Campus Champion

Nia Vega, a junior sociology major with a minor in computer applications and a concentration in criminology, loves getting involved. A campus leader, Nia is president of Students Active for Ending Rape (SAFER), vice president of Ritmo Latino, an EOP student and mentor and was recently appointed president of Men of Value and Excellence (M.O.V.E.). Recruited to grow M.O.V.E.’s membership, Nia started by planning informative meetings. Now, more SUNY Cortland men are empowered and supported by M.O.V.E. On Friday, the 8th annual Celebration of Men will recognize and celebrate outstanding men on campus through an awards ceremony. 

To look at Christopher Lora ’09, a 10-year veteran high school teacher and coach in New York City as well as a budding business professional, it’s hard to believe he led an underprivileged childhood.

Yet such was the case, and Lora will share his story and ideas on how a college career at SUNY Cortland could launch students from similar economic backgrounds to career heights on Friday, Dec. 10, during the university’s eighth annual Celebration of Men.

Organized by the student organization Men of Value and Excellence (M.O.V.E.), the former physical education major will deliver the keynote address during the event from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in Corey Union Function Room.

Hosted to recognize SUNY Cortland men for their involvement on campus, academic success, community service and athletic leadership, the event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

For more information about the Celebration of Men, email questions to move@cortland.edu or visit the group’s Instagram account at @cortlandmove. 

The current campus public safety policy requires everyone to wear a mask indoors, regardless of their COVID-19 vaccination status.

“MOVE strives to empower and develop our members to become positive contributors in the community and their personal and professional lives,” said Nia Vega, event organizer and co-president of M.O.V.E. with Jaden Buckingham. Vega is a junior sociology major from New York City. Buckingham is a junior business economics major from Syracuse, N.Y.

“We create programs and activities that will benefit the school and the student body by improving the image, leadership qualities, professional development and communication skills of our members,” Vega said.

That evening, awards will be presented to nominees from among the students, faculty, staff and alumni who have demonstrated those positive qualities.

Lora currently teaches physical education in New York City’s A. Phillips Randolph High School and coaches team sports.

“I feel passionate about the power of sports in uplifting my community and feel proud to serve the area where I grew up in Washington Heights,” Lora said.

As a youth he was accepted at SUNY Cortland through the university’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) and used its academic support services to excel in his chosen academic major.

In his free time at school, Lora served as the public relations officer on M.O.V.E.’s board from 2006 to 2009. He also was active in the Black Student Union, Women of Color and La Familia Latina. He played on the club basketball team. Lora also took part in the growing campus tradition of the annual Kente Ceremony, in which graduating seniors don a woven, multicolored stole made to honor an ancient tradition of scholarship in Africa.

After he left SUNY Cortland with his Bachelor of Science in Education, Lora attained two master’s degrees in the education field. He has worked in the New York City public school system for the first 10 years of his career.

“My commitment stems from a desire to teach more than ‘love for the game,’” he said. “I coach youth through life’s growing pains on and off the court.”

Most importantly, Lora serves as a role model for students who want to pursue higher education, build generational wealth and achieve their personal life goals. He demonstrates this through his delicate balance of teaching and a commitment to his entrepreneurial endeavors.

As a five-year entertainment company business owner and newly minted real estate investor, Lora expects to make a full transition in spring 2022 to building business opportunities with the intention of positively impacting a larger audience.

“I feel honored to return to campus in this capacity and look forward to connecting with attendees,” Lora said.

Additionally, members of the campus community are welcome to attend the weekly M.O.V.E. meetings at 5 p.m. on Mondays during the academic semester in the Corey Union Voice Office just off the main lobby.

SUNY Cortland has again been recognized as one of the most sustainable campuses in the country by a major national publication.

The Princeton Review has listed Cortland on its “Guide to Green Colleges: 2022 Edition” for the second consecutive year.

