Campus Champion

Jack Sheltmire has worn many hats as director of the Center for Outdoor and Environmental Education — College ambassador, administrator, academic, handyman and visionary. In a job that defies description, he brought a tireless energy and love for the history and tradition of the College’s Raquette Lake property. He championed the effort that made it a National Historic Landmark while never stopping to perform all the little things that made the experience a memorable one for all who visited there.

The Alumni Association at Occidental College in Los Angeles, Calif., will present SUNY Cortland President Erik J. Bitterbaum with an Alumni Seal Award for Professional Achievement during the annual Alumni Weekend June 11-13 on the campus.

A 1975 Occidental graduate, he joins four other alumni and one retiring faculty member being honored during a 4 p.m. awards assembly on Saturday, June 12, in the college’s Samuelson Pavilion. Other awards being presented include: Alumnus of the Year, Young Alumnus, Service to the Community, Service to the College and Honorary Faculty Emeritus.

“What attracted the Occidental Alumni Association Board of Governors was that he oversees a major university in New York state and has a great track record in education,” observed Jim Jacobs, Occidental’s director of alumni relations. “I’m sure our college’s new president, Jonathan Veitch, will want to make a connection with him.”

In 2003, the State University of New York Board of Trustees appointed Bitterbaum as SUNY Cortland’s 10th president since the College’s founding in 1868.

Under Bitterbaum, SUNY Cortland has gained the reputation of being among the most competitive four-year, comprehensive colleges in the SUNY system, with approximately 13,000 prospective students vying annually for 1,000 freshman openings.

He has shepherded the institution to a number of national recognitions in higher education.Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine recently ranked SUNY Cortland among its 100 Best Values in Public Colleges for a fourth consecutive year. Students pursuing education-related degrees find themselves in the classrooms of the East Coast’s largest teacher education program accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).

As state monies have become more scarce, since 2003 Bitterbaum has encouraged faculty and staff to obtain a total of roughly $19,366,742 million in external funding to support faculty research and scholarship as well as major, long-term community outreach programs. The sponsored awards were $3.4 million in 2009-10.

Bitterbaum enthusiastically supports the institution’s tradition of athletic excellence. In his seven years, Cortland has annually ranked among the nation’s top 13 intercollegiate athletic programs out of the 430-plus NCAA Division III colleges and universities. He recently completed a three-year term on the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) Financial Aid Committee and has accepted membership to its Division III Chancellors/Presidents Advisory Group through January 2013.

Last year, Bitterbaum led SUNY Cortland’s efforts to successfully attract the New York Jets of the National Football League to relocate their summer training camp on campus, a move that attracted 34,000 spectators and generated $4.26 million in economic activity in Cortland County in 2009.

Bitterbaum has exhorted faculty and staff to roll up their sleeves for community service. In response, the campus has been honored many times nationally for civic engagement, including with a President’s Higher Education Honor Roll for Community Service and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s 2008 Community Engagement Classification.

In recent years, the College received a $247,000 federal grant to help prepare tomorrow’s community leaders and to keep young college graduates in New York state. The College also obtained a total of $248,000 in funding to launch a chapter of the national AmeriCorps Program, a program of community service volunteers that is administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). A downtown Cortland facility was upgraded and reopened as Main Street SUNY Cortland, facilitating town and community educational and service learning opportunities for students.

Bitterbaum has presided over more than $200 million in physical plant construction, including the completion of two of the first new buildings to be erected in decades: the Education Building and Child Care Center; and Glass Tower Hall, a residential facility that gained certification as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).

Major renovations were made on campus to Sperry Center, Moffett Center, Brockway Hall and Cornish Hall and nine residence halls.

A renovated and expanded Bowers Hall science building will better serve 21st century students, while in coming years the campus will construct a $51.2 million student life center.

During Bitterbaum’s administration, the College Outdoor Education Center’s Camp Huntington in Raquette Lake, N.Y., became the first designated National Historic Landmark within SUNY.

