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| With just two months of 2023 completed, all that the SUNY Oneonta community has accomplished is impressive.
Engaging coffee hours, teach-ins, convivia, performances, themed dining events, author readings, lectures, and many more activities have been held. Athletic teams have wrapped up successful seasons, while others have just begun. The construction project in Alumni Hall continues to be on schedule, with plans for the building to be ready for occupancy this summer. Progress is being made inside the classroom and out.
One big event that I'd like to highlight, and extend a university-wide thank you for, was Chancellor King's visit to campus two weeks ago. Chancellor King's priority was to meet with students, and he was able to meet with six different groups, about 40 students in total, here that day. In addition, more than 25 faculty and staff participated in meetings. I appreciate all who helped make his visit engaging, enjoyable and smooth. Read more about his visit.
Along with what has already happened, there is much to look forward to this spring. In addition to the many annual traditions and events celebrating current students' accomplishments across campus coming up, Admissions and Recruitment will host hundreds of prospective and accepted students for visits. There are over ten yield events scheduled (and two that have already happened) for admitted students who are deciding if Oneonta will be the next step in their journeys. It is important that we all work together to welcome these students to campus and engage with them and their families. Admissions visitors frequently note our friendly atmosphere. I thank you for helping make campus look beautiful, answering their questions, participating in programs, and doing all the other little things that go into making these future Red Dragons feel at home.
With our Middle States self study submitted, the university is now in visit planning mode. I thank all of you for making the self study an excellent document and ask that you help us prepare for the site visit scheduled for April 2-5.
Sincerely,
Alberto J.F. Cardelle
President
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| New College Council Members Appointed
Governor Hochul has appointed two new members to our College Council, effective immediately.
The first is Gary Herzig, who has also been named as Chair of the College Council. Gary has been a community leader in Oneonta for over thirty years, having served in leadership roles at Job Corps (1984 - 1997), Opportunities for Otsego (1997 - 2016) and, most recently, mayor of the City of Oneonta (2015 - 2021). Gary also serves on various boards and committees around Otsego County.
The second is William Rivera '07, a Crisis Intervention Director for Opportunities for Otsego (OFO) here in Oneonta. He has worked in various roles at OFO since graduating from SUNY Oneonta in 2007. Will is also involved in several local and regional human services coalitions, groups and councils.
Gary and William's community connections and experiences make them excellent additions to our College Council, and I look forward to working with them.
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| New Student Enrollment Update
Karen Brown
Senior Enrollment Officer and Executive Director of Admissions
We continue to see an increasing interest in SUNY Oneonta from prospective first-year and transfer students. Our applications for the Fall 2023 term are up as an outcome of the SUNY free application period in November as well as our own additional free application week earlier this month. In addition to increased applications, we have more acceptances for first-year applicants today than we did for the entire cycle last fall.
Our challenge is that all of the SUNY comprehensives and university centers are also experiencing similar growth in applications. It will be critical that the entire university community helps to engage this larger pool of admitted students. We are in the prime season for accepted students to visit campus. Thank you to all those who have assisted with campus visits and Scholars' Days thus far. Thank you in advance to everyone who will assist with our accepted student events later this spring, especially the open house in April.
The Office of Admissions is personalizing and expanding communications and social media outreach to accepted and deposited students. Applications remain open, and we will continue to review and admit qualified applicants throughout the spring. By working together, we have the power to capitalize on this increase in interest and applications.
I will give a more detailed update on our current admissions and enrollment process and our new student enrollment plan at the dialogue session on March 1. Please join us at 3 p.m. this Wednesday in the presentation room of the Welcome Center. I look forward to seeing you there.
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| Teacher Pipeline Program Established with Sidney CS
Mark Davies
Dean of the School of Education, Human Ecology and Sports Studies
As part of an effort to enhance relationships with local elementary and secondary schools, SUNY Oneonta has entered into a unique partnership with Sidney Central School.
During their "block" semester, which focuses on teaching methods, some students in our education programs are participating in this novel program. These pre-service teachers complete their coursework on campus on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and spend an entire day each Wednesday at Sidney Central School, implementing lesson plans in collaboration with classroom teachers. On Fridays, they have the opportunity to work as paid substitute teachers for Sidney.
In Fall 2022, 28 students worked in 14 classrooms at Sidney, and the district hosted six student teachers. The full-time teachers in those classrooms, and across the district, were so impressed with the students that Sidney now has more teachers than ever who are willing to have student teachers in their classrooms.
This spring, 40 Oneonta students are in Sidney for their block teacher residency experiences: 22 Early Childhood Education students are at the Cullman Daycare Center, which houses Sidney’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten program, and the other 18 Elementary Education students are in nine Sidney Elementary classrooms. The number of spring semester student teachers at Sidney has doubled to 12; seven of those 12 were among the fall block students at Sidney.
Sidney created the Red Dragon Room in the Middle School building for the Oneonta block students to gather and debrief their day. This established a home base for Sidney staff and Oneonta students and helped to create a classroom atmosphere where students could share information about their daily experiences.
Students involved in this program receive the same treatment as first-year teachers at Sidney. They receive a staff badge and are part of the Professional Learning Community groups within the district. The students attend curriculum meetings, professional development opportunities, and grade-level team meetings. Sidney hopes this level of involvement in its culture will generate interest in future vacancies and hopes to offer teaching positions to SUNY Oneonta students once they graduate. We are already seeing positive results as three of the six student teachers from Fall 2022 are now long-term substitutes in the Sidney Central School District.