Cortland scored at 96 points out of a possible 99 on The Princeton Review’s green rating scale, which measures whether students have a campus quality of life that is healthy and sustainable. It assesses how well a school prepares students for employment in a clean energy economy and how environmentally responsible a school’s policies are.

The Princeton Review award is just the university’s latest national recognition for sustainability.

Sierra magazine has ranked SUNY Cortland among the top 100 colleges and universities in the nation for sustainability for six consecutive years. Cortland was the highest-ranked SUNY comprehensive college on Sierra’s “Cool Schools” list in 2021.

SUNY Cortland has received back-to-back gold ratings in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). This standard measure an institution’s commitment to sustainability through academics, engagement, operations, planning and leadership. The gold rating places Cortland among the top 3% of all higher education institutions in the nation.

In 2013, Cortland became the first in the 64-campus SUNY system to operate all of its facilities using 100% renewable electricity. A portion of the university’s power is generated on site by 3,863 solar panels. The remaining electricity used by the campus is offset by the purchase of renewable energy certificates representing sustainable energy produced elsewhere and added into the general electric grid.

When Dragon Hall opened in 2014, it was the first college residential housing structure in New York state to receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification at the platinum level. The certification is built on rating systems that measure a building’s sustainability through its design, construction, operation and maintenance.

The Green Rep program at Cortland uses student educators to help promote a more sustainable lifestyle across campus. A Green Ambassadors program for faculty and staff connects employees on how they can create and discuss solutions to sustainability in their lives and among their colleagues, both at work and at home.

This year, the campus began using sheep to control grass and weeds around campus solar panels and began work on an edible forest on the grassy slope between SUNY Cortland’s Memorial Library and Van Hoesen Hall.

Last week, members of the campus community were encouraged to participate in a sustainability survey to help the institution assess its progress and focus its efforts. You can take the online survey here. 

SUNY Cortland also offers several academic majors, minors and concentrations to help prepare students for eco-friendly careers after graduation. More information about sustainability-related coursework is available online.

Visit the Sustainability Office’s website to learn more about SUNY Cortland’s programs and resources.

It’s hard to imagine what a piece of courtly baroque music would have in common with a love score written by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner, never mind a seminal work of 20th century American minimalism.

Music lovers will get the chance to find out what’s the same about three very different musical compositions during “It’s About Time,” the SUNY Cortland College Community Orchestra’s upcoming holiday concert on Tuesday, Dec. 7.

The orchestra, which is made up of SUNY Cortland students, faculty and staff as well as area community members, will perform at 8 p.m. in the university’s Old Main Brown Auditorium.

The concert will take place without an intermission and with all safety measures in place to allow the orchestra’s first in-person concert since campus COVID-19 safety measures shut them down in Spring 2020.

This year, the holiday concert is being presented in an unusual art-and-music collaboration with Cortland Jr./Sr. High School students taking art teacher Judith Cogan’s Comprehensive Art course. The 9th through 12th graders in Cogan’s class designed, built and will exhibit a collection of suspended mobiles that will relate to the more modern musical selection.

The concert title, “It’s About Time,” covers the connection between all the pieces, said Ubaldo Valli, a lecturer in the Performing Arts Department and conductor for the current, lean 30-piece orchestra.

“The three pieces couldn’t seem more different,” Valli said. “However, they are all doing essentially the same thing, which is why I think the concert is an interesting one.”

Selections will include:

• “Chaconne from The Fairy Queen,” created in 1692 by the English royal court composer Henry Purcell (1659-1695) 
• “In C,” composed in 1964 by California composer Terrence “Terry” Riley (b. 1935) 
• “Siegfried Idyll,” written in 1870 by Richard Wagner (1813-1883) in an arrangement by Arne Dich (b. 1942)

In all three offerings, a busy musical foreground overlays a slow, deliberate musical background that anchors each piece.

“The ‘In C’ piece I’m doing clearly moves very slowly,” Valli said. “And the two other pieces we’re doing reflect this.”

