Campus Champion

When COVID-19 changed how and what we needed to communicate, Michelle LoGerfo, assistant director of web and digital marketing, worked tirelessly to disseminate rapidly changing information on the website. Michelle was key to launching the Restart SUNY Cortland, Red Dragon Safe and Fall 2020 Campus Guide web pages. She motivated students to connect through a Study Buddy video and collaborated on the first Virtual Celebration for Commencement. Always a team player, Michelle serves on a dozen committees, engages with students interested in digital marketing and masters her web responsibilities including accessibility, quality assurance, digital marketing and training users. 

Prospective students and their families often have simple goals when it comes to picking a college.

They want a school that offers an affordable, quality education that leads to positive career outcomes.

SUNY Cortland has delivered on that promise for more than 150 years, and a respected  national survey agrees. Money.com recently ranked SUNY Cortland No. 107 in the nation on its annual “Best Colleges for your Money 2020” study, once again placing it among the top 5% of U.S. colleges and universities.

For the third consecutive year, Cortland was the highest-ranked of SUNY’s comprehensive colleges on Money’s list. The university moved up 34 places in the ranking, from  No. 141 in the nation in 2019.

“There’s a reason why SUNY Cortland consistently ranks so highly in measurements of educational excellence and value,” President Erik J. Bitterbaum said. “It’s because that’s who we are: An institution historically committed to providing a positive, life-changing education at an affordable cost.”

The study combines data on 27 factors split across three weighted categories: affordability (40%), quality of education (30%) and outcomes (30%). Among the factors considered are: six-year graduation rate, instructor quality, Pell Grant recipient outcomes, net price of a degree, ability to repay debt, career earnings and socio-economic mobility index.

The university was lauded for its commitment to academics and athletics alike on Money’s college ranking website. “The school has one of the top education departments in the SUNY systems, and, not surprisingly, fitness-related majors such as athletic training, exercise science and fitness development are popular, as are majors in the Recreation, Parks and Leisure Studies Department,” Money observed of SUNY Cortland.

SUNY Cortland’s inclusion on the “Best Colleges for your Money 2020” ranking was the latest of many national and statewide recognition for the university.

• The Princeton Review placed SUNY Cortland on its list of the “Best Colleges Region by Region” for the Northeast.
• Cortland’s master’s degree in coaching ranked No. 5 in the nation on a list by TheBestSchools.org.
• The university’s online master’s degree in sport management was named No. 9 in the nation and the best in the Northeast by Intelligent.com.
• The Communication and Media Studies Department placed No. 3 in New York state on a list of “Best Colleges for Communication Majors” by Zippia.com.
• Zippia.com also recognized SUNY Cortland for career outcomes, ranking the university No. 5 in the nation on its list of “Best Public College in Each State for Getting a Job.”
• The campus has been lauded for its public safety efforts from several outlets. Safewise.com placed Cortland on its list of the safest college towns in America in 2017, 2018 and 2019. YourLocalSecurity.com named Cortland the safest college environment in New York state in 2019. Also in 2019, Cortland’s University Police Department recorded its lowest crime rate in 43 years.
• Sustainability is a major initiative at SUNY Cortland. The university has been listed among the top 100 schools in the nation on the Sierra Club’s “Cool Schools Rankings” each of the past three years. SUNY Cortland is the only SUNY comprehensive college to have received a gold rating from the Sustainability, Tracking and Assessment Rating System (STARS).

Money creates its rankings by examining approximately all 2,400 colleges and universities in the U.S. and disqualifying those with fewer than 500 students, those with unreliable data, those in financial distress and those that have a graduation rate below the median in their institutional category. Those cuts leave 739 American colleges to rank.

SUNY Cortland President Erik J. Bitterbaum Thursday used his Fall 2020 Opening of School Meeting to discuss the three concurrent crises facing the university: the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of New York state's budget shortfall and the consequences of racial injustices in America.

