Marks of Distinction

• National Recognition

• Academic Quality

• Faculty and Staff

• Community Service

• Curricular and Co-Curricular Integration

• Scholar Athletes

• Facilities and Technology

• Internationalization

• Alumni

National Recognition

• U.S. News and World Report has ranked Geneseo 1st or 2nd in the "Top Public University-Master's" category every year since 1998 in its "America's Best Colleges" guide.
• In 2009 issue, U.S. News and World Report also named Geneseo to its new category of "Up and Coming Schools."  Geneseo tied for 7th on this list of schools distinguished by "promising and innovative changes in academics, faculty, students, campus or facilities."
• In the last five years, Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine rated Geneseo the nation's 1st or 2nd Best Value for out-of-state students, and in the top 10 for in-state students. Read their 2008 article, "Best Values in Public Colleges" (.pdf)
  
• The Washington Monthly, which ranks colleges on how much social mobility, research, and public service they foster, placed Geneseo in the top 10 nationally in the master's category in 2010.
• The Fiske Guide to Colleges has consistently rated Geneseo a "Best Buy" based on "quality of academic offerings in relation to cost."

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Academic Quality

• Geneseo is one of only 280 college and universities in the country with a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest and most distinguished student honor society in the country.
• Geneseo students have received 14 prestigious Goldwater Scholarships.
• Geneseo is among the nation's top producers of bachelor's degrees in physics according to the American Institute of Physics, and the only Rochester-area college to house a particle accelerator for research applications.
• Over 40 percent of Geneseo's students -- twice the national average -- pursue full-time graduate study immediately after graduation.
• In Learning Initiatives in the Residential Setting (2008), published by the National Resource Center for First Year Experience & Students in Transition, Geneseo is cited for its model programs in residentially-based student learning.
• Three of Geneseo's students have received highly competitive U.S. State Department Critical Language Scholarships in that last two years, two in Turkish and one in Russian. The scholarships offer them intensive summer programs abroad.

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Faculty and Staff

• Geneseo's current faculty have won 13 national awards for teaching excellence, including two Haimo Distinguished Teaching Awards from the Mathematical Association of America; the Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award; the Society for the Psychology of Women's Heritage Award for Contributions to the Teaching of Psychology; both winners of the inaugural CARA Award for Excellence in Teaching Medieval Studies; and a finalist for the national Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teachers, among others. Other teaching awards include two CASE State Professors of the Year for New York.
• Vice President Robert Bonfiglio received the 2009 Ted K. Miller Achievement of Excellence Award from the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education.
• Vice President Ken Levison was named 2009 Financial Executive of the Year by the Rochester Business Journal and Financial Executives International.
• Professor of Anthropology Rose-Marie Chierici received the 2008 Ernest A. Lynton Citation for Distinguished Engaged Scholarship, a national award for her collaborative work providing health care to Borgne, Haiti.The Executive Chef for Geneseo's dining services was selected in a nationwide competition to participate in an innovative leadership program at the Culinary Institute of America, the world's premier culinary college.
• Milne Library staff received a national innovation award from the American Library Association in 2008 for the intercollegiate library consortium it established to deliver interlibrary loan articles in less than 24 hours and books in less than 72 hours.
• Two Milne librarians received the 2011 Innovation Award from the Association of College and Research Libraries for their LILAC (Library Instruction Leadership Academy), a collaborative professional development project for librarians in K-12, community college, and college/university libraries.

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Excellence in Community Service

• In 2006, Geneseo was one of nine colleges in the nation to receive a Katrina Compassion Award, for its role in the on-going Livingston CARES hurricane relief program.
• Geneseo has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll every year since the honor roll began in 2006.
• Over 20 years ago, Geneseo began an annual project in which student-athletes assist senior citizens with leaf-raking; in 2005 the SUNY Athletic Conference used it as a model for a statewide initiative involving over 1500 athletes. In 2007, Geneseo was among 18 colleges and universities nationwide to receive a prestigious NADIIIAA/Josten's Commmunity Service Award for this senior citizen assistance project.
• In 2009, Geneseo received an NADIIIAA/Josten's Community Service Honorable Mention award for an array of community service projects. In 2008, the College received an Award of Merit for sponsoring Sportsmanship Summits for high school athletes, and in 2006, received an Award of Merit for its leaf-raking project.

