203. Officers
202. RegentsThe University of the State of New York shall be governed and all its corporate powers exercised by a board of regents the number of whose members shall at all times be four more than the number of the then existing judicial districts of the state and shall not be less than fifteen. The regents in office April first, nineteen hundred seventy-four shall hold office, in the order of their election, for such times that the term of one such regent will expire in each year on the first day of April. Commencing April first, nineteen hundred seventy-four, each regent shall be elected for a term of seven years, each such term to expire on the first day of April. Commencing on April first, nineteen hundred ninety-four, each regent shall be elected for a term of five years, each such term to expire on the first day of April. Each regent shall be elected by the legislature by concurrent resolution in the preceding March, on or before the first Tuesday of such month. If, however, the legislature fails to agree on such concurrent resolution by the first Tuesday of such month, then the two houses shall meet in joint session at noon on the second Tuesday of such month and proceed to elect such regent by joint ballot.
203. Officers
The elective officers of the university shall be a chancellor and a vice-chancellor who shall serve without a salary, and such other officers as are deemed necessary by the regents, all of whom shall be chosen by ballot by the regents and shall hold office during their pleasure; but no election, removal or change of salary of an elective officer shall be made by less than six votes in favor thereof. Each regent and each elective officer shall, before entering on his duties, take and file with the secretary of state the oath of office required to state officers.
The chancellor shall preside at all convocations and at all meetings of the regents, and confer all degrees which they shall authorize. In his absence or inability to act, the vice-chancellor, or if he be also absent, the senior regent present, shall perform all the duties and have all the powers of the chancellor.
204. Meetings and absences
The regents may provide for regular meetings, and the chancellor, or the commissioner of education, or any five regents, may at any time call a special meeting of the board of regents and fix the time and place therefor; and at least ten days' notice of every meeting shall be mailed to the usual address of each regent. If any regent shall fail to attend three consecutive meetings, without excuse accepted as satisfactory by the regents, he may be deemed to have resigned and the regents shall then report the vacancy to the legislature, which shall fill it.
205. Quorum
Seven regents attending shall be a quorum for the transaction of business.
206. Authority to take testimony and conduct hearings
The regents, any committee thereof, the commissioner of education, the deputy and any associate and assistant commissioner of education and the counsel of the department may take testimony or hear proofs relating to their official duties, or in any matter which they may lawfully investigate. Hearings by the regents pursuant to any of the provisions of this chapter may be given by or before not less than three members of the regents designated by the regents or by the chancellor of the university to hold such hearings, but any decision or determination in such proceedings shall be made by the regents.
207. Legislative power
Subject and in conformity to the constitution and laws of the state, the regents shall exercise legislative functions concerning the educational system of the state, determine its educational policies and, except, as to the judicial functions of the commissioner of education, establish rules for carrying into effect the laws and policies of the state, relating to education, and the functions, powers, duties and trusts conferred or charged upon the university and the education department. But no enactment of the regents shall modify in any degree the freedom of the governing body of any seminary for the training of priests or clergymen to determine and regulate the entire course of religious, doctrinal and theological instruction to be given in such institution. No rule by which more than a majority vote shall be required for any specified action by the regents shall be amended, suspended or repealed by a smaller vote than that required for action thereunder. Rules or regulations, or amendments of education as provided by law shall not be effective unless and until approved by the regents, except where authority is conferred by the regents upon the commissioner of education to adopt, prescribe, amend or repeal such rules or regulations.
208. General examinations, credentials and degrees
The regents may confer by diploma under their seal such honorary degrees as they may deem proper, and may establish examinations as to attainments in learning, and may award and confer suitable certificates, diplomas and degrees on persons who satisfactorily meet the requirements prescribed.
209. Academic examinations; admissions and fees
The regents shall establish in the secondary institutions of the university, examinations in studies furnishing a suitable standard of graduation therefrom and of admission to colleges, and certificates or diplomas shall be conferred by the regents on students who satisfactorily pass such examinations.
Any person shall be admitted to these examinations who shall conform to the rules and pay the fees prescribed by the regents.
210. Registrations
The regents may register domestic and foreign institutions in terms of New York standards, and fix the value of degrees, diplomas and certificates issued by institutions of other states or countries and presented for entrance to schools, colleges and the professions in this state.