Delivered remotely to faculty and staff through Microsoft Teams, President Bitterbaum was hopeful as he noted how the university has always faced and overcome the challenges of the past. In reviewing the two primary history books about SUNY Cortland, President Bitterbaum said he found inspiration in how faculty, staff and students came together through events such as the fire that destroyed campus in 1919, student deployment to the military during World Wars I and II and the unrest that happened in Cortland following the killing of four students at Kent State University in 1970.

“I’ve come away with an overwhelming sense that our past and our present have been shaped by a highly talented and dedicated group of men and women, thinkers and dreamers who were truly doers,” he said. “I have confidence that when the third history of the university is written, it will chronicle our collective ability to manage the impact of the pandemic and emerge in the future as an even stronger institution.”

President Bitterbaum thanked all of the faculty and staff who have worked to both create a plan to safely reopen campus this fall despite the ongoing pandemic and revisit curricula to make distance learning possible and successful for students.

The COVID-19 pandemic has decreased tax revenue for New York state, meaning that decreased state funding is in the university’s future. President Bitterbaum said that the university’s strategy going forward will be to guard enrollment, ensure that students can graduate on time, find greater efficiencies and sharpen its focus on SUNY Cortland's core mission.

SUNY Cortland will continue to explore ways to increase revenue, including growing extended learning programs,  strengthening international student admissions and offering more distance education.

“We will navigate these choppy waters successfully, but difficult decisions, both individually and collectively, are inevitable,” he said.

The university’s efforts on anti-racism were also highlighted by President Bitterbaum. He noted that the President’s Council on Inclusive Excellence has invited more than 40 faculty and staff to be members of an anti-racist taskforce and that students, faculty and staff had three productive online workshops over the summer through the Black Lives and Liberation Forum.

“The United States remains a complex and perplexing place, founded on words like ‘equality’ but consistently unable to ensure that all of its citizens are treated equally,” he said. “It highlights the need for Cortland to reflect on how we should respond as a community to the challenging and polarizing issues encompassing racial inequalities in America. This is a difficult time in our country and we need to be proactive and address these issues head-on, especially for the sake of our students.”

President Bitterbaum shared that he had recently received a phone call from an alumna asking if SUNY Cortland was supportive, nurturing and welcoming of people from all points of view, including those from lower-income community, first generation college students and those who identify as LGBTQ. Creating a caring environment for all remains SUNY Cortland’s mission, Bitterbaum said.

To underscore that commitment, the second half of the president's opening meeting was a presentation by Edward Fergus, an associate professor of urban education and policy at Temple University, on developing cross-cultural skills in the classroom.

“Building a diverse university community is not the work of a moment,” he said. “It will require sustained commitment, concerted effort and the attention of us all. We are working to diversify the voices here are Cortland. We recognize the strength we gain from different views and world experiences that come from a campus rich in the diversity of our people.”

Other campus highlights noted by President Bitterbaum:

• The university’s admissions rate remains strong.
• Renovations to Moffett Center and Casey and Smith Towers were completed this summer.
• A new, 138-space parking lot is now open along Lankler Drive near the Stadium Complex.
• SUNY Cortland was named No. 5 in the nation on the “Best Public College in Each State for Getting a Job in 2020” by Zippia.com, a career resource website.
• The Cortland Fund raised more than $1 million during the 2019-20 financial year, a single-year record.
• The Campaign for Cortland has raised more than $20 million of its $25 million goal.
• The Student Emergency Fund, which meets the needs of students facing unexpected hardship, has raised more than $334,000 to help students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The university has hired five new faculty members in the sciences through SUNY’s Promoting Recruiting Opportunity Diversity Inclusion and Growth (PRODiG) program, which aims to increase the representation of historically underrepresented faculty across the system.

President Bitterbaum concluded his remarks by asking faculty and staff to continue working hard in the face of challenges this semester to ensure bright years for the university in the future.

“There will be a day when the pandemic is over,” he said. “We will hug our students, our neighbors and our friends and we will return to our classrooms and coffee shops. Our borders will eventually reopen to freer movement. Our economy will recover from the forthcoming recession. We will rejoice.

