Campus Champion

Bistro cashier Nancy Schemerhorn has made friends in her 16 years with Auxiliary Services Corporation. In a TheOdysseyOnline.com story, “7 Reasons Why Cortland is the Best SUNY,” Nancy’s hospitality makes the list. “The best part of my day is when I head over to Bistro and see Nancy’s big smile. Even when you're having a terrible day, hearing her say ‘Good job hunny’ will make it a little bit better.” Nancy receives notes, homemade cards, candy and even a gift from a graduate’s mom. Nancy says, “The students are so good to me, so respectful.” Stop by the Bistro for a great meal, stay for the kindness.

SUNY Cortland students are encouraged to help the College show off its Red Dragon Pride as never before during homecoming weekend Sept. 15-16.

A permanent sculpture of a 26-foot-long, stainless steel red dragon will be unveiled in front of the SUNY Cortland Stadium Complex at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 16. The dragon is a collaboration between two SUNY Cortland alumni: Mike Vela '88, who provided vision and funding for the project; and sculptor Scott Oldfield '06, who turned Red Dragon pride into reality.

Following the unveiling, students, alumni, parents, faculty, staff and friends will gather for a historic photo on the stadium White Field to celebrate the College’s Sesquicentennial. The first 400 students to arrive will receive a ticket for a free Red Dragon Homecoming T-shirt. All are asked to wear red to support SUNY Cortland’s 150th anniversary.

An ice cream party will take place following the photo. It is open to all and is sponsored by the SUNY Cortland Alumni Association Alum From Day One program.

Members of the SUNY Cortland community who cannot make it to campus for the weekend are still encouraged to wear red and participate by showing their support from around the globe. Alumni and students should share their Red Dragon pride by using the hashtag #CortlandPride on social media during Red Dragon Homecoming.

SUNY Cortland hosts Hartwick College in its Empire 8 football opener at 1 p.m. Other athletic events on campus on Sept. 16 include women’s tennis vs. SUNY Brockport at noon, women’s soccer vs. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at 3 p.m. and men’s soccer vs. St. Lawrence University at 7 p.m.

The C-Club Hall of Fame Class of 2017 will be recognized at halftime of the football game. The induction ceremony for SUNY Cortland’s Hall of Famers starts at 4:30 p.m. in the Corey Union Function Room.

On Friday, Sept. 15, a pep rally begins at 7:30 p.m. on the steps in front of Corey Union. SUNY Cortland’s Kickline and Danceworks will perform, as will fire jugglers and a group practicing Tae Kwon Do. Varsity athletes and the College’s Greek organizations will be represented and the Homecoming Court will be revealed.

On Saturday evening, comedy hypnotist Dan Lornitis will perform at 9 p.m. in Sperry Center, Room 105. The event is free and open to SUNY Cortland students. Lornitis has sold out shows across the globe and his routine is described as “an experience the audience will never forget…and one the volunteers may never remember!”

Visit the Red Dragon Homecoming website for a full schedule of events, including details for students, alumni, faculty/staff and community members.

For almost 20 years, SUNY Cortland has made a specialty out of preparing its students to teach in high-need city schools, primarily through Cortland’s Urban Recruitment of Educators (C.U.R.E.) program.

This fall, the number of students participating in C.U.R.E. – which offers a combination of tuition support, academic preparation, mentoring and follow-up – has grown by 50 percent, thanks to a $127,458 grant from New York state.

C.U.R.E., which has educated many teachers who themselves graduated from impoverished districts or are part of underrepresented ethnic groups, has 45 students who began classes Monday.  

The expansion was made possible by a new state Education Department program, called My Brother’s Keeper Teacher Opportunity Corps (TOC). SUNY Cortland’s TOC grant, which will also help fund significant enhancements to C.U.R.E., was part of $3 million allocated for TOC in the 2017-18 New York State budget.

The College potentially will receive five years of renewed TOC grant money for a total of almost $650,000.

It’s the first significant state funding for the C.U.R.E program since the Great Recession of 2007 swept away similar state resources. It comes amid estimates by SUNY that the state may need as many as 180,000 new teachers over the next decade.

The grant represents a rethinking and extension of the C.U.R.E Program. C.U.R.E., created in 1998 under the sponsorship of SUNY Cortland President Judson H. Taylor and supported by current President Erik J. Bitterbaum, has a record of success in educating teachers from African American, Latino, Native American and economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

“The award is an important one as it will allow us to expand our program to support more underrepresented students to gain access to the teaching profession,” said Andrea Lachance, dean of the School of Education.

“There is a lot of evidence that good teachers have a huge impact on kids, especially the ones who face major opportunity gaps,” Lachance said. “By encouraging more students of color to go into teaching, we can make a difference.”

SUNY Cortland’s TOC-augmented program aims to reach high school youth who might never have considered the teaching profession.

“I think it signals a swing back toward seeing teaching as making a real difference in the lives of people,” said Anne Burns Thomas, an associate professor of foundations and social advocacy at SUNY Cortland and coordinator of the C.U.R.E. Program. “One of the things we have heard from our students was they were interested in having an impact in their schools in the way a teacher influenced them in their past.”

SUNY Cortland’s TOC Program builds upon and expands activities already offered through C.U.R.E., such as early field experiences in partner schools in Syracuse, a learning community that includes time in high-need schools, and extensive mentoring to support students’ academic and leadership success. C.U.R.E. participants already complete an additional 45 hours of fieldwork beyond what is required by other students enrolled in the School of Education.

“TOC funding will allow us to add more field experiences, such as a 10-month internship in an urban school, and increased mentoring from experienced educators of color,” Burns Thomas said.

The primary enticement for first-year students to enroll in the specialized teacher preparation program is a $4,000 scholarship covering more than half of annual tuition. The C.U.R.E. scholarship is renewed annually. In exchange, recipients commit to spend their first two working years in a high-needs school or repay their scholarship.

Among the planned program enhancements, the funding will be used to:

• reimagine mentoring to include student pairings with practicing K-12 educators who are themselves members of underrepresented groups. The first group of 20 teacher-mentors with diverse cultural or ethnic backgrounds were recruited this summer from districts in Binghamton, Ithaca and Syracuse. Mentors will meet the C.U.R.E. student in groups and advise them individually.
• increase efforts to recruit diverse first-year students from metropolitan high schools.
• redesign and enhance selected courses and craft new courses taken by C.U.R.E. scholars to contain more fieldwork and civic engagement opportunities.
• design new high school courses that can be used for beginning college credit in an education major. These will be developed to focus on teaching and learning and include a service learning component.

