Campus Champion

Senior Aljamain Sterling of Uniondale, N.Y., goes to the mat, literally, to help his team and his College maintain a national, high-profile athletic standing. Notably, the wrestler earned All-America honors for the second straight season with his sixth-place finish in the 141-pound weight class at the NCAA Div. III Wrestling Championships March 11-12 in La Crosse, Wis. Sterling, a physical education major, finished with a 4-3 record at the national meet. He completed the season with a 28-8 record, and his 87 victories over three seasons ranks 11th all-time at Cortland. Once he steps across the graduation platform, Sterling’s past prowess prepares him to successfully conquer any new challenges in his career and life.

Kelli Renee McCormack Brown, associate dean for academic affairs in the University of Florida’s College of Health and Human Performance, will deliver the fourth annual Charles N. Poskanzer Lecture on Thursday, March 24, at SUNY Cortland.

Brown’s talk, titled “Social Marketing: What’s the Value Added for Health Promotion Research and Practice” begins at 7 p.m. in Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge.

Sponsored by the College’s Health Department, the lecture is free and open to the public. The event is supported by the Charles N. Poskanzer Fund, an endowment named in honor of the College’s late SUNY Distinguished Service Professor who taught in the Health Department for 40 years.

Brown has served since 2001 on the Social Marketing Quarterly editorial board. Since May 2008, she has served as editor-in-chief at the Journal of School Health.

Describing herself as a “scholar-teacher-administrator,” Brown has supported faculty, students and staff in achieving excellence in diverse areas over more than 20 years of facilitative-style academic leadership.

Currently, she provides leadership and administration in the areas of graduate and undergraduate academic affairs in the college, comprising departments in applied physiology and kinesiology; health education and behavior; and tourism, recreation and sport management; and four centers: Center for Exercise Science, Florida Center for Health Promotion, Center for Tourism Research and Development, and Addictive and Health Behaviors Institute.

She joined the faculty as an associate professor in 1996 and was promoted to professor in 2004. In 2007, she became an affiliate faculty member, continuing to teach courses such as Community Health Education, Community Partnerships and Alliances, Evidence-based Health Promotion Programs, Health Education and Emerging Technology, Introduction to Social Marketing, and Social and Behavioral Sciences Applied to Public Health.

Before joining the University of Florida, Brown served from 1994-96 as professor and chair of the Department of Health Sciences at Illinois State University. She was assistant to the dean in Western Illinois University’s College of Health, Physical Education and Recreation from 1993-94.

She has extensive community and public health experience with the Cairo Community Health Center, Cairo, Ill., Planned Parenthood of Greater Toledo, Inc., Toledo, Ohio, and with the Texas Migrant Council of Northwest Ohio in Toledo.

She has conducted nearly $9 million in externally funded research. Her research interests include adolescent/school health, children’s oral health, community and school health partnerships, and social [prevention] marketing and public health.

Brown has co-written seven books in her area of interest, most recently the 2002 text co-authored with D.Q. Thomas and J. Kotecki, Physical Activity and Health: An Interactive Approach (Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Boston, Mass). She is the author or co-author of more than 60 articles in refereed journals in her field as well as many book chapters, manuals, technical reports and teaching publications.

She is a frequent presenter and workshop facilitator at national and international professional conferences in her field.

Brown presently serves as a research consortium member of the American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD)/American Association for Health Education (AAHE) and is an AAHPERD Research Consortium Fellow. Brown was a section council member of the American Public Health Association (APHA), School Health Education and Services Section. She served on the board of directors and was an editorial board member of the American School Health Association (ASHA). Brown served the State of Florida Department of Health as a Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant Advisory Committee member from July 1999-2010. Since 2008, she has served as University of Florida Institutional representative of the Florida Office of Women in Higher Education.

Brown earned an A.A.S. in dental hygiene from The Michael J. Owens Technical College and a B.S. in public health services from the University of Toledo. She received a Master of Science and Education in Public Health Education from the University of Toledo. She has a doctorate in education with a concentration in health education from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

For more information, contact Bonni C. Hodges, professor and chair of health, by e-mail or at (607) 753-4225.

