A New Leader Navigates SUNY's Stormy Seas.

The article presents information on the State University of New York (SUNY), New York, which has got a new chancellor to navigate its stormy seas. John R. Ryan, a former U.S. Navy Vice Admiral who joined the university six months ago as the chancellor, has earned a reputation as a gutsy leader due to his aggressive financial plan. Ryan asked the state to give the 64-campus system significant increases, including more than $156-million in new funds to hire full-time faculty members, expand honors programs, and meet other needs. Ryan has raised hopes among the state's higher-education leaders that his tenure will mark a defining period in SUNY's history. With fresh leadership within, and a new political environment on the way after the 2006 autumn elections, the nation's largest public-university system may have a chance to improve its quality and its national reputation, transcending its uneven past. For many years the SUNY system has endured a reputation for mediocrity, its pockets of excellence often obscured by the system's myriad campuses and programs of varied quality.