Joseph Lane Kennedy

  Joseph L. Kennedy has been president of SUNY Canton since 1993. Changes on and below the surface of the College began almost immediately after his arrival. Under his leadership, the College's faculty and senior administrators developed a proposal to expand the mission of the college to include four-year degrees and update the college's selection of two-year degrees and one-year certificates. Because some of the new majors would clearly be outside of the image of the "Canton College of Technology" moniker, President Kennedy led a drive to change the College's name to SUNY Canton. The new name conveys the wider mission of today's SUNY Canton, and also more clearly ties the College to the other 63 campuses within the State University of New York system.

Since then, enrollment is up at the campus by 30%, and SUNY Canton has introduced seven bachelor degrees. At least eight more bachelor degrees are planned

The expansive Richard W. Miller Campus Center and the Newell Veterinary Technology Center have been constructed. A renovation of the Roselle Academic Plaza and several other exterior areas has been completed. In all, more than $38 million in improvements have been completed, with another $12 million in improvements expected by 2010.

The financial impact of the enrollment growth on the community has been significant. For every 100 students that the College grows, a local economic impact of $240,000 annually is realized. The College has already grown by nearly 600 students over the past decade.

In fact, Kennedy has set a goal for the year 2010 of reaching an enrollment of 3,200 students, including online students. Many of SUNY Canton's pending majors will be online majors targeted at working adults who already have two-year degrees.

President Kennedy has ensured that SUNY Canton's contributions to the community don't stop with the awarding of traditional college degrees.

He was instrumental in the placement of a federally-supported Small Business Development Center on campus, which provides counseling, training and other resources to current and would-be entrepreneurs.

SUNY Canton has also become the program agency for North Country Emergency Medical Services, which serves 85 fire departments and ambulance agencies in Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence Counties.

Shortly after President Kennedy's arrival the David Sullivan/St. Lawrence County Law Enforcement Academy was founded. Before the Academy was established in 1996, area police departments had to send their new employees to Watertown for academy training, leading to extensive travel costs, including the commuting time of the recruits.

One of the President's most dramatic projects has been the creation of the SUNY Canton Education Center, located in the St. Lawrence Centre Mall in Massena. The Center, which just celebrated its fifth anniversary, offers about 20 courses each semester on evenings and weekends. Many of the Center's students say that without the Center, their work and family schedules would not permit them to pursue a college education.

President Kennedy has also led SUNY Canton's effort to create the Emergency Management Training Center of Northern New York. The Center recently received a $150,000 federal appropriation to continue training programs on the campus and hire a part-time director, who will continue efforts to secure federal funding for construction of a building annex to house the Center.

He is personally involved in several community organizations. He is a member of the board of directors of the St. Lawrence County Workforce Investment Board, and also serves on that body's Youth Council. He also serves on the boards of directors of the area chapter of the American Red Cross and the St. Lawrence County Aquarium and Ecological Center.

Kennedy has also relentlessly pursued private fundraising as one of the solutions to tight SUNY budgets, and to ensure that SUNY Canton's endowment will support numerous scholarships for future students. Since he assumed the Presidency, the College has surpassed numerous fundraising benchmarks.

A pair of $150,000 gifts in 1996 and 1997 marked the first six-digit gifts ever received by SUNY Canton. In 1998 a quarter-million dollar gift from Alice Westaway Bagley marked the next "first." That amount was doubled in 2001 by a gift from the Sweetgrass Foundation and Allan and Kate Newell. In 2002, the late chemistry professor Herm Kalberer left nearly $800,000 to the College. The following year Electrical Engineering professor emeritus Richard M. Miller left $1 million, reaching a new benchmark. Then, just before Christmas 2004, alumnus Joel M. Canino delivered a gift of $2 million.

Kennedy said that the efforts on private fundraising will continue, particularly during a comprehensive campaign scheduled to start in 2006, the College's Centennial Year, and continue through 2010. The campaign is expected to have a goal of $10 million.

Prior to assuming the Presidency at SUNY Canton, Kennedy was Vice President for Academic Affairs at William Woods University in Fulton, Mo. From 1984 to 1990 he was Dean of Academic Affairs at Vermont's Johnson State College. From 1978 to 1984 he was director of liberal studies at Western Montana College of the University of Montana. He served earlier as director of the Pyramid Lake Ecological Studies in Reno, Nev., and as assistant professor of biology at North Georgia College in Dahlonega, Ga.

He received his bachelor of science in biology from North Georgia College, his master of science in entomology from Clemson University in South Carolina, and his Ph.D. in Wildlife Resource Management from Utah State University.

Dr. Kennedy and his wife, Dine, have two adult children, John and James, and one grandson. Dine Kennedy is active in community and college affairs, and is vice president of the board of directors of WPBS television, the Public Broadcasting System affiliate in Watertown.