By MIA QUICK
Web Editor
The Cold Case Analysis Center (CCAC) is close to finalizing plans to move just down the street to UAlbany, along with its director, Dr. Camela Hughes.
UAlbany’s downtown campus at 135 Western Ave. will potentially be hosting the CCAC, providing undergraduate and graduate students access to the facility. Hughes predicts that the same agencies and the current cases will continue to work with the CCAC through the transfer.
Similar to her Saint Rose position, Hughes will be appointed as a visiting assistant professor and the Director of the CCAC. Her position will be considered temporary and will be contract based. Hughes was first named interim director when former director Christina Lane left abruptly last October, but then became director of the CCAC.
The announcement of the move to UAlbany came during a Zoom meeting with the School of Criminal Justice at UAlbany and is in the works to be finalized.
The unique CCAC program has attracted interest from schools nationwide, said Hughes. “I’ve heard from five or six colleges and universities across the country that are trying to do the same thing, that are interested in starting something like this,” she said.
However, it was Hughes’s contacts with colleagues at UAlbany who first reached out, expressing their concerns. Shortly after, discussions began about bringing the program to UAlbany in order to further expand its criminal justice program. The program will provide a project-based learning experience, said Hughes.
“Everybody that I know there is really focused on project-based learning and recognizes this is a different way to do these sorts of things,” said Hughes. “I think they see how valuable it is for students, as well as the community, to have these kinds of places exist.” UAlbany has expressed their interest in keeping the program the same as it has been.
Hughes said she is not concerned with competing against Russell Sage’s Criminal Investigation Resource Center, where Lane is now. “There’s plenty of missing and murdered folks in the United States and in the world, that we don’t have to be territorial about competing for the three ‘cool’, most well-known cases in the area,” she said.
Hughes hopes that the switch to a new, larger school, will give the CCAC a chance to expand its fundraising efforts and range of cases. Specifically, those surrounding missing Indigenous women. She said she also believes the size of the school may allow for more opportunities to work with other departments.
“There’ll be a whole new group of folks who have connections with places that might open more doors, because a lot of getting cases is about who you know or who knows who, or who can introduce you to places,” said Hughes, “because it is some seriously confidential stuff and you don’t want to hand over that sort of thing to people you don’t know.”
UAlbany’s downtown campus is smaller than the uptown campus, and is similar to Saint Rose’s feel, said Hughes. Students who are currently in the CCAC would not be required to reapply and any UAlbany student interested in the program would go through the existing application process.
During the summer, Hughes will be tasked with finalizing legal, confidentiality, new cooperative agreements, and transferring logos. She hopes to begin work in the fall.
“We will reach out to agencies we work with and let them know this is the plan, and are they okay with continuing the work in a new location? Because it’s not up to me, it’s theirs,” said Hughes.