• The American Cancer Society awarded Geneseo one of five national awards for per capita achievement in 2006 for its student-led Relay for Life fundraiser, in which 800+ students participated.

• In 2005, the National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Foundation named Geneseo First Response the Outstanding Collegiate EMS Organization of the Year. It is the only student-run EMS unit in New York State that is directly integrated into the 911 system.

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Curricular and Co-curricular Integration

• Geneseo supports over 200 student organizations with over 3,000 members.
• Geneseo faculty and students produce 10 theater productions annually, support 12 musical performance groups and 2 dance troupes, and host 4 art galleries.
• The Geneseo Opportunities for Leadership Development (GOLD) program engages over 4,500 students and has won two national awards since 2002.
• The College Union's bystander intervention training program received the first-ever "Collaborative Program of the Year Award" from the Association of College Unions International in 2010.
• Geneseo programs received two of the four "SUNY Outstanding Student Affairs Program Awards" in 2010.
• The 2008 and 2009 Spring Performing Arts Calendar earned a national APEX Award for Publication Excellence.
• Geneseo’s College Union student manager program was cited as a model for staff development in the May 2008 edition of the Bulletin of the Association of College Unions International.
• Geneseo Late Knight received the inaugural award for the “Staff-driven Program of the Year” by the Association of College Unions International, in 2008. 

• Geneseo was recognized for over 60% student voter turn-out in the 2008 Campus Votes Challenge.

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Scholar Athletes

• In 2010-2011, Geneseo Knights won six SUNYAC championships and five coaches were honored with SUNYAC Coach of the Year awards.
• Geneseo has produced 31 percent of the SUNYAC Scholar-Athletes since this award was established in 2003-04. In 2010-2011, Geneseo student-athletes garnered 44 percent (8 out of 18) of the awards in sports in which the College competes.
• Seven of Geneseo's intercollegiate teams were named national All-Academic teams in 2010-2011. 
• Fourteen Geneseo student-athletes earned 15 All-America awards in 2010-2011.
• Geneseo men's swimming and diving team has won 18 of the last 22 SUNYAC titles, including 13 in a row, while the women's swimming and diving team has captured 19 of the previous 22 SUNYAC championships.
• The Blue Knights have claimed 18 of the last 22 SUNYAC championships in women's and men's cross-country.

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Quality of Facilities and Technology

• Geneseo's $53 million Integrated Science Center (ISC) earned a Gold Award for Excellence from the American Council of Engineering Companies. 
• The design of Seneca residence hall, an Energy Star-qualified facility opened in 2009, earned a Certificate of Achievement by the American Institute of Architects.
• Geneseo received the 2010 Environmental Leadership Award from The Rochester Business Journal for resource reduction.
• Putnam residence hall earned the 2004 Design for Excellence Award by the Rochester Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

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Internationalization

• Geneseo has partnership agreements to enhance student exchange and study with higher education institutions in 22 countries, included dual-diploma degree programs with institutions in Mexico, Turkey, Jamaica, and Russia.
• Over 16 Geneseo faculty members have been Fulbright Scholars at universities around the world.
• Over 300 Geneseo students study outside the U.S. each year.
• Through a partnership with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the Village of HOPE in Ghana, Shear School of Education majors may opt to fulfill part of their student teaching requirement in public schools in Ghana.
• The James Birx Distinguished Scholar Award funds a lecture and student interaction for a distinguished scholar from another country. The 2009 award recipient was Dr. Neve Gordon of Israel.
• Geneseo received one of four state awards from the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Academic Service Entrepreneur (CASE) program recognizing excellence in academic service learning, for its initiative in Nicaragua called “For the Future Smiles of El Sauce.”

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Alumni

A few of Geneseo's outstanding alumni:

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