This program not only offers high-quality, immersive teacher training experiences - including the opportunity for paid substitute teaching work for students - but is helping to address the teacher shortage in our region. President Cardelle and administrators from Sidney will gather this Wednesday for a ceremonial ribbon cutting at the Red Dragon room to celebrate this program's early success.
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Theatre Production Selected for Kennedy Center Regional Festival
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The Kennedy Center Region I Festival (KCACTF) in Cape Cod selected SUNY Oneonta Theatre Department's production of "Nordost" to perform at the festival on Feb. 2. The production featured six SUNY Oneonta students, including one student stage manager and another who oversaw lighting. Dr. Kiara Pipino, associate professor of acting, directing and movement, directed "Nordost."
KCACTF honors excellence of overall production and offers student artists individual recognition through awards and scholarships in playwriting, acting, criticism, directing and design.
The KCACTF is a national theater program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide, which has served as a catalyst for improving the quality of college theater in the United States. The KCACTF has grown into a network of more than 600 academic institutions nationwide, where theater departments and student artists showcase their work and receive outside assessment by KCACTF respondents.
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Hecksher Foundation Report Recognizes SUNY Oneonta
In 2018, Oneonta was one of six SUNY schools selected to participate in a pilot program funded by the Gerstner Family Foundation and the Hecksher Foundation for Children to create emergency funds to assist students facing unexpected financial hardships that could threaten their ability to continue their studies. We recently received a report about increasing college persistence through emergency grant programs from the Hecksher Foundation, outlining progress made by the pilot programs and highlighting that SUNY Oneonta is the only institution from the pilot program that has since fully endowed a Student Emergency Fund (SEF) that will support students in perpetuity.
The endowment was achieved in December 2022 after raising gifts, grants and pledges totaling more than $1 million as part of the Grow.Thrive.Live campaign, ensuring $50,000 is available to students each year. Since 2018, our SEF has supported more than 490 students with over $400,000 in emergency funding. Funds are awarded for emergency situations and paid directly to third parties, such as a landlord or medical facility. Examples of funded support include rent and utility bills, groceries, medical expenses, and the replacement of lost or stolen computers. The average amount awarded is $800. According to a recent survey of student recipients, 95% said that SEF assistance allowed them to remain enrolled. Read more about the SEF.
Our progress with the Student Emergency Fund and the recognition from the Hecksher foundation are lasting testaments to SUNY Oneonta's commitment to supporting students and ensuring access to a college education.
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Collaboration Abounds Between Classes, Art Galleries
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Spring 2023 Art Across Campus Exhibit
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|  | Visual Anthropology class & What a Waste exhibit
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Black, White & Full Color exhibit
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| Sarah Simpson
Director, Art Galleries
It has been exciting over the past year for The Galleries at SUNY Oneonta to work directly with faculty and students across campus. These collaborations have highlighted the creative output of students and faculty from many different disciplines through a few unique exhibitions. One annual opportunity is for faculty beyond the Art Department to submit creative final projects by their students for consideration in a group show: Art Across Campus. Any faculty member who allows exhibitable final projects is welcome to submit work at the end of the Fall semester. The show always takes place at the beginning of the Spring semester and we accept a wide range of projects, from traditional artistic mediums to digital creations and beyond. This year’s show, Art Across Campus: Literature in Translation, was the second exhibition in the series and featured work created by the students of African American Women Writers (ALIT-3086/ALS-3086, Fall 2022), Postcolonial Literature and Culture: The Americas (WLIT-2071, Fall 2022), Creolization in (Literature-ALIT-394, Spring 2022), and Postcolonial Literature and Culture: (Africa WLIT-270/ALS-270, Spring 2022). The student work displayed included paintings, drawings, poetry, sculpture and other mediums. It was on view in the Project Space Gallery from Jan. 24 - Feb. 18, 2023.
In addition, installations in the Open Space Gallery created by students as collaborative projects have been recently showcased. The first, What a Waste, was put together by Dr. Cynthia Falk's Visual Anthropology (ANTH 3140) on the waste created by our disposables-focused culture and how to act sustainably. Spreading across the three walls of the Open Space Gallery, the installation focused on three ideas inherent to sustainable living: Reduce, Re-Use, and Refuse. Viewers were encouraged to add their suggestions and commitments to a more sustainable future by writing and attaching personal notes to the installation. It was on view from Dec. 1 - 17, 2022. The second exhibit, Black, White, & Full Color, was an installation inspired by the concept of double consciousness and illustrated the questioning of societal interpretations of race and the practice of racialization through the lens of racelessness, an overview of contemporary and historical literature on the subject, and personal experience. Created by the Fall 2022 Writing About Literature (COMP-2045) class, taught by Dr. Sheena Mason, this exhibition pulled from modern literary sources like James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Paul Gilroy, and Frantz Fanon; contemporary artists like Glenn Ligon; and critical engagement with the idea of race and practice of racialization. The students interpreted these contemporary and historical sources to engage with both the subject matter discussed in class and a historical topic that continues to be hotly debated today. It was on view from Jan. 24 - Feb. 18, 2023.
If you’re interested in working on a student project for display in the Galleries, please contact me at sarah.simpson@oneonta.edu.
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