Binghamton University began in 1946 as an extension of Syracuse University. It was then called Triple Cities College (of Syracuse University), and had several hundred students. This was the time when many veterans of World War II were returning, and the demand for higher education was intense. Among its original faculty was Felix Bernstein, a very well-known statistician in his day, and (as a young man) one of the discoverers of the famous Cantor-Schroeder-Bernstein Theorem in set theory.

In 1950, Triple Cities College was acquired by the State University of New York (SUNY) system, and was renamed Harpur College of Arts and Sciences (named after Robert Harpur, an 18th century settler and educator). This was a high-level liberal arts college, and through the 50's and early 60's Harpur gained a substantial reputation in New York State as a “Public Swarthmore” - the comparison being with that famous private undergraduate college near Philadelphia – the word “public” suggesting low-cost, as distinct from a high-priced highly reputed “private” college.

In 1961, the State University of New York system began a vast expansion, and four of its institutions, one being Harpur, were selected to become research universities. The name was formally changed to State University of New York at Binghamton. More recently, the informal name Binghamton University has taken over.

Binghamton University now has more than 17,000 students. The Department of Mathematical Sciences began giving doctoral degrees in mathematics in 1968 and also in mathematical statistics in 1975. Among the Department's notable statistics faculty is Distinguished Professor Emeritus Shelemyahu "Shelley" Zacks, who joined the Department in 1980 as Professor and Chair. Throughout his career, Professor Zacks made a number of ground-breaking contributions in various branches of statistics and applied probability, including (and especially) sequential analysis.