Campus Champion

Haley Yegidis, a senior health education major with a minor in psychology of individuals with disabilities, led the university’s Vigil for Peace on Oct. 11 in response to the escalating violence in Israel and Gaza. As president of SUNY Cortland Hillel, Haley loves being the leader of Cortland’s Jewish community. Hillel became important when she arrived as a freshman in 2020 and found a community that embraced traditions she grew up with. That connection has allowed her to excel academically and as a leader of other campus organizations that align with her future as a special education health teacher. 

SUNY Cortland has been recognized as a top school in the country for students with disabilities, ranking 42nd on a national list of disability-friendly colleges.  

Cortland was one of only three New York state institutions recognized by Intelligent.com, a website that analyzes data for potential college students. 

The website notes that up to 20 percent of undergrads in the United States report having a disability, but that support offered by schools can vary widely. Ranking data was based on specific initiatives and programs that support students with physical or learning disabilities, along with each schools’ cost, credits required to graduate, online and on-campus availability and accreditation status. 

Sue Sprague, director of Cortland’s Disability Resources Office, said her office’s goal is to make improvements in accessibility that are felt in day-to-day life at the university, including everything from campus housing and service animals to online learning and note-taking technology. 

“We want students with disabilities to have equal access to their education, programs and activities of choice and not experience discrimination on our campus,” Sprague said. “Our office staff want to make sure that students with disabilities feel part of the community at SUNY Cortland, welcomed with their differences, given respect and ability to have access to accommodations when needed.” 

Associate Professor Tim Davis of the Physical Education Department, and national chair of the Adapted Physical Education National Standards (APENS) Program, said Sprague and her office have made a giant difference at Cortland. 

“She’s (Sprague) truly been an amazing advocate for students with disabilities and amazing in giving them a voice,” Davis said. 

A big part of that is student outreach. Sprague’s office is inviting all staff, students and faculty to meetings scheduled for 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 28, and noon on Friday, Nov. 29, at Corey Union’s Fireplace Lounge. 

“We plan to hold a series of focus groups this year to provide an additional structure for eliciting information about how students and other community members perceive campus culture around disability, accessibility and interactions with our office,” said Assistant Director Katie McCulloch. 

The Disability Resources Office also plans to hire a new position to help neurodivergent students with executive functioning strategies — some of which are time management, focus and planning. According to Sprague, these are vital building blocks for decision-making and self-confidence. 

Emily Helft, assistant director of professional development with Landmark College Institute for Research and Training, is also scheduled to speak to faculty and staff about “The Hidden Connection: Linking Executive Function with Student Behavior and Success” on Tuesday, Jan. 16 and Wednesday, Jan. 17. 

Assistant Director Jeremy Zhe-Heimerman said this progress has come at a time when increased funding for students with disabilities across the SUNY system has been met with a substantial increase in students who use his office. 

“Accessibility and inclusion are the responsibility of the entire institution – not just our office,” Zhe-Heimerman said. “This ranking is a testament to the great work that folks are doing across campus. We hope our office is doing a good job of welcoming students with disabilities, ensuring they get equal access to SUNY Cortland, and educating the campus on disability and accessibility. But it takes a community of caring, like we have at SUNY Cortland, to create an accessible campus where students with disabilities feel a sense of belonging.”

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 Top photo: From left are Katie McCulloch, Sue Sprague and Jeremy Zhe-Heimerman of SUNY Cortland’s Disability Resources Office.

Sonny and Cher sang “I Got You Babe” to the top of the charts in the 1960s. Now, Ella Perez ’23 gets to be Babe — the 19-year-old version of a future superstar — in a life-changing chance to perform across the country in “The Cher Show.”

Perez will star in the national tour as “Babe Cher,” a character that represents the early career of the cultural icon, and one of three lead roles in the musical. Rehearsals began Oct. 23. 

“It's been amazing,” Perez said. “I have to say I was very intimidated by the schedule. It's an 8-hour day, six days a week, which is something I've never done before. But the energy in the room and the cast are great, and everyone is just so wonderful to be around and makes it as easy as it possibly could be.” 

The musical follows the world-famous music, television and movie star through six decades of her career and 35 hit songs. Debuting on Broadway in 2018, the new traveling production will visit more than 50 cities through next year.  

Perez won’t be the only Red Dragon audiences will see. Liz Davis ’20, a former musical theatre major, has been cast in a swing and understudy role. 

Most of the creative team are women which, Perez said, adds to a warm environment that helps with the challenge of beginning her professional career with a national lead role.  

“I get to walk around with pop star glitter and the most insane costumes ever. And I have two other incredible women learning the show with me. They’re so amazing and so supportive. It's very girl power, which I love.” 