211. Supervision of professions
1. Conformably to law the regents may supervise the entrance regulations to and the licensing and the practicing of the professions of medicine, physiotherapy, dentistry, dental hygiene, nursing, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, optometry, podiatry, engineering, land surveying, architecture, chiropractic, and landscape architecture, and also supervise the certification of ophthalmic dispensing, certified public accountants, short-hand reporters, psychologists, social workers, and the licensing, certification or enrollment of members of any other profession which may hereafter come under the supervision of the board of regents. Hearings by the regents under disciplinary proceedings pursuant to the provisions of this chapter relating to such professions may be given by or before not less than three members of the regents or by three persons, one of whom may be a member of the regents, in each case to be designated by the regents or by the chancellor of the university to hold such hearings, but any decision or determination in such proceedings shall be made by the regents. Hearings shall be upon the record before the grievance committee, or before the board of examiners of those professions wherein no grievance committee is specifically provided by law. The regents' committees conducting such hearings shall render a written report to the regents, including a statement as to the findings of fact and the evidence together with their recommendations, and the regents, without further hearing, shall in their discretion execute an order accepting or changing the determination of the grievance committee or board of examiners. The regents may in their discretion suspend the execution of a determination of censure and reprimand or suspension or revocation of the license of a practitioner and place such practitioner on probation subject to his compliance with conditions which the regents may determine. Members of the regents' committee shall be entitled to receive their necessary travel expenses together with compensation at the rate fixed by the regents not exceeding one hundred dollars per day for the necessary time spent in considering cases which come before them.
2. The regents may by rule or order accept evidence of preliminary and professional education, and where practice is a preerquisite to licensure may receive evidence of such practice in whatever state or country the same may have been obtained or engaged in, for licensing a candidate to practice anu such profession in lieu of that prescribed by the laws relating to such profession; provided it shall appear to the satisfaction of the regents that such candidate has substantially met the requirements of such laws.
3. And the regents shall have further power to indorse a license issued by a legally constituted board of examiners in any other state or country upon satisfactory evidence that the applicant has met any requirements in force in this state as to citizenship and residence and has completed, as of the date of such application, education and training which is substantially the equivalent of the requirements in force in this state when such license was issued, and that the applicant has been in the lawful and reputable practice of his profession for a period of no less than five years prior to his making application for such indorsement, or in the event that a lesser period of practice, or no practice, is required for indorsement of a license to practice such profession by the provisions of this chapter relating to the practice of the particular profession, such license may be indorsed upon submission of satisfactory evidence that the applicant has met the requirement of such other provision as to practice. When the evidence presented is not satisfying sufficient to warrant the indorsement of such license, the board of regents may require that the candidate for indorsement shall pass such subjects of the licensing examination specified by statute or regents rule as should be required of the candidate to establish his worthiness to receive such indorsement.
4. And the regents shall have further power to indorse a certificate of rehabilitation of the United States veterans' bureau or administration, issued to any rehabilitated disabled veteran of the state of New York, as a license to practice any of the professions over which it now has supervision, or any other profession which may hereafter come under the supervision of the regents. Where the certificate of rehabilitation presented certifies that the disabled veteran has been rehabilitated in the professions of medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, or optometry, the board of regents may require that the rehabilitated disabled veteran shall pass such subjects of the licensing examination specified by statute or regents' rule as should be required of him to establish his worthiness to receive such indorsement.
5. In the event that any person whose registration or license in any of the aforesaid professions is not legal or in the event any person who is not registered or licensed because of some error, misunderstanding, unintentional omission, or other cause which the regents may determine to be excusable, shall submit to the regents satisfactory proof that he possessed all the requirements prescribed by law at the time required for registration or license, or their equivalents, he may, by action of the regents, receive from the education department a license or a certificate of facts under a seal which may be registered by any county clerk and shall make valid the previous imperfect registration or shall remedy such failure to apply for or to receive such license, and such license or certificate shall include the date on which such person could or should have registeretd or could or should have applied for or received such license, and his registration or license, as the case may be, shall be deemed to have been valid and corrected from that date.
6. The regents may appoint a committee of not less than three persons, any of whom may be a member of the regents, who shall review applications made pursuant to subdivisions two, three, four and five of this section. Such committee shall render a report to the regents after review of each such application. Members of the regents committee appointed pursuant to this subdivision who are not members of the board of regents shall be entitled to receive fifty dollars per day for each day actually spent in reviewing such applications and shall also be reimbursed for their necessary traveling expenses.
7. Where high school graduation or the completion of a four-year high school course is a prerequisite under any provision of this chapter, the regents may accept an equivalency high school diploma in lieu thereof. The commissioner of education, with the approval of the regents, shall fix the fee or charge to be paid by students who are applicants for such examination.
* Selected sections from the Education Law. Please refer to the Law for a more comprehensive understanding of the role of the New York State Board of Regents.
You may access the full text of the Education Law by clicking here: New York State Senate