The Village of Johnson City has renamed a street to honor former Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger.

The city’s board passed a local law to officially rename the eastern section of Corliss Avenue, which runs parallel to the University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Decker College of Nursing, as “H. Stenger Place.” The change comes after Stenger officially retired from his position at the end of October 2025 and recognizes him for his contributions to the Johnson City area, according to former mayor Martin Meaney.

Meaney told WNBF News that the street name acknowledges Stenger for his “commitment to the community, especially in that area of Johnson City” and how University buildings in the area have “brought a lot of great development.”

According to Meaney, Stenger did not want the renaming to be a spectacle, so no formal announcement was made when the new signs were put in place.

“Those new programs that we’ve added in those health sciences areas have really been the key to revitalizing, starting to revitalize Johnson City,” Stenger said in a May 2025 interview with Spectrum News.

Under Stenger’s leadership, the University became the second-largest employer in Broome County and has a $1.4 billion annual impact in the region. Stenger also oversaw the expansion of graduate programs, including the establishment of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Johnson City.

Stenger’s tenure also strengthened the University’s presence in the local community through projects like New Energy New York, which established a battery research center that is now a federally designated Regional Tech Hub.

“We wanted to honor President Stenger for all the good that he’s done for Johnson City,” Meaney told the Press & Sun Bulletin. “He isn’t one that likes the accolades, so when we came up with this idea, we more or less told him, ‘you can’t trump us on this one, it’s going to happen.’”

Before presiding at the University, Stenger was a professor and co-chair of Lehigh University’s Department of Chemical Engineering. Stenger was also dean of Lehigh’s Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science and director of the Lehigh Environmental Studies Center. He also worked at the University of Buffalo as an interim provost and dean before becoming president of BU in 2012. Stenger earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University in 1979 and a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984.

“I want to thank President Harvey Stenger for his years of dedicated and visionary leadership at Binghamton University,” said State Sen. Lea Webb ‘04 in an August press release. “His commitment to academic excellence, innovation, and community engagement has left a lasting legacy on the institution and our region.”

On Nov. 1, 2025, Anne D’Alleva officially assumed her duties as the next University president. Before arriving at Binghamton, D’Alleva was provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Connecticut.

“Binghamton University shares the Village of Johnson City’s deep appreciation for the work President Stenger led in developing the Health Sciences Campus and reinvigorating the downtown area,” said President D’Alleva in a statement to Pipe Dream. “Both the University and our community are stronger because of these efforts and the naming of H. Stenger Place is a fitting and lasting tribute to the University’s mission and values.”