Our Ethic of Care Still Front and Center

Sharing is caring: the CGP 3D-printed bias tape makers that are free for the taking. This is just one way that our campus community has stepped up to meet the challenges of COVID-19.

Our campus is now a few weeks into a new phase of learning and working. Many of us are doing our jobs from home, staying in touch with colleagues electronically or holding classes via Microsoft Teams. While technology can help keep us connected, what’s in our hearts gives our community its identity.

I often mention our ethic of care — how we are supportive no matter what. In our current, unprecedented situation, I’m pleased to note that our ethic of care is just as strong as ever. COVID-19 may separate us physically, but SUNY Oneonta remains a place where we stand by one another.

Last week, we took steps to help the most vulnerable of our students, those who rely on federal Work/Study income, to defray their cost of attendance. We are making 147 work-study students completely whole by offering them college grants totaling the amount they would have earned if they had remained on campus until the end of the spring semester.

Controller Sue Clemons, Executive Director of Financial Aid Christina Roarke and their staffs have secured nearly $90,000 to make this a reality. As I mentioned, many of our work-study students need support the most, so I am proud that we have found a way to do right by them.

There are other ways we are showing SUNY Oneonta’s ethic of care. We have raised over $20,000 to help Sodexo employees who lost their jobs because of COVID-19. This is a great example of how we help those around us.

Our annual Day of Giving on April 16 was another fantastic philanthropic success. With contributions of $87,000, it was our most successful Day of Giving yet, exceeding last year’s total by more than $10,000. The funds raised will replenish the college’s Student Emergency Fund, which provides grants for students facing unforeseen financial challenges.

Beyond contributing financially, many of you are making a difference by investing your time, volunteering to help our students who are grappling with life during COVID-19. Through an initiative by volunteers across the campus community, students can fill out a form to check in with the college and tell us how they are doing. Most of the submissions are from students who just want to share their feelings. I’m proud that we are showing them that, although they aren’t here on campus, their college cares.

Head Swim Coach Chris Schuler has found a way to work school spirit into her efforts to promote safety. She is making Fast O masks that are both stylish and effective.

Through another initiative in the school of Sciences and Liberal Arts, faculty members are upcycling material to make protective masks and face shields. Read more about that below.

I’d like to thank everyone for what you have done to help our students and colleagues. Your courage and dedication show the character of the college. Seeing our continued response to the COVID-19 pandemic, I am reminded every day how special SUNY Oneonta is.

Assessing COVID-19’s Financial Impact

We have been coping for several weeks now with the psychological and physiological effects of COVID-19. But as Gov. Andrew Cuomo continues to remind us, beyond the toll that COVID-19 takes on our minds and bodies, there will be a financial cost as well.

You may recall that I outlined in February how the state budget would affect SUNY. Much has changed since then, as you can imagine. There is no doubt that the financial impact of COVID-19 on the college and the state will be significant.

In this year’s state budget, the budget director has been given the power to adjust the budget quarterly based on the state’s financial health. That’s why we need to remain vigilant in our spending now more than ever. We will need to expect the unexpected, which means reducing our overall spending to better position the college to protect its core mission.

As a college, we will take a hard look at all spending for this year and into the next year. My approach will not be a sweeping reduction across the board. Instead, I intend to be more strategic. We will evaluate and prioritize everything we are doing to see what can be trimmed.

One of the measures we will take in this new financial climate is restricting new positions. This will not impact searches that are currently underway, nor will it rule out filling positions on an emergency basis. We will also be able to fill vacancies, although we will review each closely.

On the admissions front, there is some relief. We’ve extended the deposit deadline for incoming freshmen to June 1. As many other colleges have pushed back their deposit deadlines, this will give prospective students extra time to consider SUNY Oneonta. Also, SUNY is looking at a test-optional application for the fall 2021 class.

And there is more good news. In the next two weeks, SUNY Oneonta will receive assistance from the CARES Act, which is a mechanism for the U.S. Department of Education to distribute $14 billion of the federal stimulus to colleges and universities across the nation.

Our allocation will total just over $5.7 million. The college is entitled to develop its own system and process for determining how to spend these funds. As a provision of the CARES Act, at least half must go to students as emergency aid grants to help cover campus expenses related to disruptions caused by the pandemic.

We are still waiting for more details about these stimulus funds. But this federal assistance is coming sooner than we expected and will help us in our intent to refund students.

I have seen tremendous resolve throughout the campus community since the pandemic first hit. I know that we are strong and that we will meet whatever challenges COVID-19 brings.

International Travel, Face-to-face Gatherings on Hold

With an uncertain future, we are changing up the ways we are doing things. Some hard decisions have been made, but they have all been made with everyone’s health and safety in mind.

It is unfortunate, but all fall study abroad has been canceled. We are moving forward on faculty-led trips outside the country for the winter session. The only exception will be the college’s Japan trip, which will not happen this year.