“I have always remembered Robert Kennedy’s pronouncement: “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”

“Thank you for what you have done and will do for Cortland and its students. I look forward to our future.”

SUNY Cortland’s students, faculty and staff will have plenty of questions about university policies this semester. And that’s OK. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is a challenging time for all of us.

The Fall 2020 Campus Guide, however, will most likely have your answers. It includes information on SUNY Cortland’s efforts to keep the community safe and what you need to know to do your part.

The guide covers all areas of university life, from new rules regarding face coverings and physical distancing to classes and academics to campus operations.

Links to SUNY Cortland’s Restart plan, Residence Life and Housing’s Restart plan, the Student Emergency Fund, the billing and refund policy and an archive of official communications from campus administration are also available through the guide.

Please familiarize yourself with the guide, bookmark it and be aware that it can be accessed from the top of Cortland.edu at any time. Updates are being made to the guide constantly as the situation changes, so please check back throughout the semester for the latest information.

Thank you for doing your part to wear a face covering, physically distance and keep SUNY Cortland safe.

SUNY Cortland’s Student Life Center will open to current students and current faculty and staff starting at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 2.

However, the facility has imposed several new policies to follow COVID-19 safety procedures recommended by the New York State Department of Health and the Center for Disease Control.

Among the changes:

• Face coverings will be required at all times except when showering, swimming, drinking water or eating. Face shields, bandanas, buffs and gaiters are not considered acceptable face coverings.
• All patrons must complete their daily COVID-19 screening through myRedDragon and must show confirmation at the Student Life Center front desk to enter.
• Cleaning procedures have been enhanced. Patrons are being asked to assist staff by disinfecting equipment before and after use.
• Some equipment has been moved or marked “temporarily out of service” to ensure at least six feet of physical distance between patrons.
• Due to capacity constraints, all patrons will be required to register for a workout timeslot using the Recreational Sports Purchase Portal.

Users looking to reserve a workout time should login to the portal using their myRedDragon credentials, select “Student Life Center Facility Access” and chose a time slot.

Reservations, which are limited to 45-minute windows throughout the day, may be made up to 24 hours in advance and will close when capacity is reached. All equipment will be available on a first-come, first-served basis and cardio equipment will be limited to 35-minute time slots. Members may register for one time slot per day and those who violate this policy may have their access to the Student Life Center revoked. Patrons with repeated no-shows or cancellations will face penalties and termination of membership.

Those with questions about the workout reservation process may contact Eve Mascoli, assistant director of Recreational Sports for Facilities and Aquatics.  

The Student Life Center has also made several program and activity area modifications to meet safety guidelines, including:

• Membership will be limited to current students and current faculty and staff only. No guests or tours will be allowed in the facility until further notice.
• Massage therapy appointments may be made but screening questions and temperature checks will be taken before all sessions. Visit the Massage Therapy Program for more details.
• Due to the high-risk nature of the sports, basketball and volleyball will not be permitted.
• Information on the group exercise, mind/body and personal training programs will be provided at a later date.
• Outdoor Pursuits will not conduct trips during the Fall 2020 semester. However, small group workshops, equipment rental, bike rental and the climbing wall will be available. Visit Outdoor Pursuits for more information.
• Intramural Sports will offer a limited number of individual participant-based sports as well as various opportunities to participate in eSports tournaments and leagues. Registration is available through Intramural Sports.

For more information, contact the Student Life Center front desk at 607-753-5811 or the Recreational Sports Office at 607-753-5585.

Starting this fall, SUNY Cortland offers campus community members the option to recharge the battery on their personal electric vehicles (EVs) on campus for a small fee while they go about their daily activities.

The campus in adding four charging stations becomes the first Cortland County entity to participate in a program supporting electric vehicle use offered by National Grid.

The new charging stations for the commuter’s passenger vehicles were installed in late August at four locations: behind DeGroat Hall, outside Neubig Hall, behind Van Hoesen Hall beside the nearest entrance to the Student Health Service, and next to the Professional Studies Building.