C.U.R.E. has an impressive 80 percent, four-year graduation rate, Lachance said. Ninety percent of C.U.R.E. graduates remain in the teaching profession for two years. Beyond that, 76 percent continued teaching in high-need urban schools.

C.U.R.E. also rates highly for the number of students who have excelled in academic and leadership awards.

Both the 20 TOC/C.U.R.E. scholarship recipients and the 25 regular C.U.R.E. participants will benefit from the enriched learning opportunities. These enhancements will naturally spill over to help advance any student enrolled in a teacher preparation track at SUNY Cortland who takes courses specialized for the TOC and C.U.R.E. students.

“The classes that I teach are normally small so I’ll just teach bigger classes,” Burns Thomas said. “The potential to grow is there and so it’s great to expand.”

The classes are Introduction to Urban Education, which includes a 30-hour field component; Race, Class and Gender in Schools; and Exploring Education with an Urban Focus, which has a 15-hour field component in urban schools.

Through the TOC funding, two courses will see enhancements, according to Burns Thomas. The Race, Class and Gender in Schools course will add a school-based service learning component. That course also will become part of a C.U.R.E. student’s first year learning community and will include an experience tutoring in a high-poverty school.

The Exploring Education with an Urban Focus will include increased hours as it will become one of the courses taken during the new 10-month Clinically Rich Experience. The course will include a semester-long experience at H.W. Smith K-8 School in Syracuse, according to Burns Thomas.

“We’re really hoping that some of the things that are the best practices in C.U.R.E. we can support institutionally because developing high quality teachers for urban settings is something we want to share across the College,” Lachance said. “So the program is open to any education major preparing to teach in an urban school.”

For students enrolled in teacher preparation tracks but not the C.U.R.E. program, the school offers an official transcript endorsement for those who used C.U.R.E. programing to learn how to teach in urban schools, Lachance noted.

C.U.R.E. operates on the theory that the scholarship money helps recruit smart kids from groups underrepresented in teaching. Many of these bright young people are first generation college students who might receive advice or feel internal pressure to choose a career that seems more lucrative than teaching, Burns Thomas said. 

“Tuition support reinforces the value that society places on teaching careers, making the choice of a major leading to teacher certification possible,” she said. 

“An ever-increasing body of research points to the need for more teachers from underrepresented groups who are qualified and prepared to teach students in underserved areas,” Burns Thomas said. “The TOC/C.U.R.E. Program will build on the success of the C.U.R.E. program to meet that need through research-based experience and best practices.”

SUNY Cortland’s efforts to educate the next generation of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) teachers just got a major boost.

Representative Claudia Tenney (R-New Hartford) recently announced that SUNY Cortland was awarded a $1.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support three years of Northeast Regional Noyce Conferences. The conferences support colleges and universities that have been awarded a Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program from the NSF. This scholarship program provides resources for students seeking careers in STEM teaching who agree to teach in a high-need school district. The conferences are an opportunity for faculty and administrators to share best practices and create solutions for improving teaching and learning strategies in their STEM teacher programs.

Gregory D. Phelan, chair of SUNY Cortland’s Chemistry Department, is the principal investigator of the grant. Angela Pagano, associate professor of biological sciences at SUNY Cortland, and Lisa Gonsalves, chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and associate professor of education and human development at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, are co-principal investigators. Kerri Freese, who works in SUNY Cortland’s Chemistry Department, will serve as project director and coordinate the Noyce conferences.

Since 2009, Phelan has secured nearly $4.6 million in federal funding toward the College’s Noyce program and Noyce conferences. Previous grants have directly supported year-long scholarships for SUNY Cortland students planning to teach STEM subjects in high-need schools.

“What this (latest) grant allows us to do is to go through and talk about our successes and challenges in STEM Teacher preparation programs at SUNY Cortland,” Phelan said. “We can show the training we’re providing for students and share that information throughout the whole Northeast and also with the nation when we go to the national meeting.”

Phelan added that the conferences are an opportunity for faculty, students and STEM teachers in the Northeast to meet and discuss new ways to better prepare and support STEM teachers in K-12 schools.

Phelan is planning to hold three workshops in the coming years in New York City, the Boston/Cambridge area and Albany. These workshops will bring together Noyce scholars and faculty from approximately 75 colleges and teacher preparation programs in the Northeast to discuss best practices and share results.

The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, headquartered at Stony Brook University, will partner with the Noyce program at these workshops to help STEM teachers learn how to express complex topics in a clear and engaging fashion.

The American Museum of Natural History will be a key resource during the New York City workshop as an informal learning partner. Phelan cited Lime Hollow Nature Center in Cortland as an example of locations outside the classroom that can encourage learning. One of SUNY Cortland’s Noyce Scholars, a math teacher, used the maple syrup production at Lime Hollow in the classroom to help students connect a real life example of how math is used.

“We want to bring teachers right to the museum so they can learn about the different resources they have to offer,” Phelan said. “We do the same thing locally at Lime Hollow for our Noyce Scholars. We’re looking at these informal STEM learning locations as a resource that teachers need to know about as a way to engage students.”

Phelan is passionate about teacher education, and holds both a Ph.D. in chemistry and a master’s degree in education from the University of Washington. He served as an NSF Graduate STEM Fellow in K-12 Education during his time in Seattle, working with educators and students to improve communication and teaching skills.

The new grant will allow SUNY Cortland students and faculty to continue to improve the College’s efforts in STEM education.

“This grant will allow us to talk to our peers about what challenges we’ve faced, how we’ve solved them and what efforts we can take to keep going,” Phelan said. “It’s a nice way to go through it rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. It’s a great chance for us to partner with other SUNY schools and make sure that we’re preparing future teachers the best way we can.”

SUNY Cortland has once again been lauded as one of the most environmentally sustainable colleges in the nation, according to the Sierra Club’s 2017 “Cool Schools” rankings, which were released last week.

Cortland is the only SUNY comprehensive college to make the Sierra Club’s list of the top 100 campuses for successfully integrating “green” practices at all levels of college life. Three of SUNY’s university centers at Albany, Buffalo and Binghamton made the list, as did SUNY’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse.

“Our school colors are red and white, but our campus culture is green,” SUNY Cortland President Erik J. Bitterbaum said. “This recognition by the nation’s largest and most influential environmental organization is deeply gratifying and a tribute to all of the dedicated faculty, staff, students and alumni of SUNY Cortland.”