The 29th Annual Admissions Open House, a one-day program allowing accepted freshmen, transfer applicants and prospective students to better acquaint themselves with SUNY Cortland, is expected to attract 2,000 visitors to campus on Saturday, April 2.

This year, more than 11,900 freshmen have applied for admission to the fall semester at SUNY Cortland, said Betsy Cheetham, assistant director of admissions at the College and coordinator of the Open House since its inception in 1983.

Additionally, the College anticipates more than 2,600 transfer applications for the Fall 2011 semester, she noted. In the past, more than 70 percent of the freshmen students who attend Open House actually enroll in the fall semester and 90 percent of the transfer applicants enroll.

“Open House helps accepted student applicants determine if SUNY Cortland is the college they will attend,” added Mark Yacavone, SUNY Cortland director of admissions. “Most students will need to commit to a college by May 1. This informative and exciting day allows them to get their last-minute questions answered and project what life as a SUNY Cortland student will be like.”

Events will take place in Park Center and Corey Union.

Visitors are encouraged to take part in a variety of information sessions and tours, Cheetham explained. Several alumni volunteers will be available to eat lunch with the prospective students and their families in the on-campus dining areas, and faculty will be encouraged to meet them as well.

This year will feature tours of the SUNY Cortland Child Care Center in the Education Building between noon and 2 p.m., Cheetham added. Students who might use the center as well as early childhood education majors are expected to attend.

Open House begins at 9:45 a.m. in the Park Center Alumni Arena with welcoming remarks by College President Erik J. Bitterbaum, Student Government Association President Jesse Campanaro and Yacavone.

An academic fair and a variety of student organization programs and student services will be offered in Park Center Corey Gymnasium between 10:15 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Prospective Cortland students and their families can meet current faculty and students to discuss the College’s major and minor programs, as well as its clubs and activities. Walking tours of campus led by current students will include academic buildings and residence halls. A shuttle bus will transport students wanting to tour the West Campus Apartments.

Information on an array of programs relating to the academic, cultural and social life of the Cortland campus will be presented between 10:30 a.m. and 1:45 p.m., in Park Center and Corey Union. Sessions will cover housing and residence life for both freshman and transfer students, financial aid, Honors Program, career services, technology on campus, academic support services, diversity on campus and meal plans. Other sessions include campus activities and involvement, Greek life, study abroad, student disability services, childhood and early childhood education, athletic training, sport management, pre-law advisement, pre-med advisement, learning opportunities for students who haven’t declared a major and transfer credits. In addition, Danceworks and the Cortland Dance Company will perform.

Lunch will be available in the Brockway Hall, Neubig Hall and Corey Union dining facilities. Alumni volunteers and faculty will join prospective students and their families who choose to dine on campus.

Guests also are invited to attend campus athletic and cultural events. Home games will include a softball doubleheader at noon versus New Paltz and women’s lacrosse versus Oswego at 1 p.m. There will be no admission charge for athletic events on Open House day.

At 8 p.m., the hit Broadway musical, “The Drowsy Chaperone,” will take place in the Dowd Fine Arts Center Theatre. Recommended for the whole family, the Tony Award-winning, rollicking musical comedy is about a daffy wedding, a looney ladies’ man, a ditzy millionairess, two gangsters disguised as cooks and a tipsy chaperone. Tickets will be sold at the door for $7 for Open House guests and all students, $14 for senior citizens and SUNY staff and $16 for the general public.

For more information, visit online at www.cortland.edu/admissions or contact Cheetham at (607) 753-4712.

A panel of five talented women will share how their individual paths led them to SUNY Cortland during the second annual Women’s Paths to Success presentation on Thursday, March 24, at the College.

Sponsored by the campus group Women’s Initiatives in celebration of Women’s History Month, the discussion will take place from 3-4:30 p.m. in Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge.

“Each person’s career path is different and driven by personal history, talents, needs, priorities, supporters, nay-sayers and, perhaps, some good fortune,” said Karen Seibert, assistant director of the Center for Educational Exchange. “Come be inspired by five talented women and learn how their varied paths, one short and some others very long, brought them to SUNY Cortland.”

