Timeline | Special Collections and University Archives

Timeline of Events & Milestones

Science Laboratory, State University College on Long Island, c1958

From the University Archives Photograph Collection

ABOUT

The first comprehensive timeline of Stony Brook University history was compiled by Kristen J. Nyitray, Ann M. Becker (graduate student assistant) and Deborah Dolan (graduate student intern) between 1998 and 2000. Entries from the book Stony Brook: State University of New York (Arcadia Publishing, 2002) by Kristen J. Nyitray and Ann M. Becker have been added. Press releases issued by the Office of Media Relations were consulted for the most recent additions to the timeline.

Last update: July 2025.

Table 1: 1948 to 1969

Start Date	End Date	Event
1948		New York State adopts the State University of New York system. This system links 31 state-supported campuses. Most are teacher-training schools, with a total of 28,300 students.
1948		William Robertson Coe presents his 400-acre Long Island estate, located in Oyster Bay and called Planting Fields, to New York State for use as a school of horticulture after his death.
1956		Ward Melville donates land in Stony Brook and his parent's former estate in the Village of Old Field known as “Sunwood” to the State University of New York. The acreage, valued at $4.5 million, will be the future location of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Sunwood will host recitals and visiting scholars.
1956-02		The Board of Trustees of the New York State University system recommends that a state-supported and state-operated college and graduate school be established on Long Island for the education of young men and women in the sciences, math, and engineering.
1956-10		The Board of Regents adopts the Board of Trustees’ recommendation to establish a college and graduate school on Long Island. They authorize a temporary campus, the bequeathed Coe estate in Oyster Bay as a temporary campus, while a new campus is constructed at Stony Brook on the 480 acres donated by Ward Melville. The college is called the State University College of Long Island at Oyster Bay. Its mandate is to prepare secondary math and science teachers.
1957-09-17		The State University College of Long Island at Oyster Bay opens on September 16, 1957. There are 148 first-year students and 14 faculty members. There is one building and six classrooms. Together with a dormitory converted from horse stables, this comprises the temporary campus. The college is tuition-free.
1957-10-30		Classes are cancelled for the first student social event titled "Nameless Day." Activities include volleyball, tug-of-war, and egg tossing.
1958		Its name newly changed to the State University Center on Long Island at Oyster Bay, the University is “now authorized to prepare students for careers in science, mathematics and engineering.” Tuition is free for students preparing to be secondary school teachers, $375 per year for other New York residents and $455 for non-residents.
1958-02		The first student publication, the newspaper titled Sucolian (acronym for State University College on Long Island), is published.
1958-04-01		Professors Swartz and Levin shared office quarters in Mrs. Coe's former bathroom, where the fixtures were made of solid gold plating. Professors Gordon and Chill shared a space in a converted closet that served as Mrs. Coe's dressing room.
1959-02-01		State University College on Long Island chose its own colors: blue and gold. The colors, which also represented the State University of New York, were chosen by a vote of the faculty.
1958-09-01		Tuition for students in science, mathematics and engineering was $375.00 a year. For out-of-state students, tuition was $455.00 per year. In accordance with state policy there was no tuition charge for those students preparing to be secondary school teachers.
1959-04-22		The title of the student newspaper Sucolian is changed to the Statesman.
1960		The Heald Report recommends upgrading New York State’s higher education system, specifically urging a new major university – The Long Island Center at Stony Brook. The State Board of Regents and Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller establish the future university’s mission as a comprehensive university center.
1960-04-08		The formal ground breaking ceremony is held for the newly named State University of New York, Long Island Center at Stony Brook. New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller turns the first spade of dirt, accompanied by Ward Melville, State University of New York Trustee Chairman Frank Moore, and others.