For some years, SUNY Cortland has demonstrated its green transportation credentials with some 20 electricity-powered GEM cars, always ready to whisk faculty, staff and visitors across campus at low speeds. The campus has also encouraged carpooling, offered a community bikes program and arranged for a shuttle bus with Cortland First Transit to provide several stops through and near campus.

This time, the university takes its sustainability commitment to a new level so that faculty, staff and students need not leave their EVs parked at home and take their gasoline engine transportation instead when they want to commute to campus.

“Encouraging people with electric vehicles is a great step forward,” said Matthew Brubaker, campus energy manager with Facilities Operations and Services at Cortland.

Only about five registered parking permit holders presently drive EVs. With this convenience the number could rise.

“Over the past 12 months, I’ve been asked by three or four people when we would get a charging station,” Brubaker said. “One of them was a student, possibly just visiting and deciding what type of transportation is possible. It was one of the particular things this student highlighted that they were interested in.”

Each station can charge up to two vehicles simultaneously. Anyone who wishes to replenish the battery in their vehicle can do so at the charging stations, whether or not they have a SUNY Cortland parking permit. Campus parking permit holders are served during business hours and anyone can use them after 5 p.m.

The spaces associated with the stations are reserved for EVs that are currently charging and may be used for up to four hours at a time, according to Brubaker. Individuals whose parked vehicles are not charging or that overstay the time limit will be ticketed.

“People are not supposed to park their regular, gas combustion engine vehicle in these parking slots,” Brubaker said. “The exception is the charger near Neubig Hall, which has parking meters as well as charging stations, the parking meter is good for only 45 minutes of parking at a time. Any vehicle can park there. But an EV can park there for four hours and will not be charged to be there. Owners of gas engine vehicles will pay to park for 45 minutes there.”

With these additions, SUNY Cortland continues toward its long-term goal of environmental sustainability.

“In New York, more than 41% of our greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation,” Brubaker said. “In order to reduce emissions and fight climate change, experts agree that we need to rapidly decrease our dependence on conventional vehicles and increase adoption of EVs.”

He pointed out that, while there are still emissions associated with producing the electricity to charge the vehicles, because of New York’s advances in clean energy, charging one’s EVs in the state produces far fewer greenhouse gases.

Better still, he noted, electric vehicles produce no tailpipe emissions, which are the source of most of the smog and air pollution that cause so many health problems.

In addition to the environmental and health benefits, there are financial advantages for consumers, Brubaker said. Fuel costs to run a car on electricity are less expensive than gas. He estimates the cost to use the chargers will be approximately $0.40-kilowatt hour for employees. All others must pay $0.60 per kilowatt hour. Payment can be made through the Chargepoint app.

It soon will be possible to locate the university's four locations on the Chargepoint website map.

“Even with our currently low gas prices, fuel savings estimates range from $500 to $770 per year depending on the efficiency of the vehicle, how much it is driven, and the type of driving,” Brubaker said.

And EV drivers aren’t subject to sudden swings in gas prices, he added.

“Additionally, EVs require much less maintenance than gas powered vehicles, saving time at the garage and thousands of dollars in repairs over the life of the car,” Brubaker said.

The project to add the four chargers to the parking lots cost $115,000, with much of the expense covered by two grants.

National Grid has a program called Drive Green NY to support energy saving improvements that paid $60,000 for the cost to put pipes in the ground to extend electrical wiring out to the charging station, Brubaker said.

The university is the first organization in Cortland County to participate in the Drive Green NY funding program for EV charging station infrastructure, he noted.

Drive Green also provides education and incentives for customers buying EVs. Visit Drivegreen.nationalgridus.com to learn more about National Grid’s program and EVs, compare models, get connected to EVs in the region or watch the company’s EV 101 Webinar.

The expense of $38,000 to equip the four charging stations was covered by a grant from the New York State Energy Research Development Authority (NYSERDA), Brubaker noted.

