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The end of the semester is imminent, and the accomplishments of our college community have been nothing short of amazing so far this year. I have attended several meetings and events hosted by student clubs and organizations, dance and theatre performances, athletic competitions, faculty awards ceremonies, lectures, scholarly presentations and more. It has been wonderful, and I thank everyone who contributed to making these important and enriching activities possible this year.
The President's Advisory Council on Internal Communication (PACIC) is meeting regularly and working on several initiatives. PACIC members serve as liaisons between the committee and all divisions and areas of the college, and updates on initiatives will be shared as planning progresses. I am excited about the group's work and the positive impact it will bring to our community. Please reach out to PACIC co-chairs Kathy Meeker and/or Bill Vining if you have any questions.
After my first two months serving as president, I presented reflections during my report at the College Senate meeting on Nov. 22. My thanks go to all who joined the meeting and those who asked such thoughtful questions.
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I reiterate my commitment to working toward fostering a community where leadership, governance, students, employees and bargaining units all collaborate, communicate and leverage our values to ensure the college positively contributes to the lives of our people and our communities. I propose that during the first six weeks of the spring 2022 semester, the college community engages in a dialogue to identify the main priorities of the institution until we are ready for a full-fledged strategic plan in the future. Three main areas of focus in existing plans, which will form the basis of the dialogues and which I believe are critical for our institution, are:
- Strengthening a student-centered teaching and learning environment.
- Working together to make SUNY Oneonta a place where there is no space for hate, discrimination or bigotry of any kind.
- Improving student engagement and the collegiate experience by creating a culture of relentless welcome on campus, in the classroom and in all interactions we have.
I look forward to sharing more with you about the process and priorities that emerge from our discussions and collective work as we form a common agenda to keep the college moving forward.
Sincerely,
Alberto J.F. Cardelle
President
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| Promoting Recruitment, Opportunity, Diversity, Inclusion and Growth (PRODiG) at SUNY Oneonta
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Tracy Allen
Dean, School of Sciences
As part of the college’s broader campus diversity and inclusion initiatives, SUNY Oneonta participates in the system-wide SUNY PRODiG program. PRODiG seeks to increase the representation of historically underrepresented faculty, including underrepresented minority (URM) faculty and women faculty of all races in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (WSTEM) fields. To this end, Dr. Angela Migues and Dr. Elio Santos were hired as the college’s first PRODiG-supported faculty cohort (2019-2020).
Dr. Migues is an assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. She regularly teaches General Chemistry I and II and Physical Chemistry II. Her research interests include material science, catalysis, protein-DNA interactions, protein structure and function, as well as method development to study such systems. As a PRODiG-supported faculty member, she was awarded professional development funds and a summer stipend to investigate the mechanism behind the cis-trans isomerization of 4-anilo-4’-nitrobenzene using electronic structure calculations to elucidate the role solvent polarity plays in reaction pathways and activation energies.
Dr. Santos is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology. He regularly teaches Sensation and Perception, Computers in Psychology Research, and Research Methods. Dr. Santos is a cognitive psychologist who researches visual perception, motor control, eye movements, prediction, motion, psychophysics and attention. As a PRODiG-supported faculty, he was awarded professional development funds and a summer stipend to study depth perception and distance estimation in 2D images with SUNY Oneonta students.
Next month I will share more about the PRODiG program, its steering committee and selected successes of the program, along with profiles of the 2020-2021 faculty cohort.
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| Student Emergency Fund Makes a Difference
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| Audrey Porsche
Manager, Corporate and Foundation Programs
Since 2018, the SUNY Oneonta Student Emergency Fund (SEF) has helped SUNY Oneonta students who face unexpected situations that threaten their ability to continue their education. Established by the Gerstner Family Foundation and the Heckscher Foundation for Children as a pilot program, the fund helps students with non-college-based expenses like groceries, rent, medical bills, clothing, transportation, WiFi and other utilities. Thanks to support from these two foundations, many alumni and other individual donors, we have provided nearly 400 students with over $340,000 in emergency grants!