1960-06-09		SUNY Trustees designate the Stony Brook campus as a university center and officially change its name from the State University College on Long Island to the State University of New York, Long Island Center.
1961-02-01	1961-11-09	John F. Lee is appointed as the first President of the University, still located in Oyster Bay. His mandate is to convert the Long Island Center from a science and engineering college to a university with liberal arts and sciences programs and a graduate school.
1961-06-25		1st commencement exercises held. Twenty-five Bachelor of Science degrees are awarded in ceremonies held at Planting Fields in Oyster Bay.
1961-09		Fifteen buildings - geodesic domes - provide new classrooms for the Oyster Bay student body, now numbering 600. Classes begin in September with 527 students and 138 faculty members.
1961		The first published list of student officers in the campus is posted in the Bulletin. Rosemary Capone is moderator of the Student Polity; 42 students make the Dean’s Honors List.
1961-10-01		Students engage in the first of many future campus demonstrations. They boycott classes in protest of the transfer and removal of key administrators of the Oyster Bay campus.
1961-11-09		President Lee resigns due to controversy over bureaucratic and organizational matters. Dr. Thomas H. Hamilton is appointed as chief administrator.
1962	1963	Dr. Thomas H. Hamilton appointed as acting administrative head of the university. The SUNY Trustees granted him the authority to "exercise the powers and perform the duties pertaining to the office of President of the said Long Island Center until such time as a new incumbent of such office shall been appointed."
1962-06-03		2nd Commencement exercises held at the Oyster Bay campus.
1962		WUSB, a carrier current radio station, begins broadcasting on the Stony Brook campus on 820 kHz on the AM band.
1962-09-25		While some classes and laboratories continue at the Oyster Bay campus for a fifth and final year, the new Stony Brook campus opens on 9/16 and classes begin on 9/25. It is known as the State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNY at Stony Brook). The two completed academic buildings are Humanities and Chemistry. Most classes are held in the Humanities building. The dormitory, G Dorm, accommodates 616 resident students. G Dorm also houses the administrative, athletic, student government and newspaper offices, and the infirmary.
1963-06-02		3rd Commencement exercises held.
1963-06-19		The Muir Report is issued and recommends to New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller and the Board of Regents the establishment of “a new medical center, including schools of medicine, dentistry and other health professions, on the State University campus at Stony Brook, Long Island by 1970…”
1963		A report commissioned by Governor Nelson Rockefeller titled "Education for the Health Professions," (commonly referred to as the Muir Report because its principal author was the chair of the New York State Committee on Medical Education, Malcolm Muir) proposes the establishment of a medical school and teaching hospital at Stony Brook University to address a projected shortage of doctors on Long Island by the 1980s.
1963		In the fall, the Library, Engineering, Biology, and Physical Laboratory (housing Physics and Mathematics) buildings are opened.
1964-05		The Health and Physical Education Building opens.
1964-06-07		4th Commencement exercises held. It is the first held on the Stony Brook campus.
1965-04-01		John S. Toll is inaugurated as the second President of the university.
1965		University is named State University of New York at Stony Brook.
1965		The Stony Brook Foundation is established as a not-for-profit corporation under New York State Education Law. It is chartered to collect and manage gifts from private and other non-state resources to supplement state funding of Stony Brook.
1965-06-06		5th Commencement exercises held.
1965		Students choose "Patriots" as the new name for Stony Brook’s athletic teams.
1966		C.N. Yang, Nobel laureate, joins the Stony Brook faculty. On November 13, 1965, he was appointed "Einstein Professor of Physics," one of only ten Einstein Professors in New York State.
1966		Stony Brook is selected to be the site of the New York State Marine Sciences Research Center.
1966-04-18		John S. Toll installed as president of Stony Brook University.
1966-06-05		6th Commencement exercises is held. First PhD awarded to Raymond Arthur Mackay (Chemistry).
1966-09		The first Vice President of the Health Sciences, Edmund Pellegrino, is charged with establishing a medical center at Stony Brook University that includes a tertiary care hospital.