A biologist who espouses conservation of the earth’s limited resources, Bitterbaum was a catalyst for SUNY Cortland becoming a charter signatory of the American College and University Presidents Climate Committee in 2007.

He has been inducted into Beta Beta Beta national biology honorary, Kappa Delta Pi national education honorary, Phi Sigma Iota national foreign languages honorary, and Omicron Delta Kappa national leadership honorary.

A native of New York City, Bitterbaum attended Kalani High School in Honolulu, Hawaii, before graduating cum laude with a B.A. in biology from Occidental. He spent his junior year abroad at Sussex University in Falmer, England. He earned a M.A. in biology from Occidental and a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Florida, where he instructed in the Zoology Department.

From 1981-90, Bitterbaum served as assistant and associate professor in the Department of Biology at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Neb. He concurrently became assistant provost for lifelong learning at NWU from 1983-87 and associate provost from 1987-90.

In 1990, Bitterbaum accepted the position of vice president for academic affairs at Methodist College in Fayetteville, N.C., where he also held the rank of professor in the Department of Biology. As vice president, he was responsible for academic administration as well as a renowned ROTC program, Evening College and the Atlantic Coast Center for Language and Culture.

He joined Missouri Southern State College in Joplin in 1994 as vice president for academic affairs and a fully tenured professor of biology. He remained there until 2000, overseeing faculty and many student services and administrative offices. A member of the Academy of American Poets, Bitterbaum won the 1997 Missouri Writers’ Award for Poetry.

Before joining SUNY Cortland, Bitterbaum was the president of West Virginia University at Parkersburg (WVUP) from 2000-03. There, he secured a $2 million gift in the university’s first capital campaign, instituted a new admission program resulting in an applications increase, increased student retention, improved distance learning, created a Council of Grants to bring external dollars to campus, and created a Center for Teaching Innovation to assist faculty and K-12 educators with improving the learning environment for elementary, secondary and university students. He had the added responsibility of serving as a regional vice president for West Virginia University at Morgantown with responsibilities for the educational and economic development of western West Virginia.

Bitterbaum is married to Ellen Howard Burton. They have two children, David, who graduates from SUNY Cortland in May, and Anna, a freshman at Binghamton University.

Gov. David Paterson appointed educator and former mayor Bruce R. Tytler M ’88, CAS ’05, of Cortland, N.Y., to the SUNY Cortland College Council on Jan. 12. He replaces Kim Potter Ireland ’97 and will serve through June 30, 2015.

The 10-member College Council has certain supervisory responsibilities at SUNY Cortland which include: recommending candidates for appointment as president of the College; reviewing major plans for operation of the College properties; reviewing proposed budgets requests; fostering the development of advisory citizens' committees; naming buildings and grounds; and making or approving regulations governing the conduct and behavior of students.

The principal of Whitney Point (N.Y.) High School since August 2008, Tytler has been an educator for nearly three decades.

A native of Oxford, N.Y., Tytler earned a bachelor’s degree in history from SUNY Potsdam in 1980. He received both a Master of Science in Education in 1988 and a certificate of advanced study in 2005 from SUNY Cortland.

Tytler began his career as a social studies teacher in the Houston (Texas) Independent School District from 1982-85 and at DeRuyter Central School from 1985-88. He taught social studies in the Homer (N.Y.) Central School District from 1988 until 2008, serving as Social Studies Department chair from 1992-96 and from 2005-08.

As a City of Cortland alderman between 1996-99, Tytler was a catalyst in the creation of a number of local initiatives, including the Great Cortland Pumpkinfest, the skateboard park and the City of Cortland Web site. Tytler served as Cortland’s mayor in 2000 and 2001. He concurrently served on the board of directors for the Cortland County Business Development Corporation/Industrial Development Agency.