The Sierra Club based its rankings on an assessment of 64 different factors that included energy and water consumption, waste reduction, green educational initiatives and local food sourcing.  SUNY Cortland first made the list in 2016, the first year the Sierra Club published its rankings.

SUNY Cortland is one of only a few dozen colleges across the country to earn a “gold” rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). Cortland was the first SUNY campus to reach that milestone. At the time, only one school in the United States — Colorado State — had done better by achieving a platinum designation.

In 2015, SUNY Cortland was named one of the greenest campuses in the country by BestColleges.com. The College was the first SUNY campus to fill all of its electrical needs with renewable sources like wind and solar, build a residence hall with the highest possible certification under the national Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification system, and earn membership into the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Leadership Club. Three years ago, SUNY Cortland threw the switch on 3,600 new solar panels. It was the first school in the nation to offer a professional master’s degree in sustainable energy systems.

National organizations have recognized that the SUNY Cortland campus is also literally green. Its well-tended, 50-species urban forest earned the College designation as a Tree Campus USA by the Arbor Day Foundation and its integration of natural habitats into the campus landscape helped SUNY Cortland become the only New York college identified as a “pollinator friendly” Bee Campus USA.

 “With all that our students, staff, and faculty do to make Cortland a more sustainable campus, it is great to see we are being recognized as the ‘cool’ school that we are,” said Beth Klein, SUNY Cortland’s sustainability coordinator and a professor in the Childhood/Early Childhood Education Department.

The Dowd Gallery Monday became a temple for sacred spaces that celebrate the sublime as well as those that memorialize human horror.

“Reverence,” a multi-media exhibition by two artists, Ben Altman and Robert Knight, opened on Aug.  28 and will run through Oct. 13. The dual exhibit features photographs, participatory installations and projected audio-visual pieces that explore places of worship and memory. These range from depictions of tiny, store-front mosques and soaring, gothic churches to stark mass gravesites and death camps transformed into tourist attractions.

Altman’s work is primarily image-based, although the Dowd exhibit also includes a performance piece featuring a documentary of the artist digging a what appears to be a site for a mass grave in his backyard and a projection of corpses on the gallery floor. His half of the exhibit includes black and white photographs of sites where killings, torture and other human atrocities occurred as well as color images of tourists capturing these images on their cell phones.

“I am fascinated by the turning points of modern history and how they have formed our world,” Altman writes in a statement on his website. “ Many such events were violent on massive scales; I mourn, memorialize, respond to, and reclaim these intractable collective traumas by recording performances at my home and by visiting sites of atrocity. I explore the roles of perpetrator, victim, observer, and bystander and I photograph tourists, signage, architecture and landscaping.

“Although these methods arise in part from my personal and family history as an immigrant to the United States and as the grandson of Jewish immigrants to the United Kingdom, I think most people can find their own connections to violent disruption. In my work, I hope that reverence is not only a statement about the past but also links to questions about our present and future.”

Knight’s work includes film, photography, sound recordings and other analog media. He is interested in religious transitions and the fluidity attached to specific buildings and locations in around the world. In Dowd, his exhibit includes “Three Faiths,” a neon light sculpture combining the symbols of Christianity, Judaism and Islam that invites visitors to view it from authentic prayer rugs and church pews. His display features images of sacred spaces with ghostly worshipers and a Bible-thick accordion foldout of images of all mosques between John F. Kennedy International Airport and Syracuse, N.Y.

“The presence of structures used for ritual gatherings has been one of the universal features of human communities throughout history,” Knight writes on his website. “As centuries of migrations and wars have brought about an ebb and flow of people of various religious affiliations, sacred spaces have often been repurposed to reflect these shifting demographics despite what might seem to be vast differences in dogma and creed. For this reason, many of these gathering spaces are among the oldest extant buildings in our cities and towns today.

“While the U.S. today is a country of rising secularism, it is hard to read the news without recognizing the importance of religion in relationship to our contemporary geopolitical landscape. My work attempts to address aspects of the conflict between secularism and religiosity and the feared displacement of the latter in contemporary society.” 

Dowd Gallery events related to “Reverence” include:

• Opening reception, Aug. 31 from 5-6:30 p.m.
• Artist’s talk by Robert Knight, Sept. 12 at 5 p.m.
• Artist’s talk by Ben Altman, Sep. 18 at 5 p.m.

The Dowd Gallery is located in SUNY Cortland’s Dowd Fine Arts Center, Room 106, corner of Graham Avenue and Prospect Terrace, Cortland, N.Y.

Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday and by appointment.

All Dowd Gallery exhibitions and programs are free and open to the public. For group tours, contact Jaroslava Prihodova at 607-753-4216.

For more information or additional images, please contact Jaroslava Prihodova, Interim gallery director or Bryan Thomas, Assistant director at 607-753-4216.

Big improvements are coming to SUNY Cortland’s dining facilities in Corey Union.

Auxiliary Services Corporation (ASC) will open Union Station, a coffee shop; Grains & Greens, which will feature salads and sandwiches, and Pomodori, an Italian and pizza-focused eatery, on the ground floor of Corey Union in the fall of 2018.

Until then, the SUNY Cortland community will notice changes to the dining options in Brockway Hall and Corey Union during the 2017-18 school year.

Corey Union is currently undergoing renovations related to the 2018 openings, and that has required ASC to modify its offerings there.

The new Under Construction Café will be open in the reception area on the ground floor of Corey Union during the 2017-18 school year. It will offer coffee, tea, grab-and-go sandwiches and salads, among other items. The Under Construction Café will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. It will open at 10 a.m. and close at 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Raquette Pizza has moved to Brockway Hall and will share space with Hilltop. Students should note that the main doors to Brockway Hall will be locked at 5:30 p.m. — the close of business hours — but Raquette Pizza will remain accessible through the door in the Brockway Hall parking lot or the side door adjacent to Cheney Hall.

Raquette Pizza will be open from 5-11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and will remain open from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Hilltop will maintain its normal 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday-Friday hours during the 2017-18 academic year.

The Bookmark Café in Memorial Library upgraded its ordering process and grab-and-go offerings this summer and will be open throughout 2017-18. The Bookmark Café will undergo a complete renovation during the summer of 2018.

Dunkin’ Donuts, Subway and Dragon’s Court in Corey Union have been closed. Those spots will be replaced by Union Station, Grains & Greens and Pomodori in 2018.

