Chancellor outlines view of SUNY system
In his annual 'State of the University' address in Albany on Wednesday, King said the university system is building on four 'pillars' — research, student success, economic development and diversity.
King said that despite federal attacks on the premise of diversity, equity and inclusion, SUNY is doubling down on it.
'DEI is not only one of our pillars, it's in our DNA,' King said from a podium in The Egg, a theater complex attached to the state Capitol. 'Our enabling statute, written more than 75 years ago, promises that SUNY will provide to the people of New York educational services of the highest quality, with the broadest possible access, fully representative of all segments of the population.'
King said DEI is a foundational principle, guiding SUNY college curriculums, campus codes of conduct and commitments to protecting disabled and disadvantaged communities.
'DEI means continuing to make absolutely clear that there is no place for antisemitism on campuses, just as there is no place for racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia or any other form of hatred or bigotry,' he said.
To combat racial, religious or other bigotry, King said SUNY will start requiring all students who run clubs on campuses to undertake federal Title VI civil rights training next semester.
King said SUNY will also push back on the federal push to defund research on college and university campuses — which he said has put SUNY-led research on Alzheimer's disease, cancer detection, the health effects of the 9/11 attacks and more at risk.
'We're making steady progress toward Gov. Hochul's goal to double SUNY research, with $1.2 billion in SUNY-wide sponsored research expenditures across the system,' King said.
And he noted that SUNY is leading a novel approach to artificial generative intelligence research, continuing to implement a multi-billion dollar Empire AI project that will connect the SUNY University at Buffalo with the other colleges, universities and research organizations for a publicly-led AI research and development program.
'Empire AI is making it possible for SUNY researchers to help us better understand everything from antisemitism on social media to climate change,' King said. 'Binghamton University associate professor Jeremy Blackburn's work with AI aims to, in his words, 'understand jerks on the internet.' His research uses AI applications that comb massive troves of social media data to help us understand how social media is used to spread extremist ideologies.'
King proudly noted that SUNY has reversed the decade-plus-long trend of dropping enrollment across its 64 campuses, a trend that has left a handful of campuses with structural deficits and has required them to make difficult downsizing plans, including at SUNY Potsdam.
King noted that for the last two years, SUNY has grown enrollment in every corner of its offerings, adding students in doctoral programs, associate degree programs and every level in between. The system has not yet returned to its peak enrollment headcount from 2008, when it served 471,184 students. Total enrollment for fall 2024, the latest semester with available data, shows the system served 376,534 students.
And SUNY is on track to add many more students to its community colleges next year, as the state opens up the SUNY Reconnect program meant to offer free associate degrees to full-time students ages 25 to 55, seeking a degree in an in-demand field. King said SUNY is also expanding it's 'Ten Percent Promise,' which guarantees that 10% of select high school seniors will have guaranteed admission to the competitive SUNY universities with lower acceptance rates. The system is also expanding its ASAP and ACE programs, which connect students at risk of dropping out of college with academic, financial and personal support systems.
SUNY is also rolling out a pilot program to offer evening and weekend child care on community college campuses for students.
Overall, King outlined a positive view of the future of the SUNY system, keeping with the policies and priorities the system has held for decades.
'I leave here filled with optimism that's grounded in our progress, our results and our strength — that not only can we meet this moment, we already are,' King said.
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Trump Administration Releases FBI Records on MLK Jr.