‘In C’ exemplifies minimalism, a musical genre that originated in the U.S. in the 1960s, according to Wikipedia. By stripping music down to its bare essentials, minimalism focuses on pure sonic power, pulse and the internal processes of the music, without a conventional musical narrative.

“It is easy to think that in the piece a player can just do whatever they want, but it actually requires more individual discipline than playing in a regular orchestra because you have to be very attuned to the pulse that you hear throughout the piece and to what the other people are doing,” Valli said, “If you think that what you do doesn’t matter, you won’t be able to play the piece.”

Not to be confused with purposely atonal music, Riley’s 1964 minimalist piece is nevertheless composed so as to never sound the same way twice.

“It has 52 little snippets of music and there’s a constant pulse of the note “C,” Valli said. “The instructions are that the performers play each snippet for as many repetitions as they want. Each performer might decide to repeat a particular unit a different number of times. The perfect visual analog to that is the mobile.”

“If you can sort of imagine clouds going by and changing colors, that’s another visual analog for how this musical piece moves,” he said. “You look at the music and it looks like a big nothing. Then you look again, and it’s so craftily put together, just really smartly done.”

Valli finds inspiration by working with the high school art students.

“My experience in doing this sort of collaboration with high schoolers has been that the students come up with such great solutions,” he said.

Valli encourages the audience to experience the mobiles as fully as they wish.

“I’m going to ask people to stand up and walk around, absolutely. In fact, this is actually a fairly common practice with minimalist music.”

Some four hundred years before Riley’s inspiration, Purcell’s chaconne, that is, a series of chords that repeat over and over and over again, are heard in his masque or semi-opera called “The Fairy Queen (1692),” which is based on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

“There are eight bars that repeat all the way through the piece,” Valli said about Purcell’s music, geared to please a public audience. “It always has this foreground that is very busy while underneath it is moving very, very slowly.”

Fast forward a few hundred years and German composer Wagner was composing “The Siegfried Idyll” for his wife.

“He wrote it in secret,” Valli said. “She woke up on the morning of Dec. 25th hearing the music because Wagner arrayed the musicians on the staircase leading up to her bedroom.

“As with the other selections, there’s all this surface activity, but underneath it’s all moving harmonically really slowly,” he said.

For more information on musical ensembles and upcoming concerts, visit the Performing Arts Department webpage.

Wegmans Pharmacy is holding a COVID-19 vaccine booster and flu shot clinic at SUNY Cortland on Wednesday, Dec. 8.

The event will take place in the Corey Union Exhibition Lounge starting at 11 a.m.

COVID-19 boosters of Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer will all be available during this clinic, as will flu shots and senior flu shots for those age 65 and older. You may register for both a flu shot and a COVID-19 vaccine booster during the same appointment.

Those scheduling a COVID-19 booster shot of Moderna or Pfizer must have received their second dose on or before June 8, 2021. Those scheduling a Johnson & Johnson shot must have received their previous single dose on or before Oct. 8, 2021.

Please remember to bring your COVID-19 vaccination record card and a form of government identification such as a driver’s license to your appointment.

Register through Wegmans Pharmacy’s online portal.

• Click “Schedule a new appointment”
• Select the booster or flu shot(s) you intend to receive
• Change the date on the calendar to Wednesday, Dec. 8
• Enter ZIP code “13045” and click “search”
• Click the “schedule” icon and complete the prompts to finish your registration

Contact the Campus Activities Office at 607-753-5574 with questions.

The 27th annual Cortland area CROP Hunger walk was held Sunday, Oct. 24, and raised a record $17,055. Returning to its traditional format of weaving the streets of downtown Cortland, this year’s walk saw a resurgence of SUNY Cortland student and staff participation.  

Due to COVID-19, last year’s student involvement was limited to doing the actual walking at home over the Thanksgiving break. Consequently, fewer student groups participated. 