For a full list of SUNY Cortland’s on-campus dining options, including menus and hours, visit ASC online.

SUNY Cortland will mark Constitution Day with a pair of lectures from the College’s Political Science Department faculty.

Presented by the College’s Institute for Civic Engagement, both events are free and open to the public. Each will be followed by a question-and-answer session.

Timothy Delaune, an assistant professor, will deliver a speech, “Uncharte(r)ed Territory: The Constitution in the Age of Trump” on Thursday, Sept. 14. The talk begins at 4:30 p.m. in Corey Union Exhibition Lounge.

Delaune is an expert on constitutional law, including legal traditions, political theory and international law. A graduate of Georgetown University and the University of Chicago Law School, he studied at Tufts University and earned a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Robert Spitzer, a SUNY Distinguished Service Professor and professor of political science, will present “Impeachment: Plausible or Improbable” at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 18 in Corey Union Fireplace Lounge.

An expert on the politics of gun control, Spitzer has appeared on television and in newspapers around the world. He graduated from SUNY Fredonia and earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. at Cornell University. He is series editor for the book series on American Constitutionalism published by SUNY Press and has authored 15 books.

Constitution Day recognizes the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787. SUNY colleges hosting similar events in mid-September will share ideas across social media using the hashtag “#SUNYConstitutionDay.”

For more information on Constitution Day, contact the Institute for Civic Engagement’s Service Learning Coordinator John Suarez at 607-753-4391.

It’s better to show rather than tell.

The belief inspiring SUNY Cortland’s study abroad efforts in international sport management is that the best lessons are learned by seeing or experiencing something in person rather than hearing about it secondhand.

Case in point: 18 Cortland students and three faculty members kicked off their summers with a trip to Spain and Portugal to investigate international sport culture, specifically the complexities of European soccer and multi-sport clubs. They toured Olympic training venues. They heard from front-office executives of professional teams. They even witnessed the passion that FC Barcelona fans invest in futsal, a sport similar to indoor soccer.

“For some students, this is their first time leaving the country,” said Associate Professor Tara Mahoney, who coordinated the study abroad program with Assistant Professor Justin Lovich, Assistant Professor Erin Morris and the College’s International Programs Office. “It’s rewarding to be able to open their eyes to a different culture and a new world of sport.” 

The group’s travels took them to three cities — Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon — over two weeks. Students earned six elective credits for the course, Cross-Cultural Perspectives Abroad, which involved several pre-departure class sessions as well as a month-long online learning component once students arrived home.

Before the trip, Marko Nahorniak ’17 was the only person in his family who had never traveled to Europe. The Long Hill, N.J., native transferred to SUNY Cortland because of the College’s strong reputation in sport management. He also needed additional elective coursework to complete his degree. 

He saw the experience as an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. 

“It was too good to be true,” said Nahorniak, who went on to work in the sponsorship department at Major League Baseball Advance Media in New York City after returning to the U.S. “I didn’t want to leave, especially after those first five days in Barcelona. Everything about it was perfect.” 

Nahorniak admitted that he wasn’t a die-hard fan of soccer or other popular European sports prior to traveling abroad. Witnessing the pride and passion up close changed his perspective. 

“People were going nuts for an indoor soccer game,” he said, recalling the futsal match featuring FC Barcelona. “It was crazy. And I mean that in the best way possible.”

Even more than attending live sporting events, taking in a different culture and touring historic sites, the course emphasized the value of learning from industry experts in person. Near Madrid, for instance, students gained an insider’s look at the complex inner workings of Getafe CF, a Spanish professional multi-sport club.

Mahoney explained that the operations of a European sport club can be far different from a traditional professional sports franchise in the U.S.

In La Liga, Spain’s top professional soccer league, a system of relegation and promotion allows the lowest placed teams in the top division to be replaced with the highest placed squads from the next tier. Imagine a Major League Baseball franchise being demoted to the minors after finishing with the league’s worst record, replaced by the best team in the minors.

The switch can have drastic effects on a team’s budget and operations.

When the College’s group was overseas, Getafe CF was in the second division’s playoffs to determine if the soccer squad would be promoted into the first division. The team’s marketing manager explained that his budget for the following year could be up to $60 million or less than $10 million, depending on the outcome of the playoffs. 

“How do you budget or plan when there’s a difference of more than $50 million?” Mahoney said. “Lessons like that can be eye-opening for students, especially hearing from an actual team executive and thinking about them from a sport management perspective.”

In Lisbon, Portugal, students learned that the sports club Sporting CP employs people who work in different capacities across the globe, meaning that graduates do not need to live abroad to utilize their cross-cultural skill set. Stephanie Mayer, a junior sport management major from East Islip, N.Y., said her favorite part of the program was the introduction to the popular sports club.

“Sporting CP was massive, both in its physical size and operations,” said Mayer, whose dream job is to work on large-scale events such as the Olympics or Paralympics. “Just seeing how all of it comes together — the different sports and responsibilities — that was a very hands-on, personally rewarding experience for me.”

She also noted the fast friendships she made with her classmates, mentioning that they have continued their group text messaging chats and now look forward to taking classes together in the future.

“To be able to see familiar faces from a really great course makes a difference, even now after the trip is over,” she said. “I’m still going to have class with Dr. Morris and Dr. Mahoney, so it’s nice to know that I’ll be able to lean on them for guidance in the future.”

Mahoney agreed the entire program offered countless memories forged by an energetic group of students and faculty members. She specifically recalled a small exchange that occurred during a group lunch in Barcelona. Nahorniak asked the group’s tour guide how long it might take to become fluent in Spanish if he moved overseas.

“Honestly, I wasn’t even joking,” Nahorniak said. “I really want to try and master Spanish and work for a professional team or organization eventually. Traveling overseas opened my eyes to all of the opportunities that exist, especially in the industry.” 

Creating those meaningful moments for students is the most satisfying reward of the College’s international sport management work, Mahoney said.

“You realize that the world is such a big place and students want to see it,” Mahoney said. “Sport always has been international, but now more than ever it’s a global landscape.”

Larissa True, assistant professor of kinesiology, shared stories of her own graduate research studying motor skills in children with one of her Introduction to Kinesiology classes this past school year.

SUNY Cortland senior exercise science major Meagan Smith was hooked. She wanted to conduct a similar study in her own community.

A member of the Tuscarora Nation who attended high school in Niagara Falls, N.Y., she approached True after class and asked if she could work on a related project with a particular focus on Native American children.