That left the campus only out of pocket $17,000 to pay for a few remaining items, including the protective bollards — yellow pillars that keep cars from colliding with the charger stations and make the stations easier to find.

The Sustainability Office will soon release details about the EV stations in the Keeping It Green newsletter. To date, information about the charging stations has been shared with the university’s Green Ambassadors, comprised of faculty and staff committed with raising sustainability awareness, sharing and transforming curriculum, programming  and operations to enhance campus sustainability.  

“I think having the stations would influence people,” Brubaker said. “When faculty and staff look to upgrade their vehicle, knowing we now have this as an option would be something to consider.”

Sometimes an artist likes to acquire a piece of artwork from someone else.

But when a creative person makes room to display another artist’s inspiration in their own personal space, what does that say about them?

SUNY Cortland’s Dowd Gallery will address that query starting Monday, Aug. 31, with a new exhibition titled “Artists as Collectors: Works from Private Collections.”

“Artists as Collectors,” in the gallery located inside the Dowd Fine Arts Center, will showcase an eclectic selection of original paintings, sculptures, prints, ceramics and artifacts from the personal collections of members from the university’s Art and Art History Department. The forthcoming show will feature works by recognizable names such as Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and Shepard Fairey as well as objects and artworks from colleagues and friends of show contributors alongside unknown authors.

The exhibition and related events, which are free and open to the general public in online format, will run through Friday, Oct. 9.

In compliance with New York State and SUNY Cortland Reopening New York — Higher Education guidelines, the Dowd Gallery is closed to individuals and groups not associated with SUNY Cortland. For the fall 2020 semester, no outside speakers, alumni or guests of on-campus residents including parents of the residents will be allowed on campus or in campus buildings.

Those allowed gallery access would include individuals with a Cortland ID number such as university employees, students and special community members. Gallery hours are from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursdays.

As Dowd Gallery prepares to welcome campus and community members into its space once again for the first time since mid-March, the gallery has adopted the necessary measures to keep its campus community visitors and staff safe, in compliance with the SUNY Cortland safety protocol arising from health concerns about spreading the COVID-19.

All in-person viewers are required to wear face coverings upon entering the building and gallery and to practice physical distancing. Extra measures will be taken to prevent crowding at selected events.

The exhibition also will be available in an electronic format on the gallery’s website, Facebook, and Instagram. The virtual component to the exhibition will be updated frequently until the show’s closing date.

The campus and community also are invited to take part in a series of online conversations associated with the exhibition, hosted on the WebEx platform.

Art and art history faculty members who lent a portion of their collection for display include Stephan Alexander Clark, Allison DeDomick, Jeremiah Donovan, Charles Heasley, Scott Oldfield ’06, Jaroslava Prihodova, Vaughn Randall and Bryan Valentine Thomas.

The professors and instructors contributed artwork and objects they had accumulated over an extended period of time.

“The exhibition presents a visual map of the collecting process from an artist’s perspective,” explained Jaroslava Prihodova, Dowd Gallery director.

“Rather than building a comprehensive collection, artists tend to select articles that reveal a window into their inner world and creativity.

“Throughout recent history, artists like Andy Warhol, Sol LeWitt, or Damian Hirst built unique collections that not only provide insight into their psychological space but also offer a piece of supplemental information about their practice and personal history,” she said. “The same is evident in this exhibition.” 

“The approach to collecting by an artist bares individual sets of objectives and transcends different desires than those of an art collector,” Prihodova noted. “For the most part, the action is not driven by value, investment or historical significance. Instead, the motivation to possess originates from specific interests, aesthetic inclinations and individual artistic practices. For some, collecting presents a source of inspiration, reflecting in their own practice, or symbolizes a personal connection to the creator of the object.”

An Exhibition Opening, with strict occupancy rules where only 25 guests with SUNY Cortland ID can be present at the same time, will replace the traditional Reception Opening from 4:30 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 3. To secure a comfortable visit, guests can RSVP for a specific time slot accessible on the Dowd Gallery website.

