THE SIX PILLARS of the Stanley Pres
Founding the Future for Oswego For 44 years, Deborah F. Stanley shared her passion for learning and her belief in higher education’s transformational power for students and society, as a member of the SUNY Oswego family. In 1995, she began her long tenure as college president—second in length only to college founder Edward Austin Sheldon. During the past 26 years, she fortified the institution on several fronts, including elevating academic excellence, embedding a learnercentered philosophy, renewing the physical campus, building the college endowment through private philanthropy, leveraging external connections in mutually beneficial partnerships and establishing a caring and inclusive culture.
18
OSWEGO
l
WINTER 2022
In a time when the average tenure of a college president is 6 ½ years, SUNY Oswego has been incredibly fortunate to have had President Stanley at the helm for more than a quarter of a century. Her impact on this campus goes beyond continuing Oswego’s long history of providing access and opportunity; she, in fact, has founded the future for SUNY Oswego. Quoting Sheldon, she not only raised the college to “its highest degree of usefulness,” Deborah F. Stanley has left a legacy of empowerment, resiliency, inclusivity, relevancy and resources whose impact will ripple through generations of Lakers yet to arrive on our lakeshore campus.