Tytler served on the board of directors for Communities That Care and for Loaves and Fishes. He was an assistant varsity basketball coach at SUNY Cortland for the 1990-91 season and a former volunteer basketball and softball coach for the Cortland Youth Bureau.

He and his wife, Carol, have two children, Rachel, who lives in Troy, N.Y., and Sarah, who is serving on the Pacific island of Tonga as a Peace Corps volunteer.

When the renovations are completed to Studio West in Spring 2011, the facility and its new, two-story addition will be known as the Professional Studies Building, the President’s Cabinet decided at its March 15 meeting.

According to College policy enacted in January 2009, the name change will become effective on July 1, 2010. The new name will subsequently appear in all College publications, communications, on the Web site and on signage.

John Cottone, interim dean of the School of Professional Studies and School of Education, suggested renaming the entire facility that will house four of the six academic departments with the School of Professional Studies.

“Studio West was remodeled in the 1990s to serve as campus surge space for displaced departments and offices and wasn’t considered an academic building,” said Cottone. “Now it provides a physical identity for the School of Professional Studies, so it is most appropriate that the building’s name reflect that.

“In our extensive planning, we took great care to create an engaging learning environment for our students and, in doing so, to take our academic programs to a new level. The Professional Studies Building will be a showcase for our school.”

Four departments will be housed within it: Communication Disorders and Sciences; Kinesiology, Recreation, Parks and Leisure Studies; and Sport Management. The two other academic departments in the school are housed elsewhere, the Health Department will remain in the Moffett Center and the Physical Education Department will be the sole academic department in the Park Center.

Constructed in 1948, the 50,000 square-foot Studio West began as the home to the Overhead Door Co. for many years. In 1968, SUNY Cortland wanted to relocate its maintenance operation from Old Main, so the College purchased the facility. Four years later, the maintenance operation moved to its present location near Route 281, but the building continued to be used by the grounds crew as storage space.

In the mid-1970s, the Art and Art History Department moved its studio arts faculty and classrooms from the Dowd Fine Arts Center to Studio West and, in fact, gave the building its name. In the mid-1980s, studio arts moved to the basement of Old Main.

The aged Studio West remained a storage area but its leaky roof limited its use. In 1994, the Construction Fund allocated $3.2 million for the rehabilitation of Studio West. Design work commenced and the actual construction, started in 1996, was completed ahead of schedule in March 1998.

Li Jiansheng, one of China’s foremost ceramic artists and scholars, will discuss Chinese and American cultural similarities and differences that find common ground in the clay medium, on Wednesday, March 24, at SUNY Cortland.

Li begins his lecture, “A New Age of Contemporary Chinese Art,” at 6:30 p.m. in Brockway Hall, Jacobus Lounge. During the presentation, Li will show his award-winning documentary, Tao Yao (Pottery and Dragon Kiln Village), which won the 2008 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Clay Art Award and the 2008 Montreal Film Festival Heritage Award for documentary films.

Li’s talk, which describes the recently emerging field of contemporary art in China and the role SUNY Cortland has played in artistic exchanges in China since 1998, is free and open to the public, as is one of his workshops, from 1:30-3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 23, in the ceramics studio located in Old Main, Room G-39.

From March 22-29, the visiting scholar will demonstrate traditional Chinese techniques of brush painting on rice paper and on porcelain bowls. Visitors also are welcome to observe him at any time throughout the week working on ceramics at the studio.

Li, who directs the Jingdezhen Sanbao Ceramic Institute in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, China, and previously visited the College in 2007, was again invited to the campus by Jeremiah Donovan, professor of art and art history.

Li earned a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. from the Jingdezheng Ceramic Institute in Jiangxi, China. He has a second M.F.A., from the SUNY College of Ceramic Arts at Alfred (N.Y.). His artwork has been exhibited in China, Norway, Holland, Canada and the U.S. His work is included in collections at the H. F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University; the Museum of Ceramic Art at Alfred University; the Everson Museum of Ceramic Art in Syracuse, N.Y.; the Erie (Pa.) Art Museum, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Canada; and Jingdezheng Ceramic Institute. His scholarship appears in Art and Perception Magazine in Australia and Ceramic Art in Taiwan. He conducts workshops in the U.S. and Canada.

