The University at Albany began as the New York State Normal School on May 7, 1844, by vote of the State Legislature. Beginning with 29 students and four faculty in an abandoned railroad depot on State Street in the heart of the city, the Normal School was the first New York State-chartered institution of higher education.

Dedicated to training New York students as schoolteachers and administrators, by the early 1890s the “School” had become the New York State Normal College and, with a revised four-year curriculum in 1905, became the first public institution of higher education in New York to be granted the power to confer the bachelor’s degree.

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SUNY_Albany#History