Perez sent in her resume for the production before graduating last May, hearing back a month later. The auditions that followed were an exhaustive cycle of callbacks and tryouts that took Perez back and forth between New York City and her home in Merrick on Long Island.  

Among the most surreal moments, Perez said, was walking into a room of similar-looking actors with the same height and hair color who all wanted the same role of a young Cher. What followed was a grinding casting process designed to make actors prove themselves time and again. 

At one point, Perez was asked to return to New York to try a new song. Having already left the city for the day, she doubled back while still on the Long Island Railroad, using her time to memorize the music’s notes and words. 

“By the time I had gone back they'd seen all the girls in the morning, so it’s just me in the holding room with a bunch of guys,” Perez said. “I was the only girl that they asked to come back, at least that’s what I saw. That kind of made me think they were actually, really considering me for this.” 

In mid-August, she got the call from her agent she’d been waiting for. 

“I answer half asleep and she says ‘Hey, I have great news. You got Cher, you got, Babe.’ I shot up in bed and immediately started walking around my house, I was just doing laps around my house on the phone.” 

It was difficult to believe. 

“I was really banking on that part, but there was just no way that I was going to book a lead role in the national tour right out of school. I thought, ‘That doesn't happen to people. Let me be realistic with myself.’ I was expecting an understudy moment or a featured dancer moment. But I got the actual thing.  It was a crazy experience.” 

Perez said she looks up to Cher as a self-made star who, like her, began as a shy performer before gaining confidence. After starting rehearsals, she's gotten more comfortable with a routine unlike any she’s done before.  

“It's been the best week of my life so far,” she said.  

Perez first fell in love with theater after watching a revival of Anything Goes on Broadway as a kid.  

“I remember the dancing and music,” she said. “It's one of the classic Golden Age musical theater pieces that make you really feel something. You get so excited watching everyone up there having so much fun doing tap dancing with glittering costumes. I remember looking up at that stage and thinking I would do anything to be up there right now doing that, let alone that being my career.” 

Knowing what she wanted didn’t make it easy. At the start of her time at SUNY Cortland, Perez was hesitant, believing she had more talent as a dancer than a singer. The support she found in the Performing Arts Department, including Lecturer Lynn Craver, built new confidence.  

“I was asking, ‘Is this really what I want to do? Everyone around me is so talented and I'm so unsure of myself. I don't know if I'm going to survive.’ But throughout my years there I grew into myself. I had the most amazing voice teacher, Lynn, who has brought my voice to a point I never in a million years thought I could get to. I'm singing things and singing roles my freshman self would not believe.” 

Another help was the SUNY Cortland Showcase. Perez says the annual Performing Arts Department event helped her find an agent. Having that aid in handling the business side of show business let her focus solely on performing. 

Her favorite role as a Cortland student — the Emcee in “Cabaret” — was also her last. She credited Associate Professor Deena Conley, chair of the Performing Ars Department for casting her and directing the show. The demanding lead part was a satisfying acknowledgement of her change into a different level of performer. Now, much like one of Cher’s famous singles, Perez says you need to “Believe” to have a chance as a theater professional.  

“A lot of the time your inner dialogue is going to be your worst critic and your worst enemy,” she said. “You have to truly, genuinely believe in yourself and believe that this is something you could do. Walk into each audition like you have the part already, like you already know that this is something you could do. That's how you have to carry yourself, and it's really hard to do that. But it's an energy that you have to exude.” 

For tickets and more information, visit TheCherShowTour.com.

A dominant fall continues for SUNY Cortland’s athletics program as five squads earned their respective conference championships, including four teams on one day on Nov. 4.

The Red Dragon volleyball team is the most recent winner of a conference crown, capturing its third straight SUNYAC Championship with a sweep of New Paltz on Nov. 11. Now 25-3 on the season, the squad has earned an automatic berth to the NCAA Division III tournament.

The university’s football, field hockey and men’s and women’s soccer teams also captured conference titles, with football and men’s soccer still competing in the postseason.

Fall highlights include:

• The nationally sixth-ranked men’s soccer team has advanced to the “Sweet 16” — the NCAA Division III tournament third round — for the second season in a row. Cortland and Case Western Reserve played to a 1-1 tie through regulation and two overtime periods, and the Red Dragons prevailed following a penalty-kick shootout, 5-3, on Nov. 12. At 16-2-3, Cortland will face nationally third-ranked Middlebury this weekend at a time and location to be determined.