Li’s visit advances Donovan’s 10 years of work to establish ties with ceramics faculty at Chinese institutions of higher education. Since his first visit to China in 1998, Donovan has fostered a series of student and faculty exchanges with Jingdezhen Ceramic Art Institute and The Fine Art College at Shanghai University. Each year he has invited a leading international artist in the field of ceramics to the College for workshops and lectures. In 2007, Li arrived in Cortland to give a studio workshop on his innovative ceramic processes.

In 2004 Donovan launched a study abroad program, titled China Summer Study: History, Culture and the Arts, in coordination with the College’s James M. Clark Center for International Education. The annual interdisciplinary course was selected for a 2005-06 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Internationalization.

“Part of my intent in hosting Li is to expose a broad range of Cortland students to an intimate experience of China from the perspective of an artist and scholar,” Donovan said. “They will see his artwork unfold in front of them during the week of his residency and hear his insights and philosophy on this unique form of expression in ceramics and brush painting. His ceramic work expresses a passionate and personal insight into the struggles and concerns he sees in the transformation of China as it emerges onto the world stage.”

Together, Li and Donovan will collaborate on a piece of ceramic sculpture, Donovan said. The finished work, expressing their unity in promoting an international ceramic art dialogue, will be donated to the Cortland campus.

“This summer, I will be taking my China Summer Study students to visit that traditional Chinese pottery and dragon kiln village shown in Li’s documentary,” Donovan said.

Li’s talk is supported by a 2010 President’s Small Grant Program, Campus Artist and Lecture Series, Yuki Chin Memorial Fund, Art and Art History Department and the China Ceramic Cultural Research Institute at Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute. For more information, contact Donovan at (607) 753-4310.

Randy Kehler, a long-time peace activist from Massachusetts who was jailed 22 months for refusing to serve during the Vietnam War, will discuss grassroots advocacy during a rescheduled lecture on Wednesday, April 14, at SUNY Cortland.

Kehler will present “The History, Philosophy and Practice of Active Nonviolence: A Personal Perspective” at 4:30 p.m. in Corey Union Exhibition Lounge. Organized by the Center for Ethics, Peace and Social Justice and the Philosophy Department, the talk is supported by the President’s Office and made possible by the Syracuse Peace Council, Kehler’s regional tour sponsors.

“Every time I see and hear people, especially younger people, express feelings of hopelessness and despair about the current state of the world, it strengthens my resolve to try, in whatever way I can, to introduce them to the fundamentally hopeful history and practice of ‘active nonviolence,’” Kehler said. “I wish to demonstrate that positive, nonviolent change in our lives and in the world is not only an urgent necessity but humanly possible.”

A frequent public speaker, Kehler has spent the past 40 years engaged in research, writing, organizing, and advocacy regarding a range of public policy issues, including energy and land reform, electoral democracy and nuclear disarmament. He co-founded the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign, has been a war tax resister for decades, and has been involved in many interesting grassroots struggles in his rural home of western Massachusetts.

A graduate of Harvard College, Kehler spent 22 months in federal prison for his refusal to cooperate with the Vietnam draft. Former U.S. military analyst Daniel Ellsberg cites Kehler as one of those who inspired him to release The Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making about the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and other newspapers in 1971.

Kehler, who lives in Colrain, Mass., also co-founded the Traprock Peace Center in Deerfield, Mass.; the Working Group on Electoral Democracy, a national organization; the Franklin County (Mass.) Community Development Corporation; and the Five Rivers Council in Franklin County, Mass.