One of 10 SUNY Cortland students awarded a 2017 Summer Research Fellowship, Smith has compared fundamental motor skills of Onondaga Nation children to those of children from around Cortland County.

“I wanted to find something to help my community get healthier,” Smith said. “There is a lot of obesity in kids and adults in the Onondaga Nation. I wanted to find a way to bring a healthy lifestyle there.”

To gather data for their research, Smith and True asked children aged 3 to 11 to complete a series of 13 physical tasks called the test of gross motor development-3 (third edition), from running, skipping and jumping to dribbling a basketball and throwing a tennis ball. Then, the subjects sat down with Smith and True to subjectively evaluate their own motor skills with a test called the pictorial scale of perceived motor competence.

The physical portion of the study was captured on video so Smith and True can accurately evaluate the performance of each subject. For example, when a subject is asked to throw a tennis ball, Smith and True considered if the subject took a step first, notice if the step was ipsilateral or contralateral and look for a follow-through.

One afternoon this summer, Smith and True ran through the motor skills test with a pair of female subjects in a dance studio at Park Center. The process took about one hour and they later spent additional time breaking down the video for further analysis.

“This particular motor skill test has rarely been used in Native American populations,” True said. “In order to validate the test, we need as many subjects as possible. The nice thing about our study is that we can run this test as long as we have a large space. One thing we’re hoping to do is to continue to collect data throughout Meagan’s senior year at Cortland. Our plan is to continue going until we’re happy with the amount of data we’ve collected.”

SUNY Cortland’s Undergraduate Research Council was established in 2006. Over the last decade, exactly 100 students have been awarded summer research fellowships. Students and faculty will present their findings at “Transformations: A Student Research and Creativity Conference” during the spring semester and may also be invited to speak about their work at conferences around the country.

Other student research projects at SUNY Cortland this summer cover a wide range of academic disciplines, including adolescent education history, biology, biomedical sciences, chemistry, mathematics, physics and studio art.

By mid-July, Smith said that she hadn’t gathered enough data to draw any definite conclusions from her research. The aim of this project, however, is to compare the motor competence of children between cultures. From there, Smith hopes that the data may be useful in finding better methods for encouraging physical activity in Native American cultures.

This past spring, Smith reached out to officials at the Onondaga Nation School to ask for their help. A summer recreational program for Onondaga Nation children presented the perfect opportunity to gather data for this study.

Smith and True plan to also test subjects in elementary schools around Cortland County once they open in September.

“I’ve never done a comparison study and this was a unique opportunity,” True said. “It wasn’t something where I could just show up on the Nation and say this is what I want to do. Meagan did an awesome job of introducing me to her community. We attended a PTA meeting together.”

True was awarded a Ph.D. in kinesiology from Michigan State University in 2014 and has taught at SUNY Cortland for the last three years. This is True’s first time serving as a summer research mentor at SUNY Cortland, but she had worked extensively with undergraduates doing her graduate research at Michigan State.

“The undergrad research program is very lucrative for our students,” True said. “Something like this is going to look great on a job application or on grad school applications.”

After graduating with an associate’s degree in exercise science from Onondaga Community College in 2016, Smith transferred to SUNY Cortland. 

Smith will continue her research throughout the school year and will graduate in 2018. Graduate school or a career in exercise science are just a few of Smith’s options after that. At the moment, Smith is most focused on giving back to her community. That has been at the heart of this research from the start.

“I've been looking at exercise physiology,” she said. “I want to work with my community and help our members with chronic disease get a little healthier.”

The glare of stage lights and the pressure of live performance are routine challenges for SUNY Cortland musical theatre majors Steffanie Chesnut and Connor Beattie.

But participating in a professional movie shoot with well-known movie and television actors William Fichtner and Kim Coates was a brand-new challenge.

Chesnut, a junior, and Beattie, a sophomore, joined sophomore business economics major Alex Contento as extras in the filming of “Cold Brook,” parts of which were shot on the SUNY Cortland campus on July 26, 2017.

During the school year, Beattie and Chesnut spend months rehearsing their lines and learning the songs they sing in the musicals produced by the College’s Performing Arts Department. Acting on film, however, was a completely different experience.

Fichtner, who is directing and acting in “Cold Brook,” was a patient and accommodating presence on the set. He gently provided instructions as the trio of SUNY Cortland students did take after take in a scene that took place on Graham Avenue between Brockway Hall and Moffett Center.

“It’s not so spot-on. You don’t have to do it right the first time,” said Chesnut. “You can do 20 takes if that’s what it takes. That’s different for us because we’re used to being very face-forward, pretty, right on the spot, there and ready. It was really cool and way more laid back than I thought it was going to be. (Fichtner) said, ‘You’re going to start here, you’re going to walk and talk a little bit and then we’re going to cut.’”

“It translates, but it’s a whole different beast,” said Beattie. “The way the director works and the way you talk, the language of how people talk to each other, it’s totally different.”

“Cold Brook” is Fichtner’s directorial debut. He has an accomplished career as an actor, having appeared in films such as “Armageddon,” “Blackhawk Down,” “The Dark Knight” and “The Perfect Storm,” as well as television roles in “Entourage,” “Mom” and “Prison Break.” He co-wrote the film with actor Cain Devore.

Student extras (left to right): Steffanie Chesnut, Alex Contento and Connor Beattie.

Coates, who played a popular character in the Home Box Office series “Sons of Anarchy” and had roles in “Entourage,” “CSI: Miami” and other television and movie productions, co-stars in the film. Mary Lynn Rajskub and Robin Weigert are also among the cast.

Much of the principal photography took place in the Buffalo area. Fichtner is a Cheektowaga, N.Y. native and graduated from SUNY Brockport.

He has described the narrative of “Cold Brook” as “the story of two ordinary guys in a small town who embark on an extraordinary adventure. It’s a story about coming home; something everyone, everywhere has an innate desire to do.”

“Cold Brook” is slated for a 2018 release. A gallery of images from the filming is available online.

SUNY Cortland student Contento is a family friend of Coates, Devore and Fichtner. She said she became a slam-dunk extra when she learned the film was looking for college students.

“They’re good family friends, so I’ve known them my whole life,” Contento said. “I forced my way in when I found out they were making a movie.”

Senior new communication media major Mitch Ensman and Owen Parseghian ’17, who majored in new communication media, were also on set to assist with the production. Ensman and Parseghian have both created films that were shown at SUNY Cortland’s Blackbird Film Festival in recent years but neither had been involved with a crew as large as “Cold Brook.”

