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Dr. Barbara Shineman has devoted her professional career to advocacy on behalf of higher education and the advancement of SUNY Oswego as a premier educational institution. Dr. Shineman's life is entwined with the college as an alumna, professor emerita and benefactor.
Most recently, Dr. Barbara Shineman, a lifelong philanthropist, has made a commitment to give a $5 million gift to SUNY Oswego from herself and the Richard S. Shineman Foundation, requesting that the college's newly renovated and constructed state-of-the-art Science, Engineering and Innovation Corridor be named in honor of her beloved late husband, Dr. Richard S. Shineman, professor emeritus. This historic gift is of unprecedented magnitude for Oswego and carries with it great transformational potential.
Born in Albion, N.Y., in 1928, Dr. Barbara Shineman is an honored alumna of SUNY Oswego, having graduated as a non-traditional student with an undergraduate degree in childhood education in 1965 and a master's degree in reading education in 1971.
She is a professor emerita, having served in Oswego's School of Education from 1969 to 1989. Her teaching career at SUNY Oswego began in the Campus School. She later directed both the Sheldon Institute for Gifted and Talented Students and the Potential Teacher Program and coordinated Swetman Learning Center advisement while continuing her work as a professor of elementary education.
With deep engagement in and service to her cherished alma mater, she has been an active participant in the life of the college. Shineman is a member and former president of the Oswego Emeriti Association, who led the effort to establish a historical record within all named campus buildings. In addition, she served on a Presidential Search Committee and as the Annual Fund Volunteer Chairperson, and has received the Oswego Alumni Association's Lifetime Award of Merit. Her work continued when she was a member of the Presidential Campaign Cabinet for the college's first capital campaign, Inspiring Horizons, and she served for more than a decade on the Oswego Alumni Association Scholarship Committee and the Oswego College Foundation Board. President Deborah F. Stanley presented her with a Presidential Medal at the 2007 Commencement Ceremony for her lifelong selfless support of SUNY Oswego.
Her great generosity to SUNY Oswego includes her leadership role as a charter member of the Sheldon Legacy Society, the college's planned giving program, as well as establishing student awards and scholarships, supporting The Fund for Oswego and the Emeriti Association, and making most generous gifts to two capital campaigns. Prior to the recent $5 million gift in honor of her husband, her lifetime giving to the college totaled more than $500,000.
Her more than five decades of loyal service to SUNY Oswego encompasses a combination of employment, volunteer service and generous philanthropy. She has devoted her professional and personal life experiences to advancing the mission of SUNY Oswego.
In accordance with the Oswego College Foundation Campus Naming Opportunities Policy and in recognition of Drs. Barbara and Richard Shineman's lifelong engagement with and magnificent generosity to SUNY Oswego, President Deborah F. Stanley and the Oswego College Foundation have approved the naming of the Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation.
The Oswego College Council approved the naming terms for this historic gift on Nov. 30, and the matter will go before the SUNY Board of Trustees for a final determination on Dec. 17.
SUNY Oswego celebrates this historic, unprecedented act of philanthropy that will live on in perpetuity for generations of Oswegonians, and the college community acknowledges and honors Dr. Barbara P. Shineman and the late Dr. Richard S. Shineman for their generosity.