The Trump Administration on Monday released a trove of FBI documents related to the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., ending a court-ordered seal that had kept the documents out of public view since they were collected by the FBI in 1977. The release includes more than 230,000 pages of records detailing the FBI's investigation into King's assassination, including internal bureau memos, foreign intelligence cables, and previously unpublished material related to James Earl Ray, the man who pleaded guilty to King's assassination before recanting. It was not immediately clear if the documents would reveal any new information about King's murder or his life. King's family released a statement on Monday urging the public to view the files 'within their full historical context,' noting the personal nature of the matter. They also reiterated their belief that Ray was not solely responsible for King's death. 'As the children of Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, his tragic death has been an intensely personal grief—a devastating loss for his wife, children, and the granddaughter he never met -- an absence our family has endured for over 57 years,' they wrote in a statement reviewed by The Associated Press. 'We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family's continuing grief.' In a statement, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard described the release as a 'historic step' that fulfills President Donald Trump's Executive Order issued in January that directed agencies to declassify and publish assassination records related to King, President John F. Kennedy, and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. 'The American people have waited nearly sixty years to see the full scope of the federal government's investigation into Dr. King's assassination,' Gabbard said. 'Under President Trump's leadership, we are ensuring that no stone is left unturned in our mission to deliver complete transparency on this pivotal and tragic event in our nation's history. I extend my deepest appreciation to the King family for their support.' The files were originally not scheduled for public release until 2027, 50 years after they were put under court-ordered seal. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, while visiting Memphis. In the lead-up to his death, he had increasingly turned his focus toward economic justice and opposition to the Vietnam War, drawing heightened scrutiny from political leaders and law enforcement. Then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover authorized an aggressive campaign of wiretaps, hotel room bugs, and disinformation intended to discredit King and undermine the civil rights movement. Though Ray pleaded guilty to the assassination, he later tried to withdraw the plea and insisted he was not involved. Members of King's family have long expressed doubts about Ray's role, with Coretta Scott King and others publicly calling for a broader investigation into possible government involvement. A Justice Department inquiry concluded in 2000 that there was no evidence to support those assertions. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King co-founded in 1957, opposed the release, arguing that the FBI illegally surveilled King and other civil rights figures. The timing of the MLK files' release has raised questions, as the Trump Administration is currently facing pressure over its refusal to release additional files related to the federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender who died in custody in 2019. Trump last week ordered the release of limited grand jury testimony but declined to unseal the full case file, prompting frustration among his supporters.
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The Trump administration has released records of the FBI's surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr., despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate's family and the civil rights group that he led until his 1968 assassination. The digital document dump includes more than 240,000 pages of records that had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration. In a lengthy statement released Monday, King's two living children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62, said their father's assassination has been a 'captivating public curiosity for decades.' But the pair emphasized the personal nature of the matter, urging that 'these files must be viewed within their full historical context.' The Kings got advance access to the records and had their own teams reviewing them. Those efforts continued even as the government granted public access. It was not immediately clear Monday whether the documents would shed any new light on King's life, the Civil Rights Movement or his murder. 'As the children of Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, his tragic death has been an intensely personal grief — a devastating loss for his wife, children, and the granddaughter he never met — an absence our family has endured for over 57 years,' they wrote. 'We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family's continuing grief.' They also repeated the family's long-held contention that James Earl Ray , the man convicted of assassinating King, was not solely responsible, if at all. Bernice King was 5-years old when her father was killed. Martin III was 10. A statement from the office of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called the disclosure 'unprecedented' and said many of the records had been digitized for the first time to make it possible. She praised President Donald Trump for pushing the issue. Release is 'transparency' to some, a 'distraction' for others Trump promised as a candidate to release files related to President John F. Kennedy's 1963 assassination. When Trump took office in January, he signed an executive order to declassify the JFK records, along with those associated with Robert F. Kennedy's and King's 1968 assassinations. The government unsealed the JFK records in March and disclosed some RFK files in April. The announcement from Gabbard's office included a statement from Alveda King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s niece, who is an outspoken conservative and has broken from King's children on various topics — including the FBI files. Alveda King said she was 'grateful to President Trump' for his 'transparency.' Separately Monday, Attorney General Pam Bondi's social media account featured a picture of the attorney general with Alveda King in her office. 