1966-10-27		Governor Nelson Rockefeller attends ground breaking ceremonies for three new buildings: Graduate Engineering, the Computing Center, and the Earth and Space Sciences building.
1966		The first Professor of Medicine, Dr. Alfred Knudsen, is appointed to the Health Sciences.
1967		Student Union groundbreaking is held.
1967		Construction is begun on a pedestrian bridge intended to connect the Student Union, Library, and what will later be the Fine Arts Center.
1967-03-07		The nine-million-volt King Tandem Van de Graaff accelerator is delivered to campus. It is a 44-foot-long, 57.5-ton atom smasher. The first of its kind at any university in the world.
1967-06-04		7th Commencement exercises held.
1967		SUNY Stony Brook’s Center for Continuing Education conducts its first classes.
1967		G building, the first dormitory, is renamed in honor of Washington Irving and Eugene O’Neill.
1967-12-07		Students hold a demonstration in protest against the Army’s Selective Services.
1967		Buildings on West Campus are filled to capacity. University President John Toll pushes for construction of new structures to hold burgeoning student population.
1967		West Campus doubles in size, adding dormitory space for 3,000 students and nearly three million square feet of non-residential space to campus.
1968-01-17		The Suffolk County Police Department carries out "Operation Stony Brook" at 5am. 198 police officers arrive on campus for a ‘drug bust’ that results in the arrest of 35 young adults, 24 of whom are Stony Brook students.
1968-06-04		8th Commencement exercises held.
1968-09		Classes begin in September with 6000 students and 572 faculty members.
1968		Dr. Edmund Pellegrino and Dr. Alfred Knudsen create an "ideal" institution on paper to include five schools: Medical (now known as School of Medicine), Nursing, Dental Medicine, Social Work, and Allied Health Professions (now known as the School of Health Technology and Management); they commit to open the schools by September 1970. Dr. Edmund Pellegrino becomes chairman of the School of Medicine and recruits heads for the four other schools: Ellen Fahy, Nursing; Edmund McTernan, Allied Health Professions; Sanford Kravitz, Social Welfare; J. Howard Oaks, School of Dentistry. He also recruits Emil Frey, director of Health Sciences Center Library.
1968		Dr. Edmund Pellegrino proposes temporary buildings be constructed to hold classes and administrative offices. He also proposes to have students do clinical work at hospitals throughout Long Island, such as Long Island Jewish in New Hyde Park, Nassau County Medical Center in East Meadow, VA Medical Center in Northport and Winthrop Hospital in Mineola.
1968	1974	The Departments of Biochemistry, Pathology, Psychiatry, Family Medicine, Microbiology, Surgery, Medicine and Pharmacology are established from 1968 to 1974.
1969-01-15		Dr. H. Bentley Glass, noted geneticist, becomes President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science while in the second of his three years as President of the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa. This is believed to be the only time one person has simultaneously held these two prestigious positions.
1969-08-13	1969-08-21	The Eighth International Congress of Crystallography convenes at Stony Brook. Among the major papers is a full analysis of the structure of insulin and a scientific analysis of the first moon rocks.
1969		Roth Quad opens.
1969		Dr. Jan Kott is appointed to the faculty of the English and Comparative Literature Departments. Dr. Kott authored more than 300 books and articles and is credited with revitalizing the production of modern theater in his native Poland.
1969-03-19		Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) organizes a sit-in in the library for students’ rights. Hundreds of students participate; twenty-one are arrested after refusing repeated requests by President Toll to leave the building.
1969-05-15		The University gatehouse is burned and a security car overturned as student unrest continues.
1969-06-01		9th Commencement exercises held.
1969		In anticipation of future developments, Dr. Peter Rogatz is named director of University Hospital and Associate Director of the Health Sciences Center.
1969		Stony Brook Union opens in the fall semester after seven years of construction. The building contains meeting and conference rooms, a 600-seat ballroom, an art gallery, the campus radio station, offices for student organizations, a 24-hour snack bar, an arcade, a bowling alley, a craft center, and a beauty parlor.

