<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:medium;"><span class="s1">The university is in the process of constructive a massive downtown innovation center that will host startups and laboratories. There are also several access points to serious funding but access to those sources are restricted. Take the NYS business plan competition. The winner receives a grant of half a million dollars but the competition is intense and no student from Binghamton has even gotten close to winning. There are ample events for networking but, as far as investors and capital goes, let's just say that most startups are forced to go lean for a long time.</span></span></span>
== <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:large;"><span class="s1">'''Engaging with regional and local economic development efforts'''</span></span><br/span><br/span> ==
<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:large;"><span class="s1"</span></span><span style="font-size: 16px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Students do not have much involvement with the local economic development despite having the resources available to do so. Organizations like SUNY best bring together a whole host of local professionals downtown to create awareness, but the number of students that attend these meetups are surprisingly low.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They unfortunately either have no awareness or are aware of the economic and social issues that persist in the city around the university but nothing is done to resolve these issues. The school also does not seem to have dedicated staff members that take initiative to bridge the gap between the university undergraduate population and the surrounding community.</span></span><div><br/></div><span style="font-size:large;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="s1"</span></span></span> <span style="font-size:large;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="s1"</span></span></span> <span style="font-size:large;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="s1"</span></span></span> <span style="font-size:large;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="s1"</span></span></span> <span style="font-size:large;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="s1"</span></span>This is an issue that has become evidently clear and could use the help of entrepreneurial initiatives to properly address it.</span>