A total of 375 walkers registered and 318, or 85 percent, identified themselves as SUNY Cortland students or staff. Of the more than $17,000 that was raised, over $10,000 is attributed to SUNY Cortland. Funds continue to come in, largely from the local churches. This is the 15th year that SUNY Cortland was a major factor in the success of the walk.

As always, 25 percent of the funds raised will return to the local community to support food pantries and feeding programs including the SUNY Cortland Cupboard.

There are several Golden Sneaker plaques awarded each year to the SUNY Cortland organizations that raise the most funds. The cost of the plaques is underwritten by the James M. Clark Center for Global Engagement.  

The overall winner, and also winner of the Athletic Team plaque is once again the women's softball team, which raised $2,531. The men’s lacrosse team was second with a total of $2,023. 

The Greek community plaque is awarded to repeat winner Delta Phi Epsilon which raised $1,448. The campus club/organization that raised the most was DanceWorks for the second year in a row raising $631. The COR 101 plaque went to the COR 101 HIS/SST classes with $257. 

CROP Hunger Walks are sponsored by Church World Service and have been held all over the world since 1969. The walks raise approximately $20 million each year. History lecturer and local CROP walk coordinator is Jim Miller.

Wagging tails, wet noses and an array of calming activities again will help SUNY Cortland students escape final exams week stress.

“Paws for Stress Relief,” a 14-year tradition that brings dogs and other anxiety-reducing events to the university’s campus, makes its return Monday, Dec. 13, and Tuesday, Dec. 14, in the Student Life Center’s three-court gym from noon to 4 p.m.

“Paws for Stress Relief” will feature the following:

• Relax with dogs
• Free massages
• Chair reiki (on Tuesday)
• Arts and crafts
• Refreshments

Organizers in the Paws for Stress Relief Committee encourage everyone in the campus community to “mask your face, not your stress,” when entering the SLC for this event. Classified staff are allowed 45 minutes of release time to take part with supervisor approval.

All participants must provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter the center.

Those who can’t get away from their studies are encouraged to bust their stress by visiting Memorial Library’s Paws for Stress Relief Online Guide, where a virtual pet display will offer visual therapy as well as other suggestions for learning how to chill down. Nervous exam takers are encouraged to like and follow @CortlandPAWS on Instagram to get all the cute pet and animal photos and videos cycling through their Instagram feed.

Sponsors this semester include the Vice President for Student Affairs’ Office, a Cortland Auxiliary Services grant and Cortland Auxiliary Services Dining.

Sheila Myers ’85 didn’t set out to become an expert on the family of one of the Gilded Age’s most noted tycoons, Dr. Thomas C. Durant.

But she did. By serendipity closely connected with SUNY Cortland, Myers now is a source of information and commentary about this late 19th century American respected enough to be interviewed by the History Channel and invited to lecture professional historians on the topic. The Cayuga Community College science instructor and administrator of the school’s honors program is living proof that, regardless of your major, a SUNY Cortland education helps you achieve whatever varied goals you set your sights on.

Myers’ background isn’t history. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from SUNY Cortland and a master’s degree in environmental science from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 1992.

And yet:

• Myers on Oct. 10 was a featured guest on the “Race for the Railroad” episode in the History Channel’s “Engineering That Built the World” series. She was interviewed about Durant, the family patriarch and head of the Union Pacific Railroad. He was a driving force in building the transcontinental overland train route, which transformed America’s settlement and development in the west. Durant became a main character in the AMC drama series “Hell on Wheels,” set during the time he pushed to connect the country’s two coasts.
• She wrote a trilogy of novels about the Durant family that includes Imaginary Brightness (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015), Castles in the Air (Zahigkeit Press, 2016), and The Night is Done (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017). The final, stand-alone volume won the 2017 Adirondack Center for Writing Literary Award for Best Book of Fiction in 2017 and received a Kirkus Star Review.
• Myers has presented her research on the Durants at the Sagamore Institute’s Gilded Age series, the New York State Association of Public Historians, the Researching New York Conference and other venues.
• In 2019, she lectured as part of the “Forever Wild: The Adirondacks in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) ‘Landmarks in American History and Culture’" workshop hosted in Raquette Lake by SUNY Cortland’s History Department.

