the first colleges in new york state were established privately, with some arising from local seminaries. new york state has a long history of supported higher education prior to the start of the suny system in 1948. on may 7, 1844, the state legislature voted to establish new york state normal school in albany as the first college for teacher education. in 1865 new york created cornell university as its land grant college. new york began direct financial support of cornell's statutory colleges in 1894. from 1889 to 1903, cornell operated the new york state college of forestry, until the governor vetoed its annual appropriation. the school was moved to syracuse university in 1911. it is now the state university of new york college of environmental science and forestry. in 1908, the state legislature began the ny state college of ceramics at alfred university.