Courtesy Empire State University
By Rod Bacon
Empire State University was founded with the mission of providing adult student-centered education.
As New York State’s only online public university, it has graduated 105,000 alumni since it was established as a college in 1971. Currently, there are 18,500 students enrolled from all 50 states. The youngest graduate is 19 and the oldest is 83. The school is growing at 10 percent per year.
According to President Lisa Vollendorf, Ph.D., there are significant challenges facing education today that are addressed by the school. She said there is a lot of questioning around whether there is true value to a college degree.
“There is a whole generation who have accumulated a lot of debt going to college and are having a difficult time paying down that debt,” she said.
In addition, there are about 42 million Americans with some college but no credential, meaning they took some college at some point but never graduated.
“Those two things together have created real challenges in the eyes of the public and policy makers around the true value of college and what the investment should be in college on the part of taxpayers,” she said.
Dr. Vollendorf emphasized that these challenges were not created by Empire State or institutions like it. Undergraduate tuition is less than $7,500 and credit is awarded for prior learning.
“Empire has a long tradition of being committed to full transferability,” she said. “One of the things that happens in education is people attend one college and transfer to another but a lot of the time more than forty percent of credits aren’t transferable. We award up to ninety-three transfer credits.”
The school offers online courses leading to more then 25 undergraduate degrees and five undergraduate certificates, as well as 29 graduate degrees and 27 graduate certificates. Eighty-four percent of students receive financial aid or scholarships. A variety of programs focus on military veterans or those actively serving.
There is an in-person apprenticeship program through Local Union No. 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers held at the Empire State University Harry Van Arsdale Jr. School of Labor Studies in New York City in which students graduate with their journeyman card and an associate’s degree after a five-year apprenticeship.
Through its Center for International Education it offers in-person courses at sites in Albania, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Greece, Lebanon, and Turkey.
Dr. Vollendorf has over 30 years experience in higher education, much of it in the California State University system. She was a faculty member at Long Beach State, a dean at San Jose State, and a provost at Sonoma State.
Since accepting the position as president in 2022 she has implemented many forward-looking initiatives.
In March 2023 the school transitioned from a college to a university, making it the first and only public online university in the state.
She also established a partnership with Northwell Health, New York State’s largest healthcare network and private employer. Together, she said, they are responsive to workforce needs and are helping to create more qualified healthcare workers across the state.
The school works with the state to address workforce shortages. It currently has a $1 million grant to help paraprofessionals in education earn bachelor’s degrees, giving them a pathway to a teaching career.
Integral to the success of the university is the Empire State University Foundation, a 510(c)(3) nonprofit organization that raises private funds to support student scholarships, academic programs, and university infrastructure.
In December 2025 the foundation purchased the historic Clarke House in Saratoga Springs from Cathy and Elliott Masie for $2.5 million. This was made possible, in part, due to a $1.1 million gift from the Masies.
According to Amanda Sbriscia, Ed.D., vice president for advancement and executive director of the Empire State Foundation, renovations expected to cost under $1 million are currently underway and scheduled to be completed by late summer. The home will serve as a venue for donor cultivation, alumni gatherings, community engagement, and other official university functions.
“There is a tremendous amount of passion for the work Empire State University does to enable students to achieve their dreams of higher education,” she said. “What is so wonderful about the Clarke Hose project is that it will be a space to do more of that work because we’ll be bringing people together to talk about philanthropy.”