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Records mean a new trove of research material The King records were initially intended to be sealed until 2027, until Justice Department attorneys asked a federal judge to lift the sealing order ahead of its expiration date. Scholars, history buffs and journalists have been preparing to study the documents to find new information about his assassination on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King co-founded in 1957 as the Civil Rights Movement blossomed, opposed the release. They, along with King's family, argued that the FBI illegally surveilled King and other civil rights figures, tapping their offices and phone lines with the aim of discrediting them and their movement. It has long been established that then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was intensely interested if not obsessed with King and others that he considered radicals. FBI records released previously show how Hoover's bureau wiretapped King's telephone lines, bugged his hotel rooms and used informants to get information against him. 'He was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),' the King children said in their statement. 'The intent of the government's COINTELPRO campaign was not only to monitor, but to discredit, dismantle and destroy Dr. King's reputation and the broader American Civil Rights Movement,' they continued. 'These actions were not only invasions of privacy, but intentional assaults on the truth — undermining the dignity and freedoms of private citizens who fought for justice, designed to neutralize those who dared to challenge the status quo.' The Kings said they 'support transparency and historical accountability' but 'object to any attacks on our father's legacy or attempts to weaponize it to spread falsehoods.' Opposition to King intensified even after the Civil Rights Movement compelled Congress and President Lyndon B. Johnson to enact the Civil Right Act of 1964 and the Voting Right Act of 1965. After those landmark victories, King turned much of his attention to economic justice and international peace. He was an outspoken critic of rapacious capitalism and the Vietnam War. King argued that political rights alone were not enough in an uneven economy. Many establishment figures like Hoover viewed King as a communist threat. King's children still don't accept the original explanation of assassination King was assassinated as he was aiding striking sanitation workers in Memphis, part of his explicit turn toward economic justice. Ray plead guilty to assassinating King. He later renounced that plea and maintained his innocence until his death in 1998. Members of King's family, and others, have long questioned whether Ray acted alone, or if he was even involved. Coretta Scott King for the probe to be reopened, and in 1998, then-Attorney General Janet Reno directed the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department to take a new look. The Justice Department said it 'found nothing to disturb the 1969 judicial determination that James Earl Ray murdered Dr. King.' In their latest statement, Bernice King and Martin Luther King III repeated their assertions that Ray was set up, pointing to a 1999 civil case in which a Memphis jury in a wrongful death case concluded that Martin Luther King Jr. had been the target of a conspiracy. 'As we review these newly released files,' the Kings said, 'we will assess whether they offer additional insights beyond the findings our family has already accepted.' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. 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The Hill
an hour ago
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Trump administration releases documents in MLK assassination
The Trump administration on Monday released hundreds of thousands of documents related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., fulfilling a pledge from President Trump despite some reluctance from the civil rights icon's children. The release makes more than 230,000 pages of files digitally available. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said the documents include details about the FBI's investigation into King's killing in 1968, internal memos about the case and details about the pursuit of James Earl Ray, who was convicted of killing the civil rights leader. Some of the records had been publicized previously through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. But officials touted that the document dump was the first time they had been made available online with minimal redactions. 'Today's record release marks a historic step in the Trump Administration's ongoing commitment to transparency and accountability,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also serving as the interim head of the National Archives (NARA), said in a statement. 'Preserving, protecting, and releasing the records of the U.S. government is at the core of NARA's mission,' Rubio added. 'Thanks to President Trump's leadership and a coordinated interagency process, NARA was able to review and release the records at an unprecedented speed.' Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, the two living children of Martin Luther King Jr., issued a lengthy statement on Monday in which they urged the public to view the newly released records 'within their full historical context,' pointing to what they called an 'invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated' by the FBI. 'While we support transparency and historical accountability, we object to any attacks on our father's legacy or attempts to weaponize it to spread falsehoods,' the King children said in a statement. 'We strongly condemn any attempts to misuse these documents in ways intended to undermine our father's legacy and the significant achievements of the movement. Those who promote the fruit of the FBI's surveillance will unknowingly align themselves with an ongoing campaign to degrade our father and the Civil Rights Movement.' Within days of taking office in January, Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing the release of federal government documents related to the assassinations of King, former President John F. Kennedy and former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. King was shot and killed in Memphis in April 1968, and his assassination has remained the subject of conspiracy theories. 'While we continue to mourn his death, the declassification and release of these documents are a historic step towards the truth that the American people deserve,' King's niece, Alveda King, said in a statement shared by the Trump administration.