Jena Curtis, an associate professor of health and coordinator of human services, will moderate the panel discussion.

Panelists include:

• Mary Kate Boland, assistant director for leadership and community development, campus activities and Corey Union

• Jamie Dangler, associate professor of sociology/anthropology

• Vicki Johnson, protestant chaplain at the Interfaith Center

• Virginia Levine, executive assistant to the president

• Sherry Snell, secretary II, Physical Education Department (retired)

Event co-sponsors include the Committee on the Status and Education of Women/Women’s Initiatives, the Affirmative Action Committee, the Center for Gender and Intercultural Studies, the Gender Implementation Team, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Committee, the President’s Office and Women’s Studies. 

For more information on Women’s Initiatives, visit the website www.cortland.edu/women. For more information about the panel discussion, contact Siebert by e-mail or at (607) 753-5660.

Judith Van Buskirk, a SUNY Cortland associate professor of history, will present “The Glam Girls and the Studios: Stars of the Early Silver Screen as Workers” on Wednesday, March 23, at the College.

She will explore the working lives of seven of the biggest female stars of the 1930s Silver Screen and their struggle for better working conditions in the fledgling industry of motion pictures with a lecture at 4:30 p.m. in Moffett Center, Room 2125.                 

The lecture continues the 2010-11 Rozanne M. Brooks Lecture Series, which is free and open to the public. A reception to welcome Van Buskirk starts at 4 p.m. in the Rozanne M. Brooks Museum, Moffett Center, Room 2126.

“We tend to think of the great actresses of the Silver Screen as somewhat vacuous, pampered dolls,” Van Buskirk states, “But many were trailblazers in the movie business, taking on the big studios and risking their careers on social issues.”

Van Buskirk will take a closer look at the careers of these women to reveal what it really meant to be an actress in the 1930s.

“The likes of Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn and Myrna Loy are renowned for their glamorous personas,” she observed. “They wore clothes beautifully. They lived in posh bungalows overlooking the Hollywood Hills. They were pampered and adored. But they also worked very long hours in a studio system that did not give them much control over their careers.”                  

Van Buskirk joined SUNY Cortland in 1997 as an assistant professor in the History Department. In 2003, she was promoted to associate professor.

In 1999, she was among only 27 scholars worldwide to be awarded a Fellowship in American Civilizations grant by the New York City-based Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Van Buskirk studied at three New York City historical archives for her resulting 2002 book on American Revolution history, Generous Enemies: Patriots and Loyalists in Revolutionary New York.

Along with four scholarly articles, she has had numerous book reviews, article critiques, exhibit critiques and encyclopedia entries published.

She received a Bachelor of Arts in French from La Salle College, and earned a Master of International Business with a concentration in international finance from the University of South Carolina. Van Buskirk earned her Ph. D. from New York University with a dissertation titled “Generous Enemies: Civility and Conflict in Revolutionary New York.”

The Brooks Lecture Series honors the late Rozanne Marie Brooks, a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor and SUNY Cortland professor of sociology and anthropology. A SUNY Cortland faculty member for 36 years, she died in 1997. The 2010-11 Brooks Lecture Series is sponsored by a grant from Auxiliary Services Corporation (ASC) and the Cortland College Foundation.

For more information, contact the lecture series organizer and Brooks Museum Director Sharon R. Steadman at (607) 753-2308 or sharon.steadman@cortland.edu.

Amie Whitlock, a senior majoring in geology and environmental science, has won top honor in SUNY Cortland’s annual writing contest.

Whitlock, of Cortland, N.Y., was recognized for her short story, “An Untitled Piece of Science Fiction,” written for the Writing Fiction course taught by Victoria Boynton, English Department. She submitted several entries to the competition and was one of four undergraduate students and two graduate students to receive $100 each for their winning entries in the 2010 College Writing Contest.

Whitlock will accept her award at the College’s Honors Convocation on Saturday, April 16. All winning entries will be published in a booklet dedicated to the college writing awards and posted online. The students will present their work on Scholars’ Day, an annual forum for faculty and student research, on Friday, April 15.