 “My books do have a strong theme of the natural world,” Myers said. “That’s one reason I was interested in the Durants and their Adirondack land holdings and the time period, because of all the changes that were happening in the Adirondack Park at the time.”

Her path to becoming the go-to source about the Durants began during a summer 2012 stay with several other Red Dragon alumni at the very remote Kirby Camp of SUNY Cortland’s William H. Parks Family Center for Environmental and Outdoor Education, Camp Huntington, in Raquette Lake, N.Y.

Campers can only get there by boat. Kirby Camp is a favorite haunt of students learning how to live in the outdoors as well as a pleasant, short hike for visitors from the main buildings of Camp Huntington.

But the tiny cottage on the shore of Raquette Lake is imbued with history about the son of Thomas, William West Durant, who designed and constructed what is considered to be the original rustic style Adirondack Great Camp, now owned by SUNY Cortland.

“I started writing this trilogy about the Durants because I stayed at Camp Kirby with alums, and I heard the story about (Thomas’ son) William West Durant and his supposed mistress,” Myers said. “I thought I was going to write a love story about that family."

She had already written a love story that was set in the Finger Lakes, Ephemeral Summer (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014), she said.

Joining Myers for that long weekend at remote Kirby Camp was her husband, Joseph Judge ’84, their friend Karen Streiff Conlon ’85, and her husband, Jack. The result from that short vacation was three novels offering her semi-fictional Durant family saga.

The four had heard the local folklore that Thomas’ son William West Durant had used Kirby Camp to rendezvous in secret with his purported mistress Minnie Kirby (niece of the camp owner Cornelia Kirby), destroying his marriage on the road to the family’s eventual financial ruin.

“I really didn’t know anything about the Durants at the time,” Myers said. “And I got into researching the Durants and found out there was a lot more to the story and the history and I just kind of went down this rabbit hole of research on the family.”

She had visited Camp Huntington before, not as a student, but when she formerly worked for Cornell Cooperative Extension.

“But that was really my first time at Camp Kirby,” Myers said. “Since then, I’ve stayed there a number of times and I actually wrote the second book in the trilogy at Camp Kirby. I stayed there alone for about four or five nights. That was fun, I got a lot done.”

What’s well known about the Durants is that after their patriarch lost his shirt over his railroad venture, the family still owned half a million acres in the Adirondack Wilderness, including what is now Camp Huntington. William West Durant, a pioneer of the Great Camp style of architecture, built Camp Huntington and other Great Camps in the Adirondacks.

“The hardest part for me was finding out information about his sister, Ella, who was the one who sued William for her inheritance,” Myers said. “Because (William) squandered all the money and lost all the Durant family land in the Adirondacks. I did find a collection of letters about her at the Syracuse University archives.”

She also viewed original family diaries at the Adirondack Museum and William West Durant’s letters the Library of Congress. She also credits biographer Craig Gilborn, who donated his research on the family to the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library in Winterthur, Delaware. Her poring over correspondence unearthed details such as the wrecked friendship between the Kirby Camp owner Cornelia of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and William’s wife, Janet, who borrowed $15,000 from her companion in the midst of the divorce. Cornelia, in turn, sued her friend to get her money back.

Myers took an online screenwriting course and used it to write the screenplay for an unproduced television pilot episode and a series outline about the Durant family, before becoming aware of the “Hell on Wheels” portrayal of some characters.

Myers also blogged about her research for the trilogy because she knew it would interest people.

“This summer, out of the blue, I got a call from somebody from The History Channel,” Myers said. “I think maybe they found me because I had been blogging about it.