Table 2: 1970 to 1979

Start Date	End Date	Event
1970		Stony Brook's Child Care Services Program established.
1970		Students participated in an 11-day hunger strike against war-related research on campus.
1970		The first four Health Sciences Center (HSC) Schools open: Allied Health Professionals, Social Welfare, Nursing, and Basic Sciences begin classes in temporary facilities.
1970		Dr. Tobias Owen joins the Earth and Space Sciences faculty. During his tenure at Stony Brook, Dr. Owen was a member of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration space mission imaging science teams for unattended flights to Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
1970		The Urban and Policies program is established.
1970		The first issue of Stony Brook People is published.
1970		The Stony Brook Union opens after long construction delays.
1970		Plans progress for design of physical structures. Recommendations call for a 1.3 million square-foot space complex to include space for the five health sciences schools, library, lecture halls and auditoriums, administration offices, physical plant, communications, and a 500-bed hospital.
1970		The University Construction Fund selects architect Bertrand Goldberg for the hospital and health sciences complex project. The project is split into construction phases: first, HSC; second, University Hospital; third, Basic Sciences Tower. Projected cost for each phase, exclusive of equipment, is $60 to $80 million.
1970-04		Construction begins on the Health Sciences Center.
1970-06-07		10th Commencement exercises held.
1970		Construction on the hospital stalls due to skepticism for the need and financial losses incurred by hospitals connected with SUNY Downstate and Upstate.
1970-09		A total of 11 temporary buildings are ready for occupancy on the South Campus, on an undeveloped area south of the Health Sciences campus and on the west side of Nicolls Road, to house students for the five schools of the Health Sciences Center.
1970		A Health Sciences Center faculty and staff of 64 welcome a total of 43 students to its first classes.
1971		The Health Sciences Center Schools of Allied Health Professionals, Basic Health Sciences, Social Welfare, Nursing, and Medicine begin offering classes.
1971		The fifth of six HSC Schools opens: the School of Medicine with 24 students.
1971		Stuart Goldstein (Class of 1973) became Stony Brook University's first athlete to earn All-American honors. Goldstein was ranked 7th nationally in the sport of squash.
1971		The Frank Melville Jr. Memorial Library, named in honor of Ward Melville’s father, opens after a major expansion project.
1971		Construction begins on the new Health Sciences Center. The HSC complex is designed by Bertrand Goldberg Associates, whose architectural designs include the Marina City Towers in Chicago.
1971-06-06		11th Commencement exercises held.
1971-09-15		Students hold an Attica rally.
1972		The last of the six HSC Schools opens: the School of Dental Medicine opens with 24 students chosen from 1600 applicants.
1972		Leah Holland (Class of 1976), the first woman on a Stony Brook swimming team, becomes the first woman to win a medal in the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Swimming Association Championships.
1972-05-28		12th Commencement exercises held.
1972		The State Legislature approves $9,947,000 for Phase I for the Fine Arts Center, estimated to cost $15 million.
1972	1976	The Stony Brook Playhouse first opens at the Slavic Cultural Center in Port Jefferson, later moving its summer schedules to the Fine Arts Center in 1976.
1972		The Institute of Advanced Studies of World Religions moves to the Library. C.T. Shen, chairperson of the board of the American Steamship Company, founded it in 1970.
1972-12		Students march to the Smithaven Mall and join the National Strike protesting the bombing of Hanoi.
1972-09-07		Students hold a demonstration against the Department of Defense.
1972		Dr. J. Howard Oaks is appointed second Vice President for the Health Sciences.
1972		Dr. Marvin Kuschner, founding director of the Department of Pathology, is appointed the Dean of Medicine.
1972		Dr. Edmund Pellegrino accepts the position as chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Memphis.
1972		Ground is broken for hospital construction.