As conscientious objectors to war, he and his wife, Betsy Corner, for many years have redirected their federal income tax payments to non-military needs such as food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless and relief for war victims including U.S. soldiers. Their war-tax refusal and the story of the Internal Revenue Service seizure of their home is the subject of an award-winning 1994 documentary film by Turning Tide Productions, titled “An Act of Conscience.”

For more information, contact Kathryn Russell, Philosophy Department, at (607) 753-2727.

Robert Spitzer, a distinguished service professor and chair of the SUNY Cortland Political Science Department, will discuss the pending Supreme Court case of McDonald v. City of Chicago at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 31, at Main Street SUNY Cortland, 9 Main St.

A panelist for the Ivory Tower Half Hour on WCNY PBS in Syracuse and author of three books and numerous articles on the Second Amendment, Spitzer will discuss “Gun Rights to the States: Incorporation and the McDonald Case.”

The talk is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served and a question-and-answer period will follow Spitzer’s presentation.

On March 2, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that raises the question of whether the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms will, for the first time in history, apply to the states. Spitzer, who has co-authored an amicus brief in the case, will discuss its background, implications, likely outcome, and the basis for “incorporating” newfound gun rights. 

“This case revives the idea of applying parts of the Bill of Rights to the states, a process that effectively ended in 1969,” said Spitzer. “I will discuss the irony of this revival of interest in the doctrine called 'incorporation' and how it might change American law.”

The SUNY Cortland Political Science Association and Political Science Department are sponsoring the event.

Three SUNY Cortland Economics Department faculty members, one of whom is also a local business leader, will interpret what made the Great Recession of 2007-10 the worst in U.S. history since the Great Depression, on Thursday, April 1, at SUNY Cortland.

The panel of speakers, who seek to increase public understanding of the complex forces impacting the U.S. economy, will present a special, extended Community Roundtable from 8-9:30 a.m. in SUNY Cortland’s Park Center Hall of Fame Room.

Sponsored by the President’s Office and the College’s Center for Educational Exchange (CEE), the Community Roundtable, titled “The U.S. Business Cycle and the Recession of 2007-2010 — What Went Wrong?,” is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served at 7:45 a.m. A question-and-answer period will follow the presentation.

The panelists include Associate Professor Alan D. Haight, Assistant Professor Biru Paksha Paul and Lecturer Brian Ward. Paul will provide an electronic presentation of the topic.

Many people blame the bursting of the housing bubble for the recent economic fiasco, but this is only one factor causing the downturn. Trade and government deficits, along with falling private savings, contributed to the macroeconomic imbalances that made the U.S. recession worse than it would have been otherwise.

Haight, who joined the College in 2004 as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 2007. He earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Oregon and a master’s degree and doctorate from University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Paul, who has served on the SUNY Cortland faculty since 2007, teaches microeconomics, macroeconomics and finance by relating theories to his 12-year industry experience in money, banking, finance and economic journalism.

He wrote “Easy Come, Easy Go: The U.S. Financial Crisis of 2008,” which appeared in the Nov. 9, 2008, edition of The Daily Star, Bangladesh’s leading English language daily newspaper. Paul has worked as a consultant at the United Nations Development Program and is the author of a book on Indian business cycles and inflation. His research focuses on macroeconomic policy, business cycles and economic growth of developing economies. His papers have been published in the Journal of Asian Economics, Journal of Quantitative Economics, Indian Economic Review and Journal of Developing Areas.

Paul received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Dhaka in Bangladesh; an M.B.A. from the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia; and a master of arts and doctorate in applied economics from Binghamton University.

Ward is president and CEO of the Cortland Line Company, which manufactures and markets fishing lines and related fishing products worldwide. He works closely with key suppliers in China, Japan, Korea and Germany. The former CEO of the American Dairy Association, the Dairy Commodity Marketing arm of the Dairy Farmers, he has 10 years of experience in major retail management.

Ward has a bachelor’s degree in industrial marketing and advertising from Western Michigan University and an M.B.A. from Syracuse University. He currently teaches two management sections at SUNY Cortland while pursuing a doctorate in industrial/organizational psychology.