This year marks the 12th anniversary of the contest sponsored by the College Writing Committee, a group of 15 faculty members from a range of departments across campus. The committee received 85 submissions of creative and academic work for the competition. The work was judged on superior thinking, originality, insight and excellent command of language. All submissions written for courses during spring, summer and fall of 2010 were eligible.
Besides Whitlock, award recipients are:

• Collin Anderson, a graduate English major from Trumansburg, N.Y., for “Not Here,” a memoir written for the Seminar in the Composing Process course taught by Mary Lynch Kennedy, English Department.

• Brenna Filipello, a junior communication studies major from Selkirk, N.Y., for her memoir, “The Lifestyle of the Visually Impaired,” written for the Introduction to Professional Writing course taught by David Franke, English Department.

• Sarah Kane, a senior English major from Ithaca, N.Y., for her essay, “Narcissistic Personality Disorder in Willa Cather’s ‘Paul’s Case,’” written for the American Women Writers course taught by Denise Knight, English Department.

• Lauren Menchini, a freshman pre-major from Washingtonville, N.Y., for her essay, “Bullying,” written for the Writing Studies in the Community I course taught by John Suarez, Service-Learning.

• Taylor Morris, a junior professional writing major from TOWN, for development of  “Cortland Professional Writing Website,” http://cortlandprofessionalwriting.tumblr.com/ created in the course Experiments in Creative Writing taught by Boynton.

• James Reardon, a graduate English major from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., for his memoir, “I Feel It in My Teeth, and Hers, and Hers Too,” written for the Seminar in the Composing Process course taught by Kennedy.

The 2011 contest will accept papers written for courses offered during spring, summer and fall 2011. Eligible papers will be judged in the following categories:
• Academic writing (papers based on sources or other data)
• Fiction (short stories)
• Poetry
• Scripts
• Creative nonfiction
• Multimodal compositions. Judges place emphasis on writing content. Pages should contain a minimum of 500 words of written text.

Beginning in 2011, students may also submit writing that did not originate in a SUNY Cortland course to a new category, “Personal Writing.”

For more information, contact Kennedy by e-mail or at (607) 753-2086.

SUNY Cortland’s University Police Department (UPD) recently joined the relatively thin ranks of police agencies in New York state to achieve a standard for effective, professional law enforcement and community service.

Police agencies that apply for accreditation must meet standards set by the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services and are assessed by the New York State Law Enforcement Accreditation Council.

From Jan. 11-13, an assessment team consisting of David Gardner, the City of Elmira’s retired deputy chief of police, and Detective Lt. Edwin Brewster of the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office, conducted a site visit of the UPD.

On March 1, the council notified the UPD that it has earned first-time accreditation. SUNY Cortland’s University Police Chief Steven Dangler, expressed his department’s sense of validation at the result.

“The department’s primary mission is the protection of the lives and property of our students, employees and visitors,” he said. “This agency has long embraced the practice of community policing and we strive to be visible, proactive and available to the campus community.”

The council primarily reviewed the operation of the UPD.

The College’s 19 full-time sworn officers with arrest powers and seven civilian staff members serve on the 191-acre main campus in the City of Cortland and branch campuses. The current student enrollment at SUNY Cortland is more than 7,000, with approximately 3,000 students residing in on-campus housing. Faculty and staff make up an additional 1,000 people who while on campus fall under the UPD’s jurisdiction.

In the course of their duties, University Police officers conduct foot, bike and vehicular patrols and operate a dispatch desk 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. When necessary, they work closely with other police agencies in Cortland County and New York state.

Gardner noted in his Jan. 27 assessment report, “…It is obvious that implementing the policies and procedures required to achieve accredited status has been taken very seriously by all the members of the Department.”

The assessment team highly recommended that the UPD be awarded accreditation status.

In Dangler’s opinion, the process provided an opportunity for his department to hone its strengths.

“Having met the Division of Criminal Justice Services accreditation standards, we have built upon our professionalism by improving our overall performance, effectiveness and efficiency,” Dangler observed. “Additionally, we are able to increase public confidence in our department and meet specific training levels.”

With the council’s endorsement, the SUNY Cortland UPD becomes one of only three police agencies among the State University of New York’s four-year or doctoral colleges to achieve the status. Two university centers, University of Buffalo and SUNY Stony Brook, are the others.

