An Era of Service and Scholarship: Alan Mandell retires after 50-year career at SUNY Empire

(SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – AUGUST 29, 2024) If you ask Alan Mandell to describe his nearly 50-year career at Empire State University in one word, he’d say “lucky.”

“I think all of us have been lucky, and I’ve been individually lucky, to work with the most diverse group of human beings one could imagine,” Mandell said. “Part of our lucky stance is to learn from our students; they come from an incredible range of experiences and often had to go through astonishing twists and turns to be able to achieve what they have wanted to achieve.” 

Mandell, a distinguished professor, scholar, and mentor at the university, is retiring in September and leaving behind a lasting impact on all students, faculty, and staff who knew him. He began his career at Empire State University in 1975, just four years after the university was founded by Ernest LeRoy Boyer and James W. Hall, with the mission to provide a flexible and affordable education through the State University of New York. At the time, Mandell was a graduate student working as a mentor and adjunct out of the university’s former office in the library basement at Rockland Community College.

He’s seen the university change shape more than anyone and said the university’s mission still shines just as it did in its early days.

“Part of what I gained from being a part of this place was the experiential learning of being in an experimental institution that wanted to rethink what higher education was really about,” Mandell said. “That idea, and that practice, has been alive and kicking for all of these years and we have to keep thinking about how that can continue to happen.”

An Era of Service and Scholarship

Mandell holds degrees from CUNY Graduate Center, New School for Social Research, and the University of Chicago. Throughout his time at SUNY Empire, he has worn many hats, serving as a distinguished professor of adult learning and mentoring, an associate dean, mentor, and director of the university’s mentoring institute. Mandell edited the college journal, All About Mentoring, and co-edited PLA Inside-Out. He was the first Susan Turben Chair in Mentoring and has been recognized with several accolades for his transformative efforts during his career.

In 2020, Mandell was honored as a State University of New York Distinguished Service Professor, recognized for his decades of service to the SUNY system, Empire State University, and his central role in shaping the mentor program critical to SUNY Empire’s one-on-one learning model.

In addition to his contributions around the university, Mandell is a globally recognized scholar. In 2009, he received the Eugene Sullivan Award for Leadership in Adult Higher Education by the Adult Higher Education Alliance. He is also the recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (2001), the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Professional Services (1991), and the Excellence in Mentoring Award (2000). In 2023, he received the Morris Keeton award from CAEL, the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning.

Mandell has been published several times throughout his academic career. He is a co-author of two editions of “Portfolio Development and the Assessment of Prior Learning.” He also co-wrote “From Teaching to Mentoring: Principle and Practice, Dialogue and Life in Adult Education,” edited “Principles, Practices, and Creative Tensions in Progressive Higher Education: One Institution’s Struggle to Sustain a Vision,” and has written many essays and book chapters. He has given many presentations on adult learning, mentoring, and prior experiential learning over the decades.

A Lasting Impact

As Mandell enters his next chapter, he said the stories of SUNY Empire’s students, faculty, and staff, and the lessons he learned through them will stick with him the most.

“The very idea of expertise was questioned,” Mandell said. “It meant that you often talked to students and realized that the student knows something you don’t. The very idea of mentoring opened up the possibility of a kind of reciprocity between a student and faculty member that was unusual, wonderful, and actually quite extraordinary. This is a very different kind of academic institution.”

As for what’s next, Mandell said he hopes to further explore the ideas and practices of prior experiential learning, and the ideals about teaching and learning contained in Empire State University’s core values.

“Great strides have been made in so many different areas between 1971 and 2024 and yet we live in a stunningly unequal world,” Mandell said. “What role do we have in changing any of that? I care about those things, and I will continue to, I hope, write and participate in various groups with colleagues to keep working at it. There’s a lot to do.”