1973		The Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools accreditation report recognizes Stony Brook’s “spectacular achievement in so quickly becoming an institution of national stature.”
1973		In the fall, the Graduate Chemistry building and the Math Tower open; the total number of buildings is 76.
1973		Dr. Paul Lauterbur, professor of chemistry, produced the first image of a living organism via nuclear magnetic resonance.
1973		Stu Goldstein (’73) becomes Stony Brook’s first All-American athlete, earning honors in squash.
1973-09		Classes begin with 12,000 students and 830 faculty members.
1973		After much negotiating by Dr. Edmund Pellegrino and the Bureau of Budget, the hospital design is settled at 504 beds.
1973		Edmund Pellegrino departs Stony Brook.
1973-05-27		13th Commencement exercises held.
1973	1978	Construction of hospital begins and continues despite steel strikes, construction strikes and funding concerns.
1974		Graduate Biology is renamed the Life Sciences Building, and opens housing three departments of the Division of Biological Sciences and several departments of the Health Sciences Center School of Basic Health Sciences.
1974		Several new organizations are established on campus. The Mid-Career Counseling Center is founded by Professor Alan Entine; The Museum Computer Network is relocated Stony Brook from the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan; and SAINTS (Scientific Achievements for Non-Traditional Students).
1974-05-19		14th Commencement exercises held.
1974-12		William Butler Yeats Microfilmed Manuscripts Collection is acquired from the Yeats family and would become part of Special Collections. This is the most extensive collection of Yeats materials outside of Ireland.
1974		School of Medicine graduates its first class of 18 doctors.
1974		The School of Medicine gains reaccreditation and receives praise from the Liaison Committee for Medical Accreditation for its success. It also receives permission to increase its entering class from 24 to 48 students. The schools and the construction of the medical center are greatly supported by Governor Hugh Carey.
1975		Physics and Mathematics departments move to new complex, marking the completion of construction of facilities for sciences.
1975		Deborah Toll, wife of Stony Brook President John Toll, christens the research vessel “Onrust,” a 55-foot ship constructed for the Marine Sciences Research Center, at the Stony Brook Yacht Club.
1975		Professor Paul Lauterbur describes for the American Chemical Society “zeugmatography,” a new technique for use of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy that he developed at Stony Brook.
1975-05-18		15th Commencement exercises held.
1975		Phase I of the Fine Arts Center opens. It includes classrooms, offices, rehearsal halls, a foundry, studios, and an art gallery.
1975		The Urban and Policies program, founded in 1970, becomes the W. Averill Harriman College for Urban and Policy Sciences in honor of New York’s former governor.
1975		Parents Day held.
1975-08-24	1975-09-01	Foreign student orientation held.
1975-08-27	1975-08-30	Undergraduate student orientation held.
1976		Professors of Physics Peter van Nieuwenhuizen and Daniel Z. Freedman, along with Sergio Ferrera, co-discover supergravity.
1976		A festival commemorates the establishment of the William Butler Yeats Archives at Stony Brook’s Center for Contemporary Arts and Letters.
1976		The Federated Learning Communities is established with its founder, Professor Patrick Hill, as master learner in its first unit, World Hunger. It has 24 students.
1976		An open house marking the dedication of the Health Sciences Center attracts 16,000 visitors to the site.
1976-09-01		Classes begin with 16,571 students and 977 faculty members.
1976		Michael Elliott becomes second director of Hospital.
1976		University President John Toll charges Elliott and Oaks with opening the hospital as soon as possible.
1976		The Clinical Science Tower of the Health Sciences Center opens.
1976		Minor established in Women’s Studies.
1976	1978	Michael Elliott hires a core planning staff for the hospital: Assistant Director Martin Karris, Deputy Directory of Nursing Pura Laborde, Deputy Director for Financial Affairs James C. Rich, Deputy Director for Systems Frank Russo, Materials Manager Walter Birkhauser, Controller Paul Honor, Assistant to the Director Margaret Ort, Manager of Systems Planning and Development Sid Packer and Assistant Administrator Kenneth Pearson.