Moreover, the College joins the New York State Police and just over 120 of the 600 police agencies in the state to earn accreditation, a ratio of approximately 20 percent.

New York was the first state in the country to sponsor a law enforcement accreditation program, which provides a comprehensive blueprint for effective, professional law enforcement. Community leaders embraced the initiative from the outset, and the program was immediately endorsed by leading statewide organizations of law enforcement and elected officials.

The initiative has had a significant impact on law enforcement in a very short period of time. More than 260 agencies submitted applications to participate during the first eight years of the program's operation. Accredited agencies range in size from four full-time officers to more than 4,000 sworn personnel and extend geographically from the tip of Long Island in Suffolk County to St. Lawrence County in the north and Erie and Monroe counties in the west.

Insurance benefits, enhanced community support, and a greater overall standard of professionalism are just are few of the many tangible benefits that accredited agencies enjoy.

In 1992, a national organization, the Council of State Governments, determined that New York’s program “has dealt with a significant problem in an effective and innovative manner and has the potential to be transferred to other states.”

While patrolling the campus, SUNY Cortland University Police Officer Jennifer Olin, center, pauses to converse with two students.

More than a dozen SUNY Cortland undergraduate students will participate in the 2011 National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), which will be held from Wednesday, March 30-Sunday, April 2, at Ithaca College in Ithaca, N.Y.

This annual conference brings together undergraduate students from across the country to highlight undergraduate research, scholarship and creative activity in all fields of study.

SUNY Cortland had 13 presentations accepted, including three oral presentations, eight poster presentations and two visual arts exhibits, according to Chris McRoberts, professor of geology and chair of SUNY Cortland’s Undergraduate Research Council. Presentations will be made from seven academic departments across several schools.

“The response from Cortland students was phenomenal,” McRoberts said. “We have reached a level of participation that exceeds that from most other institutions.”

These students will present at NCUR:

• Joshua Baccile, a senior chemistry major from Big Flats, N.Y., will give an oral presentation titled “Synthesis of a Photocleavable Peptide.”

• Thomas Breitfeller, a senior psychology major from Washingtonville, N.Y., will give an oral presentation titled “How We Created a Survey to Determine Graduate Schools Admission Criteria.”

• Amanda Zezima, a 2010 graduate in psychology, from Ronkonkoma, N.Y., will be a co-presenter.

• Nicole Chodkowski, a senior biology major from Westbury, N.Y., will give a poster presentation titled “Antipredator Strategies of Invasive Earthworms.”

• Michael Curry, a senior psychology major from Warwick, N.Y., will give a poster presentation titled “Math Anxiety, Confidence, Self-Efficacy and Math Performance in College Students.”

• Megan Fearon, a senior kinesiology/exercise science major from Smithtown, N.Y., will give a poster presentation titled “Types of Music on Motivation and Exercise Intensity While Running on a Treadmill.”

• Michaela Granato, a senior speech and hearing science major from Auburn, N.Y., will give a poster presentation titled “Semantic Encoding in Adults who Stutter.”

• Ji Kim, a third year student in SUNY Cortland’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program from Seoul, Korea, will present a visual arts exhibit titled “The Recollection of Zen Buddhism in Today’s Cities: Visual Expression of the Coexistence of Paradoxical Notions.”

• Macey Kolczynski, a senior kinesiology/exercise science major from Savannah, N.Y., will give a poster presentation titled “Learning to Write Again: Do Left-Handers Truly Have an Advantage?”

• Danielle McCarthy, a senior chemistry major from Johnson City, N.Y., will present her poster, “Synthesis and Crystallization of Characterization of Erbium Containing Zinc Silicate Germanate Films.”

• Emily Oltmann, a senior studio arts major from Caledonia, N.Y., will present a visual arts exhibit titled “Abstracted landscape in Reference to Uncertainty.”

• Matthew Rankin, a biology/environmental science major from West Henrietta, N.Y., will give an oral presentation titled “Sustainable Heating at SUNY Cortland Using Biomass and Geothermal Energy.”

