Campaign Initiatives
Growing the Endowment
With an annual operating budget of $33 million, and an endowment of just $20 million, ACPHS has an urgent need to grow its endowment. Endowment income is often the key to sustaining a variety of programs at nonprofit institutions, despite changes in the economy. At ACPHS, a healthy endowment is essential to moderating tuition increases, enabling faculty and students to pursue research, providing revenue in years when enrollment numbers are stagnant or on the downswing and helping the College attract the best and brightest faculty. Restricted endowment dollars will make it possible for ACPHS to provide a sufficient number of student scholarships, to offer academic chairs to superior faculty and to establish support and other initiatives that are central to extraordinary institutions of higher learning.
Academic Programs and Diversity
During the past decade, ACPHS has significantly broadened its academic focus beyond traditional clinical and community pharmacy. Today, ACPHS students are pursuing degree programs in pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences, biomedical technology, cytotechnology, clinical laboratory sciences, and health and human sciences. The College boasts more than 100 full-time faculty teaching more than 110 courses. ACPHS’s increasingly diverse undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate training programs reflect our commitment to advancing health care while widening the College’s attractiveness to a larger pool of students. Our goal is to have a student body consisting of 40 percent non-pharmacy students within five years. ACPHS continues to explore opportunities for strategic academic growth.
ACPHS Academy
An ACPHS education offers students opportunities to make a difference in the community. In 2007, the College launched ACPHS Academy, an after-school program that reaches out to children from nearby grade schools. Children in the program meet twice a week for ten weeks each semester with local teachers and ACPHS students for a gradually intensive science and math curriculum. ACPHS Academy is projected to continue through high school, culminating with the College’s existing High School Summer Research program for rising high school seniors.
Groundbreaking Research
The College’s expanded research program raises ACPHS’s profile within education, scientific and health care communities; creates opportunities for collaborations with local, national and international institutions and organizations; and offers our students exceptional educational opportunities.
PRI – Drug Discovery and Development
The future of drug discovery and development presents infinite opportunities to prevent, treat and cure disease. In 2003, ACPHS opened the innovative Pharmaceutical Research Institute (PRI) to concentrate on this exciting and burgeoning scientific arena. PRI’s ambitious agenda focuses on advancing novel medicines for vascular, oncological and opthalmogical disorders using pioneering scientific capabilities, which include the merger of nanotechnology and biotechnology through our Center for NanoPharmaceuticals. Under the leadership of noted research scientist Dr. Shaker Mousa, PRI has become a vital member of New York State’s growing biomedical research sector. The Institute gives ACPHS students hands-on access to the full spectrum of drug development (“from bench to bedside”) and exposure to a broad array of career options. Through PRI, both students and faculty have the opportunity to be involved in cutting edge pharmaceutical R&D – a truly extraordinary educational experience.
Research Institute for Health Outcomes
One of the keys to managing skyrocketing health care costs will be addressing issues such as: What are the costs of specific new medical interventions and how do they affect patients, insurers, managed care organizations and government? Which medical interventions are best for patients and what are the end results of that care? Does health care spending bring the most value for the dollars? The Research Institute for Health Outcomes (RIHO) at ACPHS answers critical questions like these and disseminates findings in health outcomes, health technology assessments, and pharmacoeconomics. While RIHO is on its way to becoming a nationally recognized leader in this field, student involvement is a core value in all of the Institute’s activities.
Facilities
To support this rapid growth in academic and research programs, we have also made a significant investment in facility expansion. For more than a century, the ACPHS campus comprised one building on two acres in downtown Albany. Today, the College possesses a true campus environment with multiple buildings, residence halls, and green spaces.
The heart of any institution of higher learning is its library. In 2000, ACPHS George and Leona Lewis Library was expanded to 9,200 square feet. As enrollments have increased, we have again outgrown our library and are moving forward with plans for a new, dynamic facility. The former Classroom Building is now in the process of being transformed into the new library, a process which began in 2010. Our plan is to completely reconfigure this 27,000-square-foot, centrally located space to meet the diverse curricular, professional, advising, and research needs of our students and faculty.
Vermont Campus
In the fall of 2009, ACPHS took a major step in its strategic plan with the opening of its satellite campus in Colchester, Vermont. The 62,000-square-foot facility offers state-of-the-art classrooms, library, lecture halls, labs and much more. With an eventual enrollment of 280 students, the Vermont Campus is expected to expand the academic quality and diversity begun in Albany.