“I went to New York City and interviewed for about two hours and spoke about Thomas Durant and his motivation to build the Transcontinental Railroad (to make a lot of money). Writing these books has just turned into this huge thing I never expected to happen. I went from thinking I’d write a love story to becoming an expert on the Durants and appearing on The History Channel years later.”

She has a fifth novel to be published next spring by Black Rose Writing that is set in the Great Smoky Mountains. As she did for her books situated in the Finger Lakes and the Adirondacks, she’s spent a lot of time there, unearthing information about Great Depression-era families displaced for the sake of the national park’s creation.

Her works of fiction set in the outdoors have earned her a small but steady following, including among some Alpha Sigma Phi sisters.

“I think that there’s such a rich history in the Adirondacks and the Durants have been part of the Gilded Age history in the region,” Myers said. “There’s a lot of folklore about that family and it just generates a lot of interest in people to learn about them.”

Cortland senior quarterback Brees Segala has been announced as one of 15 semifinalists for the 28th Gagliardi Trophy.

The award (pronounced Gah-LAR-dee) is presented by Jostens and the J-Club of Saint John's University (Minn.) to the most outstanding football player in NCAA Division III. 

The award is voted on by the 40-member Gagliardi Trophy national selection committee that includes Division III coaches, administrators, notable regional voters and national voters with Division III backgrounds. Fan balloting, which is available on D3football.com, accounts for one collective “41st” ballot. Fans may cast one ballot per device through 1 p.m. on Dec. 9.

The Gagliardi Trophy, given annually since 1993, recognizes excellence in athletics, academics and community service. The award is named after John Gagliardi, legendary Hall of Fame head football coach at Saint John’s who passed away in 2018 at age 91. He retired in 2012 with 489 career victories, the most in college football history. 
 

Segala is among a group of 12 quarterbacks, two wide receivers and one defensive back/punter/returner on the list of semifinalists, 11 of whom participated in the NCAA Division III tournament first round. The group will be narrowed to four finalists, who will be announced during a live show on Thursday, Dec. 9, on D3football.com. The 2021 Gagliardi Trophy winner will be revealed on D3football.com during the week of the NCAA Division III football national championship on Friday, Dec. 17.

The Empire 8 Offensive Player of the Year, Segala completed 164-of-240 passes (68.3 percent) for 2,144 yards, 29 touchdowns and just four interceptions, along with 85 rushes for 344 yards and five scores, in 10 regular-season games. He also completed 12-of-19 passes for 231 yards and a TD and ran for 32 yards in Cortland’s 26-21 win over Springfield in the NCAA first round. Cortland lost to RPI in the second round, 21-14, on Saturday, Nov. 27.

Segala is a sport management major at Cortland with a 3.51 cumulative grade point average entering the 2021 fall semester. He is Cortland’s Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) president, and he has participated in a number of campus/community events, including the Yards for Yeardley Walk in 2018 and 2019, Take Back the Night Walk in 2018 and the Cortland Athletics Community Leaf Raking in 2018. He’s also been a Sunday Nights Lights Football Coach volunteer in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Cortland has had two previous Gagliardi Trophy finalists — quarterback (and current Cincinnati Bengals QB coach) Dan Pitcher ’10, M ’11 in 2011 and defensive lineman Adam Haas ’07 in 2006 — under a previous format where 10 players were recognized with that title.

Segala tied Pitcher’s single-season school record with 31 touchdown passes and set a new program mark with a 176.9 pass efficiency rating through the 2021 season.