• Anthony Wind, a senior biology major from Rochester, N.Y., will present his poster titled “Testing the Interaction of Membrane Proteins with VTC3, a Gene Involved in the Regulation of Ascorbic Acid Biosynthesis in Arabidopsis Thaliana.” Chodkowski is a co-presenter.

• Michael Wolfin, a senior biology major from Little Neck, N.Y., will give a poster presentation titled “Isolation and Analysis of the Trail Peromone of Cactoblastis cactorum (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae).”

Information about the conference can be found on the NCUR website.

Funding for participant registration costs was paid for by grant from SUNY Cortland’s Undergraduate Research Council.

For more information, contact McRoberts by e-mail.

The Singing Boys of Pennsylvania, a company of vocalists ages 10-14 whose wide musical range spans from chant to contemporary work, will perform on Sunday, March 27, at SUNY Cortland.

This choral ensemble will raise its voices and perform selections with costumes and choreography, starting at 2 p.m. in Old Main Brown Auditorium.

The company will be joined for some songs by members of the Keystone Girls Choir.

The Campus Artist and Lecture Series (CALS) presents the performance. Ticket prices are $3 for SUNY Cortland students and $5 for general admission. Children ages 10 and younger are admitted free. Tickets are available in the Campus Activities and Corey Union Office, Corey Union, Room 406, or at the door one hour prior to the performance. For more information, call (607) 753-2321.

The musicians’ programs frequently include sacred and secular music and a rich assortment of American and international folk music.

“It is refreshing to see our youth immersed in serious music-making,” said Nadia Worobij, a professional singer and music teacher at Bushkill Elementary School in Nazareth, Pa. “What a wonderful opportunity for students to supplement their musical education with their participation in the Singing Boys of Pennsylvania.”

Performing in approximately 100 concerts each year in the U.S., Canada and Japan, the choir has presented more than 300 concerts in Japan since 1983.

Founded in 1970 as The Pocono Boy Singers, the company has loaned its voices to more than 20 regional, U.S. and international orchestras, including the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic and the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia.

Participants attend rehearsals at several different eastern Pennsylvania locations, driving up to an hour and a half. Founder and artistic director K. Bernard Schade has rigorously trained the young boys in voice techniques and ear training. The musical ensemble follows the Kodaly concept, consisting of singing and choreography.

The company performs a demanding and popular repertoire with a fast-moving format. Audiences and critics have applauded the choir’s imaginative and versatile vocal repertoire.

More information about the Singing Boys of Pennsylvania can be found on their website at www.singingboysofpennsylvania.org.

Paul J. Parks, who teaches courses in Asian art history at SUNY Cortland, will exhibit photographs focusing on the culture of Cambodia and Vietnam from Thursday, March 24 through Friday, May 6 at the Beard Gallery.

Titled “The Legacy of Angkor and Champa: Impressions of Cambodia and Vietnam,” the adjunct professor’s display is presented by SUNY Cortland’s Art and Art History Department, the Institute for Civic Engagement and the Cortland Downtown Partnership.

The gallery space is open to the public weekdays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. in the Main Street SUNY Cortland building, 9 Main St., Cortland.

An opening reception for Parks will take place at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 30, in the gallery. The artist will lecture there on his work at 5:30 p.m.

Parks said he captured these images during a recent research trip for the purpose of investigating the arts and culture of Cambodia and Vietnam in their past and present manifestations.

“The images focus on the visual legacies of the Angkor Dynasty from 9th- to 15th-century Cambodia and the Champa Dynasty from 2nd- through 5th-century Vietnam,” Parks said.

Impressions of the people and practices of today’s Cambodian and Vietnamese cultures are reflected in additional photographs, he noted.

The exhibition is supported by the Academic Affairs Office, Art and Art History Department, Art Exhibition Association, Cortland Downtown Partnership, Institute for Civic Engagement and Clark Center for International Education.

The gallery is a collaborative effort of SUNY Cortland, the Cortland Downtown Partnership, and the Cultural Council of Cortland County.

For more information, contact the gallery at (607) 753-4270 or Parks via e-mail or by calling (607) 753-4798.

The photographic image, “Bayon, Cambodia 2010,” was taken by Paul J. Parks.