Co-writer Cain Devore, right, talks with new communication media students.

“I had never seen a production like this,” Parseghian said. “I don’t know if Cortland in general has ever seen a production this big. Seeing all of the moving parts was just awesome. The biggest thing that I learned was seeing how well-mannered everyone was on set. It’s super stressful but everyone is doing such a good job of being calm and everyone is so polite. I always imaged these big sets being chaotic but it was really comfortable and everyone was really nice and super friendly to us, too.”

Devore spent some time with Ensman and Parseghian to discuss the camera techniques the “Cold Brook” crew were using to capture Fichtner’s vision on film. Their time spent behind the scenes allowed Ensman and Parseghian to better understand all of the roles on set. They have experience playing the part of actor, director, producer and cinematographer all at once on their own short films. Getting to see an entire crew of people with specific roles was an eye-opening opportunity for both Ensman and Parseghian.

“I’ve been on movie sets before but not a big production, a Hollywood movie set,” Ensman said. “I’ve been making home videos and films like that for a long time, since I was in high school. This was my first time being on a professional shoot.”

For Beattie and Chesnut, acting on film was a novel experience. Their introduction to clapperboards and boom microphones and grips and gaffers was a bit overwhelming. 

“There were a lot of people here,” Beattie said. “There were a lot of moving parts to get one take done, which is insane. If any one thing happens, we’d have to cut and start all over again. That could be frustrating, but it was actually a really smooth process. I think it went really well for us.”

Although it was different from the musicals and plays in Beattie’s and Chesnut’s background, they were grateful for the opportunity to display those same skills they’ve spent years crafting.

“We just kept talking about how much fun we were having,” Chesnut said. “Performance in any aspect, whether it’s on stage or on film or anything, it affects your life so immensely in an incredibly positive way.”

SUNY Cortland’s Performing Arts Department organized a senior showcase for musical theatre majors in New York City this spring, giving members of the Class of 2017 a chance to perform in front of talent scouts in the nation’s biggest theatre market.

The faculty and staff in the Performing Arts Department are quick to connect students to possibilities. Beattie and Chesnut learned of this chance two days before filming and were quick to jump on the roles. Whatever comes following graduation, whether it be a career on the stage or behind the scenes, they were glad to get a first-hand glimpse at how a major motion picture is constructed.

“The opportunities for musical theatre majors at SUNY Cortland are endless,” Chesnut said. “It’s ridiculous how many things you can do with just one major. It has opened up so many doors for us, especially in my three years being here. I didn’t realize how many things you could do with musical theatre. 

“You dance, you sing, you act and even opportunities like this come up,” she continued. “They’re adding more and more every single year. The showcase, that’s not something we’ve done before. We’ve done senior recitals, which are amazing, but what a great opportunity that you can perform in New York City and places other than our campus.

“That’s a very important thing to many of us. We’re not going to be here forever, so that’s teaching us that we can step out of the box and we can perform in other areas and it will be OK.”

“Going green” takes on new meaning at SUNY Cortland.

That’s because the brand-new replacement greenhouse constructed during the spring and summer beside Bowers Hall has suddenly acquired about 100 rare and unusual plants for current and future biological sciences majors to study.

The College has made a new home for a large Calatropsis procera, which is a northern African species in the milkweed family. Also, a modest-looking Ceratonia siliqua, otherwise known as a carob plant, sits ready to produce that flavor used as a chocolate or coffee substitute. Another specimen, a Pilocarpus jaborandi, contains the alkaloid that was the first treatment for glaucoma, an eye disorder.

Now there’s a smaller-growing but still sizeable specimen of the Amorphophallus or “Corpse Flower,” the famous giant plant that makes national news at Cornell University when its rare and stinky six-foot tall single flower spike blooms for only a couple days at very infrequent intervals of up to seven years.

The new collection of specimens — acquired for their beauty, whimsy, educational or useful purpose — represent a generous gift to the College from the United States Botanic Garden (U.S.B.G.), said Steven Broyles, professor and chair of the Biological Sciences Department.

Steeped in history, rich with tradition, the living plant museum established in 1820 by the U.S. Congress informs visitors about the importance, and often irreplaceable value, of plants to the well-being of humans and to earth's fragile ecosystems. One of the oldest botanic gardens in North America, the U.S.B.G. has been administered through the Architect of the Capitol since 1934.

There can be no price set on the U.S.B.G.’s collection of assorted botanic genera from around the world, Broyles noted.

“Some of these are plants that you can’t even find on the Internet,” Broyles said of the new collection. “I was actually asking them about the dollar value to their collection and they don’t know it.”

	These fascinating South African succulents - with fleshy, water-saving stems - have evolved to grow between crevices.

Broyles’ grown sons, Chris and Cortland, work in Washington, D.C., and the official Botanic Garden is located adjacent to the U.S. Capitol grounds.

“I had visited the United States Botanic Garden many times over the years,” Broyles said. In December he was inspired to ask to ask the director to give the College some plants.

“It was a shot in the dark,” he said. “I sent the director a very nice letter and an email. Within about an hour, I had a response.”

He was invited to visit the botanic garden’s production facility about six miles outside of Washington, D.C., and discuss a plant gift.

In February, Broyles and his wife, Susan Sherman-Broyles, spent two hours wandering among the cactii and bromeliads with the director, Ari Novy, and the collections curator, William McLaughlin. It was a botanist’s dream. Broyles noted that at the botanic garden, much of the facilities, including a succulent (cactus) greenhouse the size of the Sperry Center footprint and an orchid-only growing area triple the size of SUNY Cortland’s greenhouse — are devoted to reproducing what the living museum already has.

“They showed us everything and told us to develop a list,” Broyles said. “They would see what they could do. It was wonderful.”

Botanic garden staff recently separated and potted the chosen specimens and, on Aug. 17, Broyles made the approximately 14-hour, 300-mile roundtrip to Alexandria, Va., to pick up the bounty.

He spent six additional hours with the curator on the 17th, gathering last-minute flora.

“There’s several things in here that they just said, ‘Here, you’ll like it, just take it,’” Broyles said. “And there are some things I just walked by and asked, ‘Can I have that?’”

The botanic garden staff were very sympathetic to the College’s need.

“In my letter and email, I described our campus and our collection and what had happened to it,” Broyles said.

The College’s former plant collection had largely burned or froze to death inside the inhospitable glass walls of the former pair of very old greenhouses, one attached to and a second located nearby Bowers Hall. Only a few dozen plants remain from the old greenhouse.