The SEF helps students stay at SUNY Oneonta and reach their academic goals. Data from the pilot program shows that retention and graduation rates for emergency fund recipients are higher (ranging from 10% to 45%) than those for SUNY students who have not received an SEF grant. The program also raises awareness of the challenges our students face. As a result, our campus continues to identify additional ways to help students with some of those challenges. Among them is food insecurity, with grocery support being one of the most requested items by SEF applicants. In addition to awarding grocery gift cards, we refer students to the Fueling Our Dragons program supported by OAS, and to area food pantries. Now, thanks to a grant from Chobani and Swipe Out Hunger, we have substantial funds to provide additional support to students experiencing food insecurity.
The SEF remains a priority for our campus and is one of the featured priorities in our "Grow, Thrive, Live: The Future of Oneonta" campaign. We thank everyone in the campus community who has contributed to the SEF and supported students in need.
For more information about the SEF and how you can support students with gifts to the fund, contact Audrey.Porsche@oneonta.edu or 607-436-2890.
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| Caribbean Poetry Comes to SUNY Oneonta
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|  | Saint Lucian poets Lisa Dublin, John Robert Lee and Vladimir Lucien present on Teams as part of the Red Dragon Reading Series
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| Saint Lucian poets Lisa Dublin, John Robert Lee and Vladimir Lucien performed on two giant screens to an in-person audience of SUNY Oneonta students and faculty on Tuesday, Oct. 26, as part of the Red Dragon Reading Series. Joining them online via Microsoft Teams was an audience from the Caribbean and the local community. The poets presented their works in Caribbean English, the language that McDonald Dixon said was “thick to the ear like molasses, yet smooth on the tongue like a tang of white rum.”
The reading was designed to showcase St. Lucian poets in the post-Derek Walcott era. The late Nobel Laureate Sir Derek Walcott (KCSL OBE OCC) put the Caribbean on the map of world literature and charted the course for future generations of writers through his fusing of English and Caribbean traditions. Walcott was a frequent visitor to Oneonta from 1979 until his death in 2017.
The Red Dragon Reading Series is made possible by support from the Departments of English, and Africana & Latinx Studies, the Senate Public Events Committee and the Office of the President. The hybrid event was a success thanks to technical support from Ruth Carr (English Dept., Administrative Assistant), Mark English (Manager, Technical Services), and Raphael Web (Instructional Support Technician).
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| Netzer Up Next for Renovations
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Lachlan Squair
Chief Facilities Planning & Safety Officer
The Netzer Administration building has been identified as the next campus location to undergo a full renovation after completion of the Alumni Hall project. Built in 1966, many parts of Netzer are aging, and the roof, windows and exterior cladding leak and require replacement. The need to do major work on the building and relocate occupants has created an opportunity to reimagine what Netzer will mean to the campus. Guided by the Facilities Master Plan (FMP), project planning and design will start in early 2022, with the goal of being in construction by 2024.
The overall goal of the project will be to relocate some administrative offices and transform Netzer to create a hub for consolidated student support services and equity, inclusion and diversity program spaces, locating those spaces at the center of campus. The project would also rebuild the adjacent parking area and create a geothermal energy center, furthering the college's long-term plan for carbon neutrality.
Parallel with the Netzer project, over the next 5 years, we plan to phase renovations in Schumacher Hall to address teaching conditions and technology in classrooms. The FMP planning process will be considering renovations and additions to other buildings such as Hodgdon IRC and Chase. The planning work of the FMP will continue through 2022, and we expect to present more details of future campus development in public forums next fall.
