University of the State of New York
The University of the State of New York (USNY, ) is the state of New York's governmental umbrella organization for both public and private institutions in New York State. The "university" is not an educational institution: it is, in fact, a licensing and accreditation body that sets standards for schools operating in New York State, from pre-kindergarten through professional and graduate school, as well as for the practice of a wide variety of professions. USNY's governing body is known as the New York State Board of Regents. History The Board of Regents of the USNY was established by statute on May 1, 1784, to re-establish and oversee King's College as Columbia University and any other colleges and academies incorporated in the state thereafter. On April 13, 1787, the legislature enacted a law that allowed individual educational institutions to have their own trustees (making Columbia a private institution) and gave the Regents broader responsibilities for overseeing education in New York. The new law empowered the Regents to "visit and inspect all the colleges, academies, and schools" in the state, award higher academic degrees, hold and distribute funds, and exercise other powers of a corporation. Early in the 19th century, the Regents established standards for incorporating private academies and colleges, including specifying the texts or subjects that academies must teach to qualify for state aid. Aid was restricted to those students who had passed local entrance examinations. To combat the problem of academies lowering their standards in order to attract students and get state aid, during the later nineteenth century the Regents developed and instituted educational standards for high schools statewide, through use of the Regents examinations and syllabi. The legislature gave the Regents responsibility for the New York State Library and New York State Museum in 1844 and 1845, respectively, and in 1889 and 1892 expanded the USNY's responsibilities significantly to include the incorporation and supervision of all libraries, museums, correspondence schools, and other educational institutions. An 1872 statute authorized the Regents to appoint examining and licensing boards in the state's medical schools, and in 1890 the Regents were given the exclusive power to license physicians. Also starting in 1890, the Secretary to the Board of Regents – then Melvil Dewey, also head of the State Library – supervised full-time inspectors of secondary schools, libraries, colleges, and other institutions reporting to the Regents. Starting in 1910, private trade schools were required to be licensed and inspected, and in 1923 licensing requirements were extended to correspondence schools operating in the state. In 1948, New York State established a system of support organizations known as Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) across the state. The head of each BOCES, known as the District Superintendent, acts as the New York State Commissioner of Education's, and by extension, the Chancellor of the Board of Regents', field representative. Regents College A key former initiative of the Board of Regents, created to better bring higher education to New York State's nontraditional adult learners, was the Board of