For more information, contact the CEE at (607) 753-4214 or visit www.cortland.edu/cee.

The 12th annual Unity Celebration, featuring an hors d’oeuvres reception and activities to commemorate cultural diversity on the SUNY Cortland campus, has been rescheduled for Thursday, April 1. Inclement weather forced its cancellation on Feb. 25.

Part of the College’s Black History Month series in February and continuing the College’s yearlong theme of “Breaking Down Walls,” the event will be held from 5-6:30 p.m. in Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge.

The Unity Celebration is free and open to the public. Participants must R.S.V.P. by Wednesday, March 24, to attend by contacting Ann Cutler, Multicultural Life Office, at (607) 753-2336.

Marques R. Dexter, assistant track and field/cross country coach and the recruiting coordinator for athletics at SUNY Cortland, will deliver the keynote speech. This year’s celebration will feature musical performances, student speakers and multicultural awards.

The program is sponsored by the College’s Affirmative Action Committee, Center for Gender and Intercultural Studies (CGIS), the Committee on the Status of Women in Education, the Multicultural Council, the Multicultural Life Office, the President’s Office, the Student Government Association, the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs’ Office and the Vice President for Student Affairs’ Office.

Philip H. Red Eagle, who has immersed himself in indigenous cultural renewal for nearly 25 years and in the canoe movement since 1993, will visit SUNY Cortland on Wednesday, March 31.

Red Eagle will introduce and show the video documentary, “The Canoe Way: The Sacred Journey,” at 7 p.m. in Sperry Center, Room 105. Afterward, he will discuss both the film and the movement with the audience.

His presentation, titled, “The Canoe Way of Knowledge: A Canoe Way of Life,” is offered by the Native American Studies Committee of the College’s Center for Gender and Intercultural Studies (CGIS). The program is free and open to the public.

Red Eagle will discuss how the canoe journeys begun by himself and his late friend and mentor, Tom Heidlebaugh, have inspired others to use the journeys to reclaim their native heritage.

A widely exhibited artist and published book author, Red Eagle is a Salish-Dakota from Tacoma, Wash. He served with honor in the Alaska National Guard and later in the U.S. Navy from 1967-76, taking part in wartime tours in Vietnam. For his military service, the machinist mate 1st class received two medals and a commendation.

In the early 1990s while participating in an organization named The Cedar Tree Institute, he was initiated into the cultural “Potlatch” process. From 1994-95, he and Heidlebaugh organized the first of what would ultimately become the model for subsequent canoe journeys exploring Puget Sound along the state of Washington’s coastline — a two-year, two-leg odyssey from the bottom of Hood Canal downward to Squaxin Island.

“The movement itself has gone from a few canoes and 50 people to over 100 canoes and 6,000 participants and a cultural resurgence that has brought depth and endurance to all the tribes and nations that have participated in these journeys,” Red Eagle asserts. “They have found ‘The Canoe Way of Knowledge and A Canoe Way of Life.’”

Heidlebaugh died in 1997, but Red Eagle and dozens of others influenced by him continue organizing canoe journeys, such as the one shown in “The Canoe Way.” The documentary chronicles the annual tribal journeys of Pacific Northwest Coast Salish people in their cedar canoes. The 54-minute documentary DVD that was released in 2009 was directed, edited and filmed by Mark Celletti with Robert Satiacum serving as executive producer. Indigenous tribes and First Nation members from Oregon, Washington, Canada and Alaska are shown paddling along their ancestral pathways through the waters of Puget Sound, Inside Passage and the Northwest Coast. Families and youth reconnect with the past and each other. The participants reclaim the ancient songs, dances, regalia, ceremonies and language that were almost lost to the region’s indigenous peoples.

“In this video, one sees happy faces and hears happy words about the canoe journeys that have been taking place since 1989,” said Red Eagle. “There is power in these words. There is energy in these happy faces. Something worked.”