The musical comedy spoof “The Drowsy Chaperone” will be performed March 25-27 and April 1-3 in the Dowd Fine Arts Center Theatre at SUNY Cortland.

Presented by the Performing Arts Department, the play will be staged at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and at 2 p.m. on Sundays.

Tickets are $16 for the general public, $14 for senior citizens and SUNY staff, and $7 for college and high school students and children. Tickets are on sale at Jodi’s Hallmark Shop on Main Street, Cortland, and at the door prior to each performance.

“The Drowsy Chaperone,” written by Bob Martin and Don McKellar with music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison, started as a spoof of old musicals written by friends for the wedding of Martin and his wife, Janet. The production debuted in 1998 in Toronto and opened on Broadway in May 2006. The show won the Tony Award for Best Book and Best Score.

An homage to American musicals of the Jazz Age, “The Drowsy Chaperone” examines the effect musicals have on the fans who adore them.

Man in Chair, a mousy, agoraphobic Broadway fanatic seeking to cure his “non-specific sadness,” listens to a recording of a fictional 1928 musical comedy, “The Drowsy Chaperone.” He is transported into the musical. The characters appear in his dingy apartment, which is transformed into an impressive Broadway set with painted backdrops and glitzy costumes.

The plot of the show-within-a-show centers on Janet Van De Graaff, a showgirl who plans to give up her career in order to marry an oil tycoon, Robert Martin.

Watching from his armchair, Man in Chair is torn between his desire to absorb every moment of the show as it unfolds and his need to insert his personal footnotes and his extensive-but-trivial knowledge of musical performances and actors, as he frequently brings the audience in and out of the fantasy. More of his personal life is revealed through his musings about the show until, as the record ends, he is left again alone in his apartment, but still with his record of a long-beloved show to turn to whenever he’s blue.

“The Drowsy Chaperone” is directed and choreographed by Kevin Halpin, with musical direction by Corinne Aquilina, scenery by Howard Lindh, costumes by Mark Reynolds, sound and lights by Joel Pape, and technical direction by Preston Maryre. 

For more information, visit the Performing Arts Department website or call (607) 753-2811.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Bald Eagle Exhibit is currently on display at SUNY Cortland’s Memorial Library.

Located on the second floor of the library, the exhibit aims to educate the campus community about the New York State Department of Conservation’s steps to remove bald eagles from the endangered species list.

Titled “Celebrate the Bald Eagles Road to Recovery” the exhibit provides information about this process in New York state.  The exhibit can be viewed through April 28 during the library’s open hours.

For more information, contact Lorraine Melita by e-mail or at (607) 753-4009.

Out of respect for people and the environment, SUNY Cortland has made a commitment to look at ways to reduce tobacco use on campus by forming a Tobacco Advisory Committee. 

Formerly known as the ad hoc SUNY Cortland Tobacco Advisory Coalition, the new committee was recognized by President Erik J. Bitterbaum and is co-chaired by Devin Coppola, Student Health Service, and Cathy Smith, Health Promotion Office. The committee includes more than 30 members representing faculty, staff and students as well as members of the surrounding community. 

Committee members are seeking input from the campus community at two information sessions planned for Tuesday, March 29, and Tuesday, April 26. Faculty, staff and students interested in discussing the topic are invited to attend either session, which will be held from 1:30-2:30 p.m. in Corey Union, Rooms 305-306. The monthly Tobacco Advisory Committee meetings will follow.

“Well-being is a priority in SUNY Cortland’s strategic plan for 2010-20,” said Coppola. “The College is striving to ‘become a national leader in the promotion of the physical, emotional, cultural and social well-being of all community members.’ Tobacco use is incompatible with the College culture of well-being.” 

The committee’s charges from the president are:

• to continue to explore ways to encourage smoking cessation at SUNY Cortland;

• to develop a graduated plan for the College to become a Tobacco-Free campus;

• to involve the unions and smokers and non-smokers in the process; and,

• to educate the entire campus community about the process and the rationale for this initiative.

For more information, contact Smith by e-mail or phone at (607) 753-2066, or Coppola by e-mail or phone at (607) 753-4811.