To look into the future of Union College, college president Stephen C. Ainlay only needs to look to its past.
Maintaining the traditions of the 212-year-old college is important to Ainlay, who recently completed his first year on the job. And while his desire to fi nd innovative ways to prepare students for the world of the 21st century may seem contradictory, it is in fact one of Union’s traditions.
That balance of tradition and innovation is already apparent in many ways at Union, and Ainlay said it is fundamental to a new strategic plan for the college that was completed during his first year.
His vision is one that has met with overwhelming approval from the college’s Board of Trustees, as well as students, staff and alumni, according to Frank L. Messa, president of the Board of Trustees and chairman of the committee that recruited Ainlay to succeed Roger Hull, who retired in June 2006 after 15 years as college president.
“You’re looking for a world class academician — it is an academic institution — but also someone who can connect with faculty, students, alumni and staff, interact well with the community, and above all that be skilled as a fundraiser and also be an excellent administrator,” Messa said. “It’s difficult to find someone who brings that full package to the job, but we felt that President Ainlay was the right person and, after a year, we are absolutely convinced he is the right person.”
Ainlay, who came to Union after spending his entire career as an instructor and administrator at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., said he has been equally pleased with the reception he has received both on campus and in the community.
“When you come in from outside, you never know precisely how you’re going to be received,” he said, “but this is part of the character of the area. This is an extraordinarily friendly and welcoming place.”
GOOD TIMING
As daunting a task as it may have seemed, Ainlay said taking over the presidency in the midst of developing a long-range plan for the college actually worked to his benefi t.
“All that was extraordinarily helpful to a first-year president, both getting to know the lay of the land and also beginning to think fairly carefully and systematically about where we wanted to prioritize our efforts over the next decade,” he explained.
Ainlay pointed out that Union has been innovative right from the day it first started accepting students in 1795. At a time when most colleges were being built as religious institutions, Union was founded by area residents and three churches that agreed the city needed a college of its own, Ainlay explained.
That partnership between the college and the community continues to this day, with Union recognized among 25 urban colleges for their contributions to the community on a list compiled by Dr. Evan Dobelle, president of the New England Board of Higher Education.
“What’s become so abundantly clear to me is the way in which the history of the city and the college are tied,” Ainlay said. “What’s also clear is that to do the work on campus means that you have to be involved with the community.”
That involvement has ranged in the past from Union students volunteering with local organizations and working with children in area schools to the college spending more than $26 million to buy and renovate more than three dozen buildings on Seward Place and Nott and Huron streets, including the former Ramada Inn.
“Union and Schenectady have something very special that not a lot of other cities have,” Ainlay said.
The relationship has also garnered attention around the state, as Ainlay and Schenectady Mayor Brian U. Stratton recently appeared together at a meeting of the New York Conference of Mayors to discuss ways colleges can contribute to their communities.
" think that Stephen and I have really developed a personal connection,” Stratton said, “and I think that that’s going to help to pay dividends for the city and the college working together. We have a common interest in doing what we can to make this city stronger.”
Both Ainlay and Stratton speak of the important role the college can play in the ongoing effort to revitalize the city’s downtown.
“Part of our effort to identify and to map out what we want our new downtown to be is to be one that is used and is appealing to the Union College student community,” Stratton said. “So we’re working on ways that we can help bring more students into downtown so they feel that it’s something that’s appealing to them.”
THE RIGHT BALANCE
Balancing tradition and innovation is also a priority as the college looks to maintain and upgrade its historic campus, Ainlay said. The main campus was the first in the U.S. to be designed by an architect, he pointed out, but the 200-yearold buildings pose challenges both in terms of maintenance and in offering the newest technology for students.
Ainlay points to the college’s Taylor Music Center as an example of serving both the past and the future, however. The center, largely funded by brothers James and John Taylor, Union graduates who own Gloversville’s Taylor Made Group, is in the renovated North Colonnade and includes a new music hall and high-tech classrooms and recording facilities.
“If you look at it from the outside, it still appears to be what it was in the early part of the 19th century, but inside it’s a state-ofthe-art music facility,” Ainlay said. “That’s what we’re going to be doing with the entire campus, making sure that students who come here have the sense of being in an old, historic place but a state-of-the-art facility.”
That philosophy appeals to Naazia Husain, who is entering her senior year and is a member and former president of the Muslim Students Association and current chairwoman of the Interfaith Council.
"I think the student body in general likes the concept of maintaining tradition,” Husain said. “There’s a lot of things at Union that have been going on for years that we really don’t want to see changed but, at the same time, there’s a lot of potential that Union needs to start using.”
And Husain said Ainlay has been very open to her thoughts and those of her fellow students on the college’s future.
“I think he’s an amazing leader for Union College,” she said. “It seems like he fits right in. He already seems like part of the community, even though he technically was coming from the outside. He’s definitely Union.”
THE MONEY THING
Of course, the future of the college is also dictated by the financial support it can solicit, and Messa, the Board of Trustees president, said Ainlay has also had a positive impact there, as well. The college is in the midst of a $200 million capital campaign to fund much of what is included in the strategic plan, Messa said, and has met with such success that it will likely raise its fundraising goal.
“We feel that his presence and his energy will allow us to actually expand our capital campaign,” Messa said of Ainlay. “There aren’t a lot of schools out there that announce a capital campaign and decide when they’re two-thirds of the way through that they’re going to increase it. That’s how confi dent we are and that’s how pleased we are with his performance in his fi rst year.”
Ainlay is quick to spread the credit for the enthusiasm he said he has seen throughout the college community.
“That attitude — which seems to permeate campus and even the alumni base at this point — is one of the things I’m most pleased about,” he said. “That’s not just me; that’s the whole of what everybody is doing here. We’ve tried to … create an atmosphere of a community working for a common purpose, and I think that’s succeeding.”
But Ainlay’s leadership has been a significant factor in spreading the excitement about the college’s future, Messa said.
"If we were grading, since this is an academic institution, we’d give him a solid A. He’s been everything we’ve hoped for.”