Additional lectures, all to be held virtually via WebEx, include:

• A virtual “First Friday: Guided Tour” will take place from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 11. The event is organized by the Cultural Council of Cortland County.
• Art and art history instructors Oldfield and Thomas will join Prihodova to discuss their collections in a “Virtual Gallery Conversation Series” from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10.
• The “Virtual Gallery Conversation Series” will continue with Heasley, a professor of art and art history, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17.
• Clark, an assistant professor of art and art history, will continue the series from 5 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 23.
• A second virtual “First Friday: Guided Tour” will take place from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 2. The event is organized by the Cultural Council of Cortland County.

Detailed information and link invitations will be posted on the Dowd Gallery website and social media.

Visit the Dowd Gallery website for details about exhibiting artists, other programs, safety protocols and on-line booking. For more information, or to schedule an appointment or a tour or request additional images, contact Jaroslava Prihodova at 607-753-4216.

ABOVE LEFT IMAGE: This ceramic piece by Jar Schepers is called "Collapse, 2008."

Thirty-five incoming first-year students in SUNY Cortland’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) recently completed a Summer Institute that considered the implications of a weighty philosophical question.

What is the value of education?

Using readings by philosophers Plato, Alfred North Whitehead and others, “The Value of Education” course began with the premise that a student must first understand what education is before they can know if they are receiving one.

The course was taught online by Lewis Rosengarten, director of SUNY Cortland’s EOP, and AnnaMaria Cirrincione, director of the Multicultural Life and Diversity Office. Rosengarten reminded students that education is more than just an acquisition of facts. According to social psychologist Sheldon Solomon, a former colleague of Rosengarten, education also requires socialization, critical thinking and aesthetic awareness, moral courage and a reconstruction of self.

Blending the classics with contemporary influencers, powerful messages from a Beyonce and Jay-Z music video, the Spike Lee film “Do the Right Thing” and the writings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., scholar W.E.B. DuBois and novelist Alice Walker were used to illustrate the components of imagination, creativity and hard work and the role of education as the great equalizer. 

Cirrincione asked students to think about what role imagination and hard work will play in their academic success.

“You’re using your imagination to figure out what your future holds, but the hard work is also important,” she said. “Because if you don’t do the hard work that is necessary to make those goals happen then they will stay in your imagination and won’t come to fruition.”

Enrollment in and successful completion of the Summer Institute is a requirement for all incoming SUNY Cortland EOP first-year students. The four-week long course helps students make the transition from high school to college.

“You’re here because you have been deemed as someone with fantastic academic potential and potential in life,” Rosengarten told students. “We want you to be a force on this campus, armed with all these academic tools.”

A group of faculty, staff, students and community partners are undertaking a nonpartisan mission to make voting a part of the culture both within SUNY Cortland and the Cortland County community.

The initiative, Cortland Votes, is part of the nationwide All In Campus Democracy Challenge, which strives to involve college students in American democracy and instill the values of lifelong participation in the political process. 

The main goal of the Cortland Votes project is to increase student interest in voting, elections and civic engagement in college and after.

John Suarez, director of SUNY Cortland’s Institute for Civic Engagement, has helped the project expand in scope over the past few years by inviting local elected officials, including Cortland County legislators, Cortland Mayor Brian Tobin, and others who are politically engaged.

“I realized we had many resources on campus, but I didn’t know just how many resources we had on campus and in the greater community,” Suarez said, referring to the strong support from many people. 

The members of the Cortland Votes Working Group participate through teams to tackle issues and plan events. Some of those initiatives include preparing faculty and residence hall staff to answer student questions about voting, addressing barriers to voting and creating information packets on how to register to vote. The COVID-19 pandemic will limit the group’s ability to host in-person events but discussions and watch parties are being planned for the presidential and vice presidential debates as well as for the week of Constitution Day, which is Thursday, Sept. 17.

Panels on specific topics of voter interest including anti-racism, environmental issues and business freedoms vs. community security at the local level are currently being planned.