“When I came here in 1992, I had the University of Georgia ship about 100 plants in big boxes,” said Broyles, a botanist who has specialized in varieties of what are commonly called milkweed plants. “And not a single plant survived the first winter. Our greenhouse would get to about 120 degrees in the winter because the power plant steam lines ran under them.

“It set back my research right away. Because I knew we couldn’t grow anything in our greenhouse,” Broyles said.

The College discontinued using a main steam line to heat the campus about five years ago, ending that dilemma but afterward, the aging, former glass structure failed to keep out the cold. Two entire collections were lost in one single winter.

The sparkling, new greenhouse — with three separate growing areas for tropical, desert and research flora — promises a fresh start. One bay reserved for research has a hearty collection of five milkweed species and a few dangling chrysalises cases of the Monarch butterfly larvae. Milkweed is their only food.

A ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate both the greenhouse and a new science museum inside the renovated Bowers Hall will take place on Thursday, Sept. 28.

“I will send a letter to my Congresswoman (Claudia Tenney, R-New Hartford) telling her about my marvelous experience at the United States Botanic Garden,” Broyles said.

David Cay Johnston, the Pulitzer Prize-winning financial reporter and investigator who wrote the 2016 best-seller, The Making of Donald Trump, will speak on Thursday, Sept. 28, at SUNY Cortland.

Johnston, whose reporting on tax policy resulted in a Pulitzer Prize in 2001, will discuss “Trump’s Rise and the Future of American Democracy” at 4:30 p.m. in Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge.

Sponsored by the Political Science Department and the President’s Office, the talk is free and open to the public.

The Washington Monthly called Johnston “one of America’s most important journalists.” The Portland Oregonian said his work equals the original muckrakers: Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair and Lincoln Steffens.

“Johnston has been investigating and writing on Donald Trump for more than 25 years and is universally recognized as an expert on Trump as businessman and as president,” said organizer Robert Spitzer, Political Science Department chair. “Given the confluence of national events, the timing of Johnston’s visit couldn’t be better.” 

Johnston met Donald Trump in 1988 and in April 1990 revealed that Trump was no billionaire. When Trump announced his latest run for the White House in June 2015, Johnston immediately said Trump was serious this time and might get the GOP nomination. His reporting over the next year led to The Making of Donald Trump, published around the world in English and German by Melville House.

Johnston writes a weekly column for TheDailyBeast.com and Investopedia.com as well as frequent opinion pieces for USA Today, the New York Daily News, NationalMemo.com, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle and TaxAnalysts.org.

He wrote a best-selling trilogy on the American Economy that is still in print: Perfectly Legal (taxes), Free Lunch (subsidies) and The Fine Print (monopolies). Johnston also wrote a 1992 casino industry exposé, Temples of Chance, and edited Divided, a 2014 anthology on inequality.

His forthcoming book, The Prosperity Tax: A New Federal Tax Code for the 21st Century Economy, will include both the legal language and an explanation of the economic, historical and legal reasons why America needs to remake its federal tax laws.

Recruited at 18 by the (San Jose) Mercury News, over the next four decades Johnston’s award-winning investigations appeared in that paper as well as the Detroit Free Press, Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times.

He was the first to expose Los Angeles Police Department political spying and brutality; wrote stories that saved hundreds of millions of dollars from being diverted from charities; and changed the way journalists report CEO pay by revealing aspects of executive compensation hiding in plain sight.

Long before economic inequality became a household concern, Johnston was documenting America’s growing income and wealth disparity, showing how little-known government policies take from the many to enrich the few. He also exposed how the law turns the income tax from a burden into a source of riches for many corporations and some individuals, including Donald Trump.

Johnston’s innovative coverage of tax issues in The New York Times from 1995 to 2008 exposed so many tax dodges and tax cheats that law Professor Richard Schmalbeck of Duke University called Johnston “the de facto chief tax enforcement officer of the United States.”

Two of the many tax dodges that Johnston’s reporting shut down were valued at more than $250 billion over 10 years, according to a congressional assessment. His articles prompted many federal and state laws, regulations and other changes and ended the careers of both Democrats and Republicans by revealing official misconduct.

Johnston’s work prompted the only major tax policy change by President George W. Bush, who quietly scrapped a plan to allow the wealthiest Americans and their heirs to escape most income taxes.

Earlier reporting revealed that President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton paid more than twice as much federal income tax as the law required, after spending almost $10,000 a year to have their tax returns prepared.

Johnston was the first national journalist to criticize President Barack Obama’s failure to fulfill his promise of transparency, writing just nine days after the president’s 2009 inauguration about policies that others would later confirm.

Since 2009, Johnston has taught the business regulation, property and tax law of the ancient world at Syracuse University College of Law. He has lectured on four continents about journalistic techniques, ethics, legal theory and tax policy.

Johnston also has served as a consultant on electricity regulation, rare earths and journalism for the Netflix series “House of Cards.”

For more information, contact Spitzer at 607-753-4106.

Students can stay informed on current health and wellness issues through SUNY Cortland’s weekly “Wellness Wednesday Series,” which will include speakers, discussions and exhibits intended to help students adjust to college life.

Sponsored by the Health Promotion Office and the Student Development Center, the series will take place each Wednesday at 6 p.m. in Corey Union Exhibition Lounge, unless otherwise noted. The events are free and open to the public.

On Aug. 30, students can meet people and play some games during a “Getting To Know You” get-together led by Lauren Herman, health educator, Eve Mascoli, assistant director of recreational sports and Kevin Makarewicz, graduate assistant of recreational sports.

Counseling and Student Development staff members will present “13 Reasons Why Not” on Sept. 6. Whether or not you have seen the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why,” join in a discussion about the warning signs of suicide, how to help a friend and more.

A “Dark Chocolate Meditation” will be led by Auxiliary Services Corporation Nutritionist Andrea Hart on Sept. 13. While eating dark chocolate, participants will learn how nutrition and stress can be related, what foods help distress and the importance of mindful eating.

Guest speaker Lorin Phillips will present “Life Doesn’t Come with a Sober Sister (Brother, Designated Driver)” at 7 p.m. on Sept. 20 in the Corey Union Function Room. Phillips is an educator looking to start critical conversations about hazing, alcohol abuse, confrontations and, above all, the importance of accountability of all members of campus organizations.