The 15 semifinalists for the 2021 Gagliardi Trophy are: 

• Ian Blankenship, Sr., RB, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy 
• Jefferson Fritz, Sr., DB/P/RET, Mary Hardin-Baylor 
• Cody Gustafson, Sr., WR, Grove City 
• Blaine Hawkins, Sr., QB, Central (Iowa) 
• Michael Hnatkowsky, Sr., QB, Muhlenberg 
• Tucker Horn, Jr., QB, Trinity (Texas) 
• Tyler Jarnagin, Sr., QB, Benedictine 
• Kyle Jones, Sr., QB, Hardin-Simmons 
• Andrew Kamienski, Sr., WR, North Central (Ill.) 
• Max Meylor, Sr., QB, Wisconsin-Whitewater 
• Braxton Plunk, Jr., QB, Mount Union 
• Jaran Roste, Jr., QB, Bethel 
• Brees Segala, Sr., QB, Cortland 
• Wyatt Smith, Sr., QB, Linfield 
• Gavin Zimbelman, Sr., QB, Aurora

Cortland football fans, did you know that the 2022 Cortaca Jug game will be played at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022? Tickets are on sale now through CortacaJug.com.

Alumni planning on going to the game can learn more about gatherings and hotel information on RedDragonNetwork.org. The kickoff party at Stout NYC on Friday, Nov. 11, 2022 is free. Those planning to attend are asked to register in advance. A pregame gathering at Billy’s Sports Bar across from Yankee Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 12 is expected to sell out quickly. Learn more and reserve your spot today.   

Dear students,

As we approach the end of this semester, I want to encourage you to continue doing your best work and share with you some resources that may help with your studies.

SUNY Cortland's faculty and staff are here to give you guidance and support. Please do not be afraid to ask for any assistance should you need it.

Consider:

• Contact your professors or visit during office hours to ask about assignments or how you can best prepare for final exams.
• Use the Starfish tab in myRedDragon to set up an appointment with your advisor.
• The Learning Center provides professional and peer tutoring services and online tutoring in the evenings through Nightowl.
• The Writing Center can help you with your assignments at any point in the writing process. Schedule an appointment through the Academic Resources tab in myRedDragon.

Please also be mindful of your physical and mental health over the next few weeks. Knowing when to take a break for fun and relaxation is important. Learn more about upcoming events through Cortland Connect and @cortlandnites on Instagram.

I also want to remind you that Wegmans Pharmacy is hosting a COVID-19 vaccine booster clinic starting at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 8. You may register online for a booster dose, as well as a regular flu shot. This is an important step in keeping you and your loved ones safe and healthy over winter break.

Thank you for all your hard work and dedication throughout this semester. Please reach out for help if you need it - and enjoy yourself - this week and next.

All the best,

Erik J. Bitterbaum

President

Dear students,

I hope you enjoyed a relaxing Thanksgiving break and returned to Cortland recharged and ready for the final few weeks of the semester.

I did want to reiterate several important reminders about COVID-19 safety. Together, our campus community has done a remarkable job this fall in preventing the spread of the virus. Let's keep this up to stay safe and healthy through your final exams and before your journeys home for winter break.

Please note:

SUNY Cortland Auxiliary Services (SCAS) is now accepting Program Grant applications for the 2022-23 academic year.

Applications are submitted online and must be sent by midnight on Friday, Feb. 18. Applicants are asked to read the grant guidelines carefully before submitting an application.

Each year the SCAS Board of Directors allocates funds to support grants for a wide range of purposes and projects that enhance the life of the SUNY Cortland community.

Although SCAS is willing to consider a wide range of ideas, it seeks to avoid duplicating other funding sources or funding projects more properly supported by state funds. Therefore, applicants should first seek funding from primary funding sources.

SCAS grant funds may not be used for salaries, honoraria, travel normally funded by the university’s budget or scholarships for SUNY Cortland faculty, staff or students. Funds may not be used to purchase computers, related hardware or software. All purchases will be processed in accordance to SCAS’s financial and related GAAP policies. 

In general, program grant funds may not be used exclusively for food for SUNY Cortland students, faculty or staff. Funding for food may be considered if the food is deemed integral to the success of the program or event. All food shall be provided by SCAS. Other grant guidelines are described in the application package and online.

For more information or assistance, contact Judy Standish by email or at 607-753-4325.