Also, for the health and safety of our alumni and their families, we are canceling Reunion Weekend 2020. Reunion Weekend is an important event for us to reconnect with our alumni near and far, but the risk is too great. We are planning, however, to host Reunion Weekend next year June 11-13.

This summer, “virtual” will be a new normal for some events. EOP and ACE’s summer bridge academy will be offered online for incoming students. The summer academy is designed to provide students with academic and social foundations prior to the start of freshman year, so we don’t want students missing out on this important opportunity. Summer school will be offered entirely online as it always was.

As we move forward, more events may change depending on Gov. Cuomo’s directives. We need to place the safety of our students, and the campus community, at the forefront of everything we do.

Personal Protective Equipment Made Here

Allen Anderson wears a face shield produced on campus.

Science Technician Allen Anderson wears a face shield produced on the SUNY Oneonta campus.

On-campus teams from Science, Art and Theatre, the Science Discovery Center, and Facilities and Safety, have teamed up to assist COVID-19 response efforts. Called the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) Coordinating Group, faculty and staff have taken the initiative to produce face shields, masks and other items for essential staff on campus and beyond.

This group first provided masks and shields to University Police and the college’s healthcare workers. They are continuing with production to share the PPEs they produce primarily with two ongoing New York City-focused efforts — the SUNY New Paltz Face Shield Project and the NYC Makes PPE/Matter Hackers initiative.

Thanks go to a number of those who jumpstarted the efforts. Instructional Support Technician Allen Anderson, School of Sciences, has been steadily 3-D printing face shields for more than a month. Doug Reilly, director of the A.J. Read Science Discovery Center, has been sewing face masks. He recently stepped in to coordinate SUNY Oneonta’s PPE production and dispersal. Assistant Professor Erik Stengler of the Cooperstown Graduate Program is coordinating students making masks and 3D-printing bias tape makers to speed up mask production.

Thanks also go to Theatre’s Assistant Technical Director Matt Grenier, who has made cotton masks (a mixture of adult and kid’s sizes) that have been donated locally to Springbrook and Arc Otsego, to Unity House in Troy, and to NYU Langone in New York City. Matt and Production Manager Scott Segar have collaborated on production of gowns and scrub caps made from Tyvek.

I am proud that our campus community has stepped up to help our on and off-campus essential workers stay safe. Anyone who would like to lend a helping hand may contact Environmental Health and Safety Officer Peter Booth, who is assisting the on-campus coordination.

Students Persevere with Philosophy Conference

SUNY Oneonta Undergraduate Philosophy Conference video

Students from the Undergraduate Philosophy Conference committee present a video introduction.

Elizabeth Dunn
Dean of Liberal Arts

This year is the 25th anniversary of the SUNY Oneonta Undergraduate Philosophy Conference. The conference is one of the longest-running undergraduate philosophy conferences in the United States and is highly esteemed.

It’s a student-organized and student-run event and a shared project of the PHIL 380 Philosophy Conference class, the S.A.-funded Philosophy Club and the Philosophy Department. It is the students, with guidance from faculty, that make it happen. For the previous 24 years, the students who took the conference class and participated in the conference almost unanimously considered it to be one of the best learning experiences of their undergraduate education.

Dr. Daniel Patrone and his students had been even more enthusiastic than usual about this year’s conference. The students on the committee solicited and reviewed an impressive 58 submissions to the conference this year — evidence of the effort that this group of students put forth to make this conference a success. When COVID-19 derailed these plans, it was particularly hard on the students not to see the event take place.

The students took it upon themselves to make the most of the situation. As a result, they’ve re-imagined the conference this year in the form of an online, interactive, multimedia journal that captures something of the current moment. Visit Archipelago online to see the great work the students have produced.

New Boiler Plant ‘Employee’ Staying Busy

Maintenence and Operations employee Rich Johnson poses with Franklin the Volleyball.

Plant Utilities Engineer 1 Rich Johnson poses with Franklin the volleyball.

Lachlan Squair
Chief Facilities Planning and Safety Officer

Our boiler plant personnel are essential to the continued functioning of the campus. Without boiler plant operators in the central heating plant, the campus could not continue to operate, as the boilers that produce our heat are not automatic.

To protect the health of our operators during the COVID-19 crisis, we have reduced heating plant output to a lower temperature, such that the equipment can be operated by a single person each shift. All other personnel and visitors have been prohibited from entering the plant, so all the operators work completely alone for every eight-hour shift and sanitize their workspace before the shift change.

To keep the operators from being too lonely, we’ve provided them with a Franklin volleyball for company. As you can see, Franklin has been getting up to some hijinks at the plant! We’ll be featuring more of Franklin’s adventures on the Maintenance and Operations webpage.

I hope that everyone is taking time, as Dr. Morris always says, to find a little joy in every day.

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108 Ravine Parkway
Oneonta, NY | 13820 US

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