He currently coordinates the Carvers’ Camp for the Tribal Journeys Group and served as a carver on the camp’s Gift Canoe Project, a 29-foot Salish hunter canoe that was donated during the Suquamish Potlatch in August 2009.

Red Eagle has a B.F.A. in metal design and a B.A. in editorial journalism from the University of Washington. He wrote the award-winning novel Red Earth: A Vietnam Warrior’s Journey, based on his own experiences, and co-published and edited The Raven Chronicles, a multicultural magazine of art, literature and the spoken word. His artwork in many different media has been exhibited at galleries and museums in California, Washington and New Mexico.

In addition to Native American Studies, the event is sponsored by the Campus Artists and Lecture Series, Auxiliary Services Corporation, CGIS and the Sociology/Anthropology Department. For more information, contact Dawn Van Hall at (607) 753-4890.

Nominations are due on Wednesday, March 31, for the Leadership in Civic Engagement and Scholarship Awards recognizing excellence in service to the community.

Nomination forms are available at www.cortland.edu/civicengagement and completed forms should be e-mailed to Erica Smith, Institute for Civic Engagement graduate assistant. Award recipients will be announced in campus and community publications in mid-April. The awards ceremony will take place at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 29, in Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge. For more information, contact Service-Learning Coordinator John Suarez at (607) 753-4391.

Leadership in Civic Engagement Awards recognize the significant contributions of individuals and groups to the community’s quality of life through their leadership in a variety of civic engagement activities, including service and social action. Students, teachers, faculty members, college staff and community members are eligible for nomination.

Previous recipients have won for their outstanding organizing of community service projects, leading efforts to raise funds for deserving programs, advocacy on behalf of a group or issue and/or creation of a community service effort or organization.

In addition to the Leadership in Civic Engagement and Scholarship Award, eligible student nominees will also be considered for the following $1,000 scholarships: Borg-Warner TEC, Community Scholarship for Student Volunteers and Interns, Institute for Civic Engagement Scholarship, Judson Taylor Presidential Scholarship and Lambda Phi Delta Service Scholarship.  

Groups on campus or in the community that are lessening the effects of hunger and homelessness are eligible to be considered for the Don Wilcox Civic Engagement Award.

Students whose civic engagement activities go beyond course/graduation requirements and whose efforts have significantly enhanced relations between SUNY Cortland and the greater Cortland community are eligible for the Cortland Area Chapter of the Alumni Association’s Community Service Award.

Nominations will be reviewed by a committee composed of SUNY Cortland staff, faculty and students and Cortland community leaders.

The Performing Arts Department’s Choral Union and the Arts at Grace concert series will present J. S. Bach’s complete “St. Matthew Passion” in English on Good Friday, April 2, at 19 Church St., formerly the United Community Church, in Cortland.

Part One begins at 4 p.m. and Part Two starts at 7:15 p.m. following a dinner break. There is no charge for admission, though voluntary contributions will be accepted at the door.  

Recognized as one of the most remarkable choral works ever written, the “St. Matthew Passion” is rarely performed in part because of its scope. This highly complex masterpiece requires a double chorus, two orchestras, a children’s chorus, and six soloists to tell the story of Good Friday according to the Gospel of St. Matthew.

More than 65 children and adult volunteer musicians from the area will join 49 highly trained professionals to offer the work to the greater Cortland community. To learn more about the performers, visit passion.cortlandchoral.com.

During the one-and-one-half hour intermission between Parts One and Two, a light dinner will be available for $8 at Grace Episcopal Church, 13 Court St., Cortland. To make dinner reservations, send an e-mail to The Arts at Grace or call Grace Episcopal Church between 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday at (607) 753-3073. Directions to the concert and meal venues are available at www.cortlandmusic.org.

Key performers include:

Tenor Kirk Dougherty will sing the role of the Evangelist. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Dougherty has performed with Dell’Arte Opera, Central City Opera, the Greenwich Choral Society and the Fayetteville Opera. He is currently a resident artist at Tri-Cities Opera in Binghamton, N.Y.

