Senator Montgomery meets with students as part of Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program Advocacy Day

Senator Montgomery meets with SUNY students as part of Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program (EOP) Advocacy Day in Albany. The Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program helps provide a broad range of services to New York State residents who, because of academic and economic circumstances, would otherwise be unable to attend a postsecondary educational institution.

Under the leadership of Buffalo Assemblyman Arthur O. Eve , the appropriation bill that gave birth to the Educational Opportunity Program was adopted. Modeled on the SEEK (Search for Education, Elevation and Knowledge) program that had been instituted by Percy Sutton in the City University in the prior year, the first unit of what would become a university-wide opportunity program enrolled 249 students at the State University College at Buffalo in Buffalo, New York. In the following year, Assemblyman Eve was able to obtain sufficient funding to permit expansion to ten campuses. By  the 1970-71 academic year, thirty campuses had enrolled more than 4600 opportunity students and Education Law 6452 had formally established the provisions of SEEK and the City University, EOP in the State University and HEOP at the independent colleges.

The Educational Opportunity Program now exists on forty-three campuses in the  State University. Today, Educational Opportunity Program graduates number more than 55,000. Most continue to live in New York, enriching its economic and social fabric. Among their numbers are physicians, teachers, scientists, engineers, attorneys, artists, entrepreneurs and public servants. And, many have returned to the State University as administrators and counselors who provide support to another generation of opportunity students.

In 2006, the program was renamed the Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program, in honor of the important role former Assemblyman played in establishing the program and increasing access to higher education in New York State.

For more information on SUNY's Opportunity Programs, visit https://www.suny.edu/attend/academics/eop/

To learn more about Senator Montgomery's remarks commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program in New York State, visit https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/articles/velmanette-montgomery/senator-montgomery-celebrates-50th-anniversary-arthur-o-eve