The university was initially established in 1966 as a graduate and upper-division (transfer) institution known as the
Upper Division College at Herkimer/Rome/Utica. Beginning in 1969 the school offered classes in temporary locations such as classrooms at an elementary school and a disused mill building, After a decade of growing enrollment, the school took on a new name in 1977, the
State University of New York College of Technology at Utica–Rome. A decade later, in 1987, the school finally moved to its present location in
Marcy and, two years later in 1989, changed its name again, becoming the
State University of New York Institute of Technology at Utica–Rome (SUNYIT). In 2002, the SUNY Board of Trustees approved a mission change, enabling SUNYIT to add lower-division programs in professional, technological, and applied studies to its upper-division offerings. In 2003, SUNYIT admitted its first class of freshmen, becoming a four-year institution. This merger created five colleges within the institute: the College of Arts & Sciences, the College of Engineering, the College of Health Sciences, the College of Business Management, and the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. This was part of a larger effort by state government to create a nanotechnology hub in the Mohawk Valley. In September 2016, SUNY Poly President
Alain E. Kaloyeros was charged with felony bid rigging. He was consequently suspended as president without pay. Kaloyeros was convicted in 2018, but the
Supreme Court of the United States overturned Kaloyeros's conviction in 2023. In its 2016 tax filings, SUNY Poly disclosed investments in a number of
box-office bombs produced by
Ron Perlman, including a $750,000 investment in
Pottersville. In 2022, semiconductor manufacturer
Wolfspeed opened a plant at the Marcy Nanocenter at SUNY Polytechnic Institute. In December 2022, the SUNY Board of Trustees voted to return the
College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) to the University at Albany. The transfer was completed in August 2023. ==Campus==