The Human Resources Office has announced will recognize the university’s classified staff and Research Foundation employees who have met milestone years of service with SUNY Cortland. The 2021 Annual Service Awards Ceremony will not be held this year, but recognition will be given in the following ways: 

• The milestone awards.
• A certificate for “years of service.”
• Recognition in The Bulletin

Please congratulate our awardees, and thank them for their dedication and commitment to SUNY Cortland.

Since there will be no ceremony in person again this year, it has been decided that the President’s Award for Excellence in Classified Service will be postponed. 

2021 SERVICE AWARDS AWARDEES

40 YEARS

Mavis Lefever, Campus Activities and Corey Union

Sharon Tucker, Mathematics Department 

35 YEARS

Mary Cervoni, Student Registration and Record Services

Bonnie Eldred-Kress, Athletics Department 

Theresa Peebles, Student Conduct Office

30 YEARS

Brenda Hammond, University Police Department

Pamela Schroeder, Division of Academic Affairs

Cheryl St. Peter, Custodial Services

20 YEARS

Renato Brevetti, Maintenance

Timothy Gowe, Motor Pool

David Haggerty, Custodial Services

Chad Matijas, Maintenance

Richard Nauseef, Heating Plant

Connie Parmiter, School of Professional Studies

Gregory Peters, Custodial Services

Patricia Randolph, Field Experience and School Partnership Office

Rosemary Root, Custodial Services

Athena Vunk-Moynihan, Extended Learning Office

15 YEARS

Ronald Benda, Custodial Services

Daron Foster, Maintenance

Sandra Kline, Admissions Office

Michele Lella, School of Arts and Sciences

Edith Pennell, Division of Finance and Management

Donna Sickmon, Advancement Operations Services

Casey Ellsworth, Maintenance

Kelley Wooldridge, Child Care Center

10 YEARS

Julie Barden, School of Education

Christine Bartoszek, School of Professional Studies

Karen Crandall, Payroll Office

Susan Drake, Custodial Services

Stephanie Fritz, Child Care Center

Billie Furlong, Mail Services/Central Warehouse

Ronald Gray, Custodial Services

Mark Griswold, Custodial Services

Corey Harvey, Mail Services/Central Warehouse

James Kane, Maintenance

Andrew Keegan, Custodial Services

John Kocak, Heating Plant

James Lynch, Grounds

Michael Manos, Maintenance

Erik Merlin, University Police Department

Susan Root, Custodial Services

Dana Smith, Multicultural Life and Diversity Office

Amanda Wasson, University Police Department

Denise Wavle, Custodial Services

Amy Williams, Custodial Services

Campus Artist and Lecture Series (CALS) Lecture Grant applications are now available for the Spring 2022 semester. Applications are eligible for a maximum of $350 and are open to any club, program or department. These lecture grants will not cover performances of any kind. 

While CALS required that all guest speakers must present virtually for Fall 2021, it has revised its requirements for Spring 2022. Presenters can choose to have guest speakers present virtually or they can choose to have them present in-person as long as the following requirements are met:

1. Guest speakers must complete and submit the school’s Visitor Registration and Screening Form (located in the Visitors and Events section of the COVID-19 Safety Information website). The form must be submitted at least 48 hours prior to the day of the visit. The presenter would serve as the host.  
2. The presenter must complete, submit and have approved the school’s COVID related New Program/Event Form (located in the same place). This form must be submitted at least 10 days prior to the intended event.
3. Guest speakers must follow any and all COVID preventive measures that may be in place on the day(s) they come to campus.
   1. As of Dec. 3, 2021, this would include wearing a face covering inside any building regardless of vaccination status.

Applications must be received electronically by Tuesday, Feb. 1 to be considered for February, March, April and May 2022 lecture programs. Applications received after this date may not be eligible for any spring semester funds remaining.  

For more information visit the CALS website or contact either Sandra Wohlleber by email or at 607-753-5769 or Mavis LeFever by email or at 607-753-5574.