1976-01-08	1976-01-11	Undergraduate Student Orientation
1976-01-12	1976-05-07	Spring 1976 Semester
1976-03-21	1976-03-28	Spring Break
1976-05-10	1976-05-15	Final Exams
1976-05-16		16th Commencement exercises held.
1976-08-29	1976-09-06	Foreign Student Orientation held.
1976-08-30	1976-12-24	All Residence Halls Open / Close
1976-08-31	1976-09-02	Undergraduate Student Orientation for All Students not Having Previously Participated
1976-09-06	1976-12-17	Fall 1976 Semester
1976-12-18	1976-12-23	Final Exams
1977-06-05		Ward Melville, campus benefactor, first Stony Brook Council chairperson and honorary chairperson since 1960, dies at age 90.Melville donated 480 acres on which the campus is located, as well as his home, Sunwood, which was used to host recitals and house visiting scholars. The annual valedictory award at Stony Brook commencement is named in honor of him. Melville was chairperson of the board of the company that directed the Thom McCann shoe chain.
1977		The Poetry Center is established at the Center for Contemporary Arts and Letters, headed by Professor Louis Simpson of the Department of English, a Pulitzer Prize winner.
1977-06		In June, WUSB (90.1 FM) begins public FM broadcasting. Until now, its AM signal was heard only on campus.
1977-09-17		The Social and Behavioral Sciences Building opens. It was designed by architect Roland Thompson.
1977-11-11		The Bridge to Nowhere, of which construction began in 1967, is dedicated. Its completion connects the Stony Brook Union with the Fine Arts Center. The pedestrian span, 30 feet wide and 475 feet long, passes over Center Drive.
1977-01-23	1977-05-21	All Residence Halls Open
1977-01-24	1977-05-13	Spring 1977 Semester
1977-04-03	1977-04-10	Spring Break
1977-05-16	1977-05-21	Final Exams
1977-05-22		17th Commencement exercises held.
1976	1977	Sir Fred Hoyle is a Visiting Professor of Astronomy.
1978		Eight HSC departments open: Orthopedics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Radiology, Preventive Medicine, Neurobiology and Behavior, Neurology, Anesthesiology, Physiology and Biophysics.
1978		HSC is accredited to offer residencies in Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Psychiatry and Surgery. Doctorates offered in Anatomical Sciences, Microbiology, Pathology and Pharmacology.
1978		The Basic Health Sciences Research Tower of the Health Sciences Center opens.
1978		Major research is undertaken in magnetic resonance imaging, sudden infant death syndrome, asthma and allergic diseases and organ transplantation.
1978		Thomas Flanagan, a professor of literature, begins his tenure in the English department at the university. Flanagan won the National Book Critics Circle award in 1979 for "The Year of the French."
1978		Center for Industrial Cooperation opens at the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
1978		The Energy Management Training Program, founded at Stony Brook, conducts its first program for representatives of 21 developing nations.
1978		The Economic Development Conference (“Long Island at the Crossroads”) is attended by 250 Suffolk and Nassau county leaders. It adopts the “Stony Brook Manifesto,” calling for a “unified and coherent Long Island Community.”
1978		The Patriots basketball team (22 wins, 2 losses) is ranked No .1 in New York State Division III, and No .9 in US Division III. The team wins the National Collegiate Athletic Association Eastern Regional Championship the first ever played at Stony Brook. The team advances to the National Championship, and completes the season fourth in the nation with a 27-4 record.
1978-05-28		18th Commencement exercises held.
1978		SAINTS (Scientific Achievements for Non-Traditional Students), established in 1974, and expands its goals to recognize all academic achievements by non-traditional students.
1978		“End of the Bridge” opens as a restaurant/night club in the former “Buffeteria.”
1978		State University of New York adopts a new motto: “To Learn, To Search, To Serve.”
1978		Governor Hugh Carey cuts the ribbon at the Museum of Long Island Natural Sciences, attended by Acting President Alexander Pond and Museum Director Steven Englebright. Englebright is the museum’s curator and founder.
1979		Six scholars from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) arrive at Stony Brook. Stony Brook is one of only six US campuses having exchange programs with the PRC since the US and China renewed diplomatic relations in 1978.
1979		The American Psychological Association publishes a study ranking Stony Brook’s Department of Psychology 18th among the 180 institutions most frequently quoted in scholarly works. Professor Daniel O’Leary is ranked among the 100 most-quoted individual psychologists in all of history.
1979		The Department of Arts publishes the first issue of Art Criticism, a new journal edited by Professors Lawrence Alloway and Donald B. Kuspit.
1979-05-20		19th Commencement exercises held.
1979		A sundial is dedicated to mark the completion of the central academic mall. The sundial was donated by Turner Construction Company, which built most of the Health Sciences Center.
1979		Phase II of the Fine Arts Center formally opens with a series of programs including violinist Isaac Stern, the Warsaw Mime Theatre, and jazz pianist Eddie Heywood. The complex includes the Theatre Arts and Art Gallery, experimental theatre, two ‘black box theatres,’ a recital hall, and a 1200-seat concert hall.
1979-10-25		Six former Statesman staffers found the Stony Brook Press “to give people in the University an alternative to the Statesman and other media on campus.”
1979		Sigma Beta, a new local honorary society for freshmen, has first organizational meeting.
1979		Gay Students Union hosts its first festival on campus.
1979		Mass recruitment of hospital staff begins.
1979		For six months prior to the hospital opening (1980) estimates show that $0.64 was spent every second of every day to furnish and equip 36 floors: 2 towers with 18 floors each.