On Sept. 27, learn how we can leverage our privilege to help promote social justice initiatives for a more equitable society in this program called “Becoming Superhuman: Using Your Advantages For Good.” AnnaMaria Cirrincione, director of Multicultural Life and Diversity, and Lauren Herman, health educator, will lead the discussion.

Noralyn Masselink, English Department professor and author of books on relationships will present “When Love Hurts: Why Do We Stay and What Can You Do?” on Oct. 4. Learn how relationship abuse comes in many forms, and "breaking up" or "getting out" isn't as easy as others may think. This talk is for anyone in a relationship that is not what it should be or for those who know of someone who is. Masselink, a survivor, will speak about what it takes to break the "ties that bind" and what you can do to help yourself or a friend.

On Oct. 11, a panel of students, faculty and staff will present “I Didn’t Realize I Was ______Phobic” at 7 p.m. in the Exhibition Lounge. Panel members will talk about their experiences in realizing they had internalized stereotypes of LGBTQIAP.

Health promotion interns will present “Rx Prescribed for You” from noon to 3 p.m. on Oct. 18 in the Student Life Center lobby. Learn how misusing a prescription can have more consequences than people think and about the laws and physical effects of prescription misuse. Also, learn where anyone can dispose of un-used medications.

“Discover Your Learning Preference” with the ASAP staff on Oct. 25. Participants will take a quick online assessment and break into groups to develop techniques about taking in information.

Counseling and Student Development Staff will present “Netflix and Chill or Catch Feelings?” on Nov. 1. They will deconstruct what hooking up and dating means and make recommendations on how to communicate when two people have different expectations.

From noon to 3 p.m. on Nov. 8 visitors to tables in the Student Life Center lobby will learn how to “Party Smart With Us Before Cortaca,” presented by health promotion interns and Substance Abuse Prevention and Education.

The annual “Great American SmokeOut” is an opportunity to quit smoking. On Nov. 15, health promotion interns and Auxiliary Services Corporation Nutritionist Andrea Hart will offer suggestions and support to quit from noon to 3 p.m. in the Student Life Center lobby.

A poster list all the Fall 2017 events can be found at the Health Promotion Wellness Wednesday Series page. and on the Campus Life page of myRedDragon.

 For more information or accommodation to attend an event, contact Lauren Herman, the College’s health educator, in Van Hoesen Hall, Room B-1 or at 607-753-2066.

The 2017 Annual Service Awards Ceremony recognizing classified staff will be held on Friday, Dec. 1, in the Corey Union Function Room.

The following employees are slated to receive awards. To note a correction or addition to the list, contact Michelle Congdon in the Human Resources Office by email or phone at 607-753-2302.

40 YEARS

Marianne Evangelista, School of Education

Teri Wood, Psychology Department

35 YEARS

Marie Blanden, Division of Student Affairs

Deborah Dintino, Political Science Department

Darleen Lieber, Recreation, Parks and Leisure Studies Department

Susan Stout, Center for Gender and Intercultural Studies Department

30 YEARS

Ronald Hulslander, Transportation Services

Wayne Leitch, Central Heating Plant

Daniel Narsasian, Grounds

Coni E. O’Shea, Admissions Office

Melony Warwick, Division of Institutional Advancement

25 YEARS

JoAnn Bacon, Custodial Services

Karen Sue Brown, Parking Department

Penny Bushaw, Physical Education

Daphne Guy, Custodial Services

Suzanne Pettitt, Honor’s Program

20 YEARS

Sila Argyle, Custodial Services

Thomas Hingher, Central Heating Plant

Paula Lundberg, Marketing Office

Jo-Ann MacLean, Admissions Office

Tamara Magee, Custodial Services

Rhonda Moulton, School of Arts and Sciences

15 YEARS

Ryan Caughey, Custodial Services

Barbara Field, Custodial Services

Darlene Loope, Custodial Services

Joan Root, Custodial Services

Elizabeth Scott, Parking Department

Edwin Triana, Migrant Education Tutorial and Support Services (Research Foundation)

Meghan VanDeuson, College and Student Accounting Services

10 YEARS

Linda Crompton, Purchasing

Francis Cullen, University Police

Anna Evangelista, Child Care Center (Research Foundation)

Francis Evangelista, Maintenance

William Farron, Grounds

Maryalice Griffin, Communication Studies Department

Douglas Hyde, University Police

Keith Kollar, Maintenance

Rhonda McLaughlin, Purchasing

Steven Mize, Maintenance

Debra Powers, Library

Lynda Shute, Facilities Planning, Design and Construction Office

Lynn Stevens, Maintenance

Susan Suben, Faculty Development Center

Kelley Wooldridge, Child Care Center (Research Foundation)

Campus Artist and Lecture Series (CALS) Lecture Grant Applications are now available for the 2017-18 academic year. Applications are eligible for a maximum of $500 and are open to any club, program or department. These lecture grants will not cover performances of any kind.

Applications must be received by Thursday, Sept. 7, in order to be considered for September, October, November and/or December 2017 lecture programs. Applications received after this date may not be eligible for any fall semester funds remaining.

For more information or to request a hard copy of the CALS Lecture Grant Application, email Sandra Wohlleber or call 607-753-5769.

Rhonda Pitoniak ’01, M ’16, who has spent the last 14 years in environmental and outdoor education as the assistant director of the William H. Parks Family Center for Environmental and Outdoor Education, was appointed director of outdoor education on July 1.

She replaces Robert Rubendall, who recently retired after serving the College since 2010. Reporting to Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Mark Prus, Pitoniak oversees an operation that includes Camp Huntington and Antlers, both located 155 miles northeast of the main campus in the Adirondack Park at Raquette Lake, N.Y.; Brauer Field Station near Albany, N.Y.; and Hoxie Gorge, just south of the main campus in Cortland County.

Residing at Camp Huntington, Pitoniak will make periodic visits to the other facilities. She is responsible for scheduling facilities usage, overseeing lodging operations, managing five budgets, supervising staff members, marketing and promoting the facilities, engaging in fundraising activities and arranging for various maintenance tasks. She will work with the New York State Parks and Recreation and Historical Preservation Offices and the National Parks Service to ensure that the upkeep, maintenance and renovation of the Camp Huntington facility is consistent with its historical designation.

A native of McLean, N.Y., Pitoniak has a Bachelor of Science in Education, Recreation and a Master of Science in Education, Childhood Education, from SUNY Cortland. She is a member of the New York State Outdoor Education Association and the New York State Recreation and Park Society.