A ”Votingest County” competition will be held with neighboring Tompkins County to see which can register a greater percentage of voters and have a higher turnout on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Cortland Votes aims to register 80% of SUNY Cortland students by 2022 and make 90% of students registered voters by 2024.

“This is not only a campus focus anymore,” Suarez said. “The mayor and four Cortland County legislators are involved. This is a county-wide effort. The statistical goals that we have are the same for our campus and the greater community.”

The group also is partnering with Students Learn, Students Vote and Ask Every Student, other national organizations that encourage college students to engage in democracy.

Please check your SUNY Cortland email for updates and specific information on Cortland Votes events throughout the year. Follow Cortland Votes on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for more information.

“This is going to continue, needless to say, after this election, through the next election in two years and again two years after that,” Suarez said. “The bottom line is that we want this to be a part of the SUNY Cortland and Cortland County culture. This is who we are as a campus and this is who we are as a county. We are civically engaged. We participate in civil, civic decision-making.” 

Cortland Votes’ supporters include President Erik J. Bitterbaum; Vice President for Student Affairs Greg Sharer; Director of Communications Fred Pierce; Director of Athletics Mike Urtz ’94, M ’00, and Director of Advisement and Transition Abby Thomas.

The Cortland Votes working group includes individuals from across campus and Cortland County. They are, in addition to Suarez and Tobin, students Shaneya Simmelkjaer, Roman Rodriguez, Callie Humphrey, Raquel Berman, Nick Gallardo and Alexis Pascarella; Director of Corey Union Kevin Pristash ’85, M ‘91; Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Studies Christina Knopf; Coordinator of COR 101 David Runge; Residence Hall Director Frank Parsons; Suarez; Laura Dunbar, assistant director of the Institute for Civic Engagement; and Cynthia Guy, community outreach coordinator for the Institute for Civic Engagement. Members from the SUNY Cortland community include: Cortland County Legislators Doug Bentley, Cathy Bischoff, Beau Harbin and Ann Homer; Kathleen Elliot-Birdsall, F.E. Smith Intermediate School teacher; Robert Howe and Thomas Brown, Republican and Democratic Commissioners, respectively, of the Cortland County Board of Elections; Sheila Cohen, interim president of the League of Women Voters of Cortland County; Andrea Rankin, the former director of the Jacobus Center for Reproductive Health; and Kevin Dugan, New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) regional supervisor.

For more information on Cortland Votes, contact Suarez at 607-753-4391.

SUNY Cortland students love many things about their university, including their quality of life and safety on campus, the accessibility of faculty and Cortland’s dedication to sustainability.

So it’s no surprise that SUNY Cortland was named to the Princeton Review’s 2021 list of the “Best Colleges Region by Region” for the Northeast.

The Princeton Review looked at factors including academics, admissions selectivity, financial aid, fire safety, quality of life as well as its “Green” metric that examines the performance of colleges and universities as environmentally aware and prepared institutions.

Specifically for academics, this ranking considered how many hours students typically spend studying outside the classroom, student assessment of faculty, class size and the amount of class discussion, among other factors. Student reaction to the questions “Are your instructors good teachers?” and “Are your instructors accessible outside the classroom?” were also weighed.

In addition to strong relationships between faculty and students, SUNY Cortland is continuously adding new majors and certifications, including an online master’s in literacy education, a major in media production, a master’s degree in athletic training and a bachelor of fine arts degree program in musical theatre.

In the last year, some of SUNY Cortland’s academic programs have been ranked among the nation’s best. The online master’s program in sport management was named top in the Northeast by Intelligent.com. The Communication and Media Studies Department was ranked No. 3 in the state by Zippia.com. SUNY Cortland’s master’s degree in coaching was placed at No. 5 in the nation by TheBestSchools.org.

The academic rigor of SUNY Cortland’s programs leads to results in the job market for young alumni. Zippa.com ranked SUNY Cortland No. 5 in the nation on its 2020 list of “Best Public College in Each State for Getting a Job.”

