Mission & History

Building a Sustainable Future

Stony Brook Southampton is a new kind of school – a small, intimate campus associated with a major research university. Student life and learning are interconnected and characterized by common purpose.

The curriculum is organized not into departments but around issues related to environmental sustainability, public policy, and natural resource management. Classes are shaped around an interdisciplinary core, and you will have many opportunities to explore how political, economic, and social issues relate to the environment. You will also learn valuable skills — team building, communications, negotiation, project management, and ethics — that you can use as you continue your work after graduation.

Energy, agriculture, and the elements will be fully integrated into college life. Our Long Island campus on the Atlantic Ocean — just 80 miles east of New York City — already has a wind turbine. Students will help plan new "green" buildings, and will take part in landscaping the campus and growing organic fruits and vegetables.

Your classes will be small, and you will get to know your teachers and other students well. Our admissions process is highly selective: Think of us as an honors program with access to the resources of a major university. We welcome a diversity of interests, so it doesn't matter what your major is. What matters is that you want to be on the front line.

Shaping our Response to Global Challenges

"The environment and sustainability are the most critical issues for the 21st century," Stony Brook University President Shirley Strum Kenny has said. "It will be an extraordinary opportunity for students to help shape our response to the global challenges we face."

Our location — on top of the world's richest aquifer and in proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound — is the perfect place for you to put theory to practice. Our integrated learning approach makes this possible.

Students in our Marine Sciences Research Center are exploring the ways land use practices affect the surrounding bays. Learning opportunities off campus include marine science short courses in Jamaica over winter break and travel to Madagascar to study tropical rainforest ecology.

On campus we are finding ways to limit our ecological footprint by reducing energy and water consumption, planting gardens, and buying supplies locally. Internships and community service opportunities with local and national environmental groups and government agencies are not only encouraged, but expected.

Approximately 200 students are taking courses at Stony Brook Southampton this Fall, including those enrolled in the existing undergraduate Marine Sciences program which Stony Brook absorbed from Long Island University. About 2,000 students are expected to enroll within five years.

In addition to the Marine Sciences program and the programs related to the environment, Stony Brook will offer an MFA creative writing program, headed by Robert Reeves, who directed the writing program at Southampton for LIU. The Writers Conference, a 30-year institution on the East End, annually attracting leading authors and artists from across the country, was held at Stony Brook University last summer, and will return to Southampton next year. Stony Brook also plans to offer courses and events at Southampton related to its Center for Wine, Food, and Culture.