As Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger prepares to step down after nearly 14 years at the helm, his signature initiative designed to improve and expand the campus community will also come to an end.

Launched in 2013, the Road Map initiative aimed to grow the University’s “faculty and staff, increase enrollment and expand the University’s capacity for research and industry partnerships.” The Road Map initiative created six goals that Stenger wanted the University to meet in the coming years: engaging in creative activities; providing a “transformative learning community;” building an inclusive campus; promoting community engagement; strategically investing resources; and boosting internationalization.

Interns were also hired to assist in meeting these objectives. Starting in 2012 with just four interns, the initiative grew into a two-credit program in 2015, sponsored by the Career Development Center Internship Program. Since then, interns have dedicated hours each week to researching new campus initiatives.

The interns have made their mark on campus over the years through their ideas, from having freshmen take the B-Photo at the Bearcat Sports Complex’s practice field to unveiling a binturong statue in the Admissions Center.

“I think the Road Map’s greatest success was how much student interns contributed to its work,” Stenger told Pipe Dream in a statement. “Their ideas were highly valued and drove much of what the Road Map did in making Binghamton University bigger and better.”

In the final program report released in August, Stenger credited the work of students, faculty, staff and community as playing an important role in helping the University achieve successes under his administration, including record-high applications and enrollment rates.

Mackenzie Cooper ‘25, a former Road Map internship coordinator and a first-year graduate student studying public administration, said the program “brought a new prestige” to the University and “helped enhance the Binghamton name.”

Cooper said her favorite memory of the internship program was unveiling the bearcat statue in the Admissions Center. The statue, nicknamed “Bingturong,” was proposed by former Road Map interns Nora Monasheri ’23 MBA ’24, Mia Raskin ’23 MBA ’24 and Daniel Chavarria ‘24 to commemorate 25 years of BU’s current mascot.

“We have such an amazing school, but sometimes we lack appreciation for that,” Cooper told BingUNews at the time. “With this bearcat statue, we want to get everyone excited — maybe high-five the binturong for good luck on the way to class.”

Road Map interns also helped implement a Plan B vending machine in the Glenn G. Bartle Library basement. Working with a coalition of campus leaders, the interns helped conduct student surveys, prepare presentations and coordinate with outside organizations to bring the project to reality.

“The Road Map provided a venue for many members of the University community to deliberate on strategies for the University’s future and address developing challenges while keeping Binghamton’s mission and its most cherished values at the forefront of those discussions,” said Donald Hall, the University’s provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.

Stenger said that ending the program was a “necessary step” to allow BU’s next president, Anne D’Alleva, to forge her own vision for the campus community.

In the final report, Stenger analyzed the extent to which the program had met its goals over the years.

“To all those who were ever part of the Road Map, thank you for making Binghamton bigger and better without losing sight of what makes this such a special place,” read a statement from Stenger posted on the program’s website. “As the Road Map ends, know that we have reached our destination.”