SUNY Cortland was rated as an 88 out of 99 on the Princeton Review’s admission selectivity scale, which measures standardized test scores, class rank and GPA of incoming students as well as the percentage of applicants accepted.   

The study also looks at how much colleges and universities award in financial aid and how satisfied students are with that aid. In addition to federal and state financial aid programs, SUNY Cortland offers grants, work study and scholarship opportunities to further help students and families afford college costs. Each year, the university provides more than $1 million in scholarship assistance to more than 1,000 students.

Quality of life was measured by looking at the safety and location of each campus, the comfort of dorms, the quality of food, the friendliness of fellow students and the strength of a school’s relationship with its local community.

Safety is a top priority at SUNY Cortland and the university has been recognized many times in this field. Safewise.com placed Cortland on its annual ranking of the safest college towns in America in 2017, 2018 and 2019. YourLocalSecurity.com named Cortland the safest college environment in New York state in 2019. Also in 2019, SUNY Cortland’s University Police Department recorded its lowest crime rate in 43 years.

Students enjoy a variety of dining options on campus. The recently renovated restaurants in Corey Union earned a silver medal from the National Association of College and University Food Services.

Finally, The Princeton Review examined the sustainable quality of life for colleges and universities, as well as how well each school is preparing students for employment in a clean-energy economy. SUNY Cortland has a long tradition of being one of the most green campuses in the nation, having been named to the Sierra Club’s “Cool Schools 2019 Ranking” as well as the Sierra Club’s rankings in 2017 and 2018. The university has also received a prestigious gold rating from the Sustainability, Tracking and Assessment Rating System (STARS), the only SUNY comprehensive college to do so.

The Princeton Review selected 655 colleges from around the world for its annual report, breaking them into five zones: Northeastern, Southeastern, Midwestern, Western and International.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer visited SUNY Cortland to meet privately with President Erik J. Bitterbaum and Provost Mark Prus to discuss how the university was coping with the COVID-19 pandemic and the $132 billion for higher education Schumer wants to include in the next federal stimulus package.

The New York Senator and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are negotiating with top White House officials to find a compromise between a $3 trillion stimulus package supported by Senate and House Democrats and a $1 trillion plan proposed by Republican lawmakers.

At Senator Schumer’s request, the Democratic plan includes the $430 billion Coronavirus Child Care and Education Relief Act, which would build on the assistance provided to schools, universities and municipalities under the original $2.2 trillion CARES stimulus legislation signed into law this spring.

Cortland Mayor and SUNY Cortland head swimming and diving coach Brian Tobin ’94 also met with the senator on campus to discuss financial hardship caused by COVID-19.

“Our local governments and universities have been selflessly navigating the ongoing global pandemic, ripping huge holes in their budgets to prioritize the health and safety,” Senator Schumer said. “While the funding for education I secured in the CARES Act helped mitigate some of the financial devastation, as the crisis continues long beyond what anyone imagined, we need to ensure that our local governments like the City of Cortland and world-class institutions of higher education like SUNY Cortland are equipped with the assistance they need.”

SUNY Cortland this spring received $6.2 million in stimulus funding under the original CARES Act, including more than $3.1 million that was distributed directly to students in the form of emergency grants related to the health crisis. Drastic cuts in state assistance and expenses related to the health crisis have created multi-million-dollar budget deficits for colleges and universities throughout the country. 

Without additional federal support, many institutions, including Cortland, are likely to exhaust their surplus funds and need to consider deep cuts that could impact the quality of the educational experience they provide, President Bitterbaum said.

“The situation is grim,” he said. “We are honored by Senator Schumer’s interest in Cortland, grateful for the assistance he’s helped provide and optimistic that there will be a breakthrough in the current stalemate over this much-needed legislation in Washington.”

Senator Schumer has been a frequent visitor to the SUNY Cortland campus, and regularly speaks at the university’s undergraduate Commencement. Because of the pandemic, Cortland’s on-campus 2020 Commencement ceremony was postponed until 2021.