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CSRC Offers Ways for Everyone To Get Involved
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Students, faculty and staff help clean up Main Street on Oct. 24
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| Linda Drake
Executive Director, Center for Social Responsibility and Community
The Center for Social Responsibility and Community (CSRC) connects students to volunteer opportunities in the greater Oneonta community and Otsego County. During the pandemic, placing volunteers has been challenging, but the CSRC has managed to deploy many students who have wanted to make an impact locally. During fall 2021 we have begun to return to our busy schedule with over 500 students involved in some sort of community service since the beginning of the semester.
Currently, the CSRC is holding a food and supply drive for the new Oneonta Warming Station, located on Chestnut Street. The Warming Station is a site where local residents who are experiencing homelessness can get out of the cold during the winter and spend the night. The station provides not only a warm indoor area but access to a microwave, washer and dryer. Our drive is accepting donations of individually wrapped snacks, hot chocolate, tea, instant coffee, and microwavable food, as well as paper products, plastic utensils and soap. Donations can be dropped off through Dec. 23 at the CSRC office located in Hunt College Union, room 127.
Below is a sampling of other projects our students have been involved in this semester:
- Students volunteer each week for local soup kitchens, Saturday’s Bread and the Lord's Table.
- Aug. 28: In collaboration with the Office of Student Success, 60 students participated in Service Day and volunteered for eight local nonprofits.
- October: Alpha Phi Omega and other volunteers collected 488 pounds of food donated to our Food Shelf located in the basement of the Hunt College Union.
- Oct. 3: Student volunteers helped at the Pit Run downtown.
- Oct. 22: Thirty students volunteered at the city's Haunted House at the Teen Center.
- Oct. 24: In collaboration with the Vice President for External Affairs, Franklin Chambers, 30 students participated in the Community Clean-Up Day focusing on the entire center city.
- Oct. 30: Sixty students helped with the downtown Trick-or-Treat.
- Nov. 6: Held in collaboration with SUNY Delhi, 80 students attended the Annual Conference on Volunteerism and Social Responsibility which taught students that helping others also helps yourself and featured nine presenters and keynote speaker Julie Dostal, executive director of the LEAF Council on Alcoholism and Addiction.
- Nov. 7: Thirty students helped with set up and registration for the annual Hot Cocoa Run to benefit ARC Otsego.
- Holiday Drives: Student groups are adopting local families to provide gifts to them for the holidays and conducting toy drives for local nonprofits.
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| Students Collaborate with Local Historical Society
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| SUNY Oneonta students collaborated with the Schenectady County Historical Society in an exhibit called "Redesigning Fashion" that gave the society's collection of historical garments a new life.
Similar to the television show "Project Runway," students from the Fashion and Textiles program researched 19th- and 20th-century garments from the collection and designed modern interpretations. Each student used their creativity and research skills to show the expression of cultural values and the creation of identity in the garments and examined how those ideals changed over time.
Students completed the project while learning remotely with no studio time and limited access to materials. Despite these obstacles, Suzy Fout, the historical society's exhibition and collections manager, said, "They did a great job and I am really proud of them and the thought that they put into the work."
The exhibit was funded by a grant from Humanities New York, a nonprofit that has been committed to fostering, supporting and advocating for the public humanities across New York State for over 40 years.
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| Unique Exhibit Showcases Work of Students, Alumni
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| Elizabeth Dunn
Dean, School of Liberal Arts and Business
In what was surely a highlight of the month for all who attended, dozens of art alumni were welcomed back to campus for the Nov. 18 opening reception of a new exhibition by Associate Professor of Digital Art Sven Anderson.
“What Can You Do with a Degree in Art,” features Anderson's artwork alongside the work of more than 50 of his current students and alumni, many of whom went on to find great success and fulfillment after graduating from SUNY Oneonta.
It was inspiring to meet alumni and see the incredible things they are creating, and to hear about how the program, professors and the college impacted their lives. Thank you to everyone who made the night – and the exhibition – a success, including Prof. Anderson, new Gallery Director Sarah Simpson, the Division of College Advancement, and Sodexo, who provided refreshments.
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