MCC Daily Tribune
SUNY Chancellor King Op-Ed in the Buffalo News: "Public Higher Education Invests in Democracy"
Albany, NY – In an op-ed published by the Buffalo News, State University of New York Chancellor John B. King Jr. describes how public higher education plays an integral role in instilling the value of civic service in students and bolstering democracy. Chancellor King underscores initiatives to expand opportunities for students to be engaged members of society including the Empire State Service Corps, ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, the Building Bridges grant program, and civil discourse as a key learning outcome for undergraduate students.
Public higher education invests in democracy
John B. King Jr.
For two and a half centuries, it has been a fundamental American value to serve your community. We see it in those who serve in uniform, volunteer in firehouses and food pantries, serve on school boards, care for elderly neighbors, mentor young people, or step up when their neighbors and wider communities need them.
These acts of service take many forms, but they rest on a common idea: citizenship is an active commitment. It asks us to recognize a responsibility not just to ourselves, but to our community and to our entire nation.
That kind of civic commitment does not develop by accident. Part of the responsibility of the public education system is to help instill and nurture the American values of service to others and of working to build a better society. That is something that the State University of New York system, on our 64 campuses, has worked tirelessly to achieve. SUNY programs and initiatives, including the Empire State Service Corps, which empowers our undergraduates to engage in paid public service work to support local communities throughout the state, help enrich students’ lives and build a lifelong love of civic engagement.
At a time when too much of public life rewards outrage over understanding and division over dialogue, higher education has a responsibility to help students develop the skills to engage in civil discourse, even, and especially, with those who may not agree. Successful higher education does not tell students what to think, it teaches them how to grapple with unfamiliar ideas and work alongside others, ultimately empowering them with the tools needed to make informed and educated decisions.
That begins by helping students encounter new perspectives. On a college campus, students meet people from different backgrounds, cultures, faiths, political beliefs, and life experiences. They are challenged to test their own assumptions, examine lessons from what’s come before, and develop the skills to engage in constructive dialogue rather than retreat into ideological silos.
As the nation’s largest comprehensive system of public higher education, SUNY recognizes our responsibility to create opportunities for students to become thoughtful and engaged members of society. Through Building Bridges grants, student groups are designing projects that foster constructive dialogue, combat hate and bias, and build connections across lines of difference. SUNY has also made civil discourse a core undergraduate learning outcome for all students, supported nonpartisan voter engagement through the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, doubled the Empire State Service Corps through the support of Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Legislature, provided faculty professional development around civic learning through our partnership with the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, and created a faculty research fellowship tied to America’s 250th anniversary to deepen public understanding of our nation’s democratic experience.
Initiatives across SUNY campuses, from our community colleges to our comprehensive and technical colleges to our national research universities, are part of our system-wide focus to empower students with the skills and experiences to engage civilly, think critically, disagree constructively, and participate fully in civic life. Those skills matter in every field, whether a graduate becomes a teacher, nurse, engineer, entrepreneur, public servant, or community volunteer.
Too often, debates about higher education focus on a narrow set of elite institutions. But for most Americans, higher education means the public university close to home, a community college, a certificate program, a transfer pathway, an online course, or a night class taken while working or raising a family. These institutions are where millions of students pursue the American Dream and strive to achieve upward mobility. These institutions are where students learn alongside classmates whose experiences may be very different from their own.
That is why affordability and access are not separate from the civic mission of higher education. Rather, they are central to it. The more students who pursue college, the more perspectives we bring into our classrooms, our communities, and our democracy. When access is limited and opportunities are denied due to prohibitive costs, we lose not only future workers, but future neighbors, volunteers, public servants, and leaders.
As we mark 250 years since our nation’s founding, we should celebrate the promise of American democracy while recognizing that it has always depended on each generation doing the work to strengthen it. That means continuing to invest in civic education, public service, and institutions that bring people together rather than push them apart.
And that means investing in public higher education. If we want a stronger democracy tomorrow, we must support the places that prepare students not only for successful careers, but for lives of service, leadership, and contribution to the communities and country we all share. From programs like the Empire State Service Corps (now New York’s largest AmeriCorps program) that provides opportunities to give back to local communities, to initiatives like Building Bridges grant program that supports civil discourse on campus, SUNY is leading the way on civic engagement and civic virtue.
Public higher education remains one of America’s greatest democratic investments and responsibilities.
John B. King Jr. is the chancellor of the State University of New York and, under President Barack Obama, served as the 10th U.S. Secretary of Education.
About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY’s 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country’s oldest school of maritime, the state’s only college of optometry, 12 Educational Opportunity Centers, over 30 ATTAIN digital literacy labs, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.7 million students across its portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2025, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and annually one in three New Yorkers who earn a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit suny.edu.
Veronica Chiesi Brown
Community Relations
08/18/2026