Baritone Steven Stull will perform the role of Jesus. Stull has appeared with Glimmerglass, Syracuse and Tri-Cities opera companies as well as with the Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Jacksonville and West Virginia orchestras. He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Oberlin College Conservatory and Tri-Cities Resident Artists Program. Stull is co-founder of Ithaca’s CRS Barn Studio, which presents an eclectic summer series of music and dance performances on a farm overlooking Cayuga Lake in Ithaca, N.Y.

Soprano Lianne Coble is an active concert soloist who recently made her Carnegie Hall debut. She also has soloed with the Syracuse Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic and the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Symphony, and has performed operatic roles with the Syracuse and Berkshire Operas, Ash Lawn Opera Festival and Opera Colorado. Coble holds degrees in music from SUNY Fredonia and Florida State University and has been a Regional Winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions.

Mezzo-Soprano Jennifer Kay holds degrees from Ithaca College and Boston University. In 2005 Kay joined the Voice Faculty of Ithaca College. Originally from Manalapan, N.J., She has been a soloist at the Rochester Bach Festival, Oneida Civic Chorale, Colgate University and Hamilton College. She sings regularly with the Rochester-based early music ensemble, Publick Musick.

Tenor David Parks joined the voice faculty at Ithaca College in 1987. His degrees are from the University of Arizona, University of Michigan and Westminster Choir College. He also has been an active national and international performer in opera, oratorio and recital with repertoire ranging from the Baroque to the 21st century.

SUNY Cortland Performing Arts Department Chair David Neal, a bass-baritone, has appeared nationally and regionally with Lake George, Syracuse, Baltimore and Tri-Cities opera companies.  A graduate of Cornell University and the Peabody Conservatory of Music, he has been in concert at The Times Center and the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Neal premiered works by Robert Paterson and Lowell Liebermann during the Arts at Grace 2008 concert series. Neal is also artistic director of the Arts at Grace and he performs frequently with the Society for New Music.

Three conductors will direct the three featured choirs:

SUNY Cortland Performing Arts Department Professor Stephen B. Wilson will conduct the Choral Union. Wilson holds degrees in voice and conducting from the University of California, Santa Barbara and Ball State University in Indiana. He was on the faculties of Emerson College (Boston) and North Carolina Wesleyan College before coming to SUNY Cortland in 1985. In 1992, Wilson received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. He currently conducts the Choral Union and the College Singers and teaches music theory. A highly eclectic musician, Wilson often sings throughout the region, plays the organ, conducts church choirs and plays keyboard in the local bluegrass group TheJazzHappensBand. His choral arrangements have been performed in California, North Carolina, Indiana, Pennsylvania and New York.

Performing Arts Department Lecturer Marion Giambattista will be assistant conductor, directing the smaller Chorus II. She is recognized regionally both as a performer and teacher and has given voice and chamber music recitals and sung solos with a variety of organizations. After receiving a master’s degree in vocal performance at Syracuse University, she taught chorus and voice at Cortland High School for a decade. Currently, Giambattista continues to sing and also teaches at Cornell University.

Children’s Choir Director Ann Finamore was a vocal music teacher in the Cortland City School District for 33 years before retiring in 2006. She also co-directed the Cortland Boys’ Choir and assisted with musicals. She currently teaches private piano and voice lessons. Finamore has degrees from Mansfield University and Ithaca College in music education and performance.

The Arts at Grace is a community outreach effort of Grace Episcopal Church, assisted by individual and business contributors from the greater Cortland community. Its mission is to provide wonderful music at no charge to any one who wants to hear it. Admission is always free, while donations are welcome. Major contributors to the “St. Matthew Passion” include the Wilkins Foundation, the New York State Arts Decentralization Grant Program and the SUNY Cortland Performing Arts Department.