds of things; we still have that strong teacher education tradition, but we’ve evolved into other professional preparation programs .”
Mastrean described a star-quality trait of PSUC that he believes makes us different from any other Suny.
“I think Plattsburgh is very good at getting better at, what you might call, ‘closing the gap’ with students,” said Mastrean. “We don’t insist that students, who enroll, initially have the absolute highest grades and the best test scores. When I say we’re good at ‘closing the gap,’ I think we’re good at taking students of whoever you are and bring you to your highest potential”
Seventh-floor CA, Nicholas Careaga, was not shy about explaining why he likes PSUC.
“It’s like a second home,” Careaga said. “There are so many opportunities to develop relationships.” Besides being a CA, Careaga also belongs to the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity.
Even students who have spent less than two months here are warming up to PSUC, such as first-year student,Chloe Passamonte. Passamonte is currently undeclared, but she is gracious to PSUC for their help and support.
“ I like how they make choosing a major easier by showing the many degree options that they provide,” Passamonte said. Passamonte is considering the Hotel Tourism Management major. With PSU’s help, she will surely find a major best suited for her.
Email Mataeo Smith at news@cardinalpointsonline.com