• The nationally 11th-ranked football team is off to the 32-team NCAA Division III playoffs after capturing back-to-back marquee wins. The Red Dragons defeated Brockport, 41-17, on Nov. 4 to earn the Empire 8 Championship for the third consecutive year and they earned a thrilling 38-28 victory over nationally-ranked Ithaca in the Cortaca Jug rivalry on Nov. 11. At 9-1, Cortland will travel to nationally 14th-ranked Endicott for a first-round game on Saturday, Nov. 18, at noon. 

• The nationally 13th-ranked field hockey team captured back-to-back SUNYAC championships when it knocked off New Paltz, 2-1, on Nov. 4. Cortland earned a 3-1 comeback win over Stevens Institute in the first round of the NCAA Division III playoffs before falling to nationally fifth-ranked Messiah in the second round on Nov. 11. The Red Dragons finished their season at 18-2 and tied for ninth nationally.

• The women’s soccer team breezed past Brockport, 3-0, to earn the SUNYAC Championship on Nov. 4. Cortland was knocked off by John Carroll in the first-round of the NCAA Division III tournament on Nov. 11, finishing the year at 11-3-5.

In addition to the five team titles, men’s cross country runners Hunter Brignall and Cameron Szabo as well as women’s cross country runner Alexa Wolcott earned all-region honors at the NCAA Division III Niagara Region Championships on Nov. 11 by virtue of their top-35 finishes. In finishing fourth in the region, Brignall also earned an individual spot to compete at the NCAA Division III Championships on Nov. 18.

Fans can follow the Red Dragons’ postseason play by checking SUNY Cortland’s Athletics website, where they’ll find game recaps, livestreams of home games and links to social media accounts.

The SUNY Cortland and Ithaca College football teams won’t meet for the 64th annual Cortaca Jug rivalry game until next Saturday, Nov. 11, but students can begin celebrating the legendary tradition Monday, Nov. 6, as a week of Cortaca-related activities and events kicks off.

The activities range from awareness-raising events aimed at celebrating Cortaca safely and responsibly to the annual Cortaca carnival in Corey Student Union and the traditional Cortaca-eve pep rally.

They’re all in addition to the football contest itself, in which SUNY Cortland’s Red Dragons seek to take back the legendary jug from the Ithaca Bombers at Ithaca’s Butterfield Stadium.

The many free events offering food and prize opportunities this week include:

• Cort-a-Cart | Monday, Nov. 6 | 2 p.m. | Student Life Center Multi-Activity Court | Experience the effects of high-risk drinking and drug use while navigating an obstacle course.
• Cortaca Must-Have Bingo | Monday, Nov. 6 | 7 p.m. | Corey Union Function Room | Prizes will include Cortaca Jug merchandise and groceries.
• Cortaca Karaoke Night | Tuesday, Nov. 7 | 7 p.m. | Corey Union First-Floor Lounge | Enjoy a food menu that includes buffalo mac and cheese and chicken wings.
• Party Smart Before Cortaca | Wednesday, Nov. 8 | Corey Union Function Room | Show your Red Dragon pride and make a custom jersey to wear to the game.
• Cortaca Carnival | Thursday, Nov. 9 | 6 p.m. | Corey Union Function Room | Enjoy inflatables, caricature artists and more.
• Cortaca Pep Rally | Friday, Nov. 10 | 7 p.m. | Corey Union steps (Rain location: Corey Union Function Room | Enjoy performances, raffles, food and more.
• City of Cortland Clean-up | Sunday, Nov. 12 | Noon | Meet at 42 Main Street | Help beautify the city of Cortland after the big game.

The SUNY Cortland Cupboard, which has been providing a safety net for university students for six years from The Interfaith Center on 7 Calvert Street, is moving to a new home in Old Main, Room B-05.

The change was made necessary by the future sale of the campus food pantry’s original home, the Interfaith Center building on the corner of Calvert and Prospect Terrace.

“Literally we can’t stay there anymore,” said Lauren Scagnelli ’12, M ’14, health educator in the university’s Health Promotion office and chair of the cupboard’s nine-member board of directors.

“We’re thankful that The Interfaith Center has hosted us since Nov. 6, 2017,” she said. “We haven’t paid them for any utilities or anything. We appreciate that The Interfaith Center partnered up with us to offer this service to our students.”

Students who need them can still get food and personal hygiene products for free through Wednesday of this week, Nov. 8, as the pantry will remain open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at its current location in The Interfaith Center basement.

The cupboard will then be closed on Thursday and Friday, Nov. 9 and 10, to allow for the move. The pantry will reopen on Monday, Nov. 13, at its new location in Old Main’s basement. It will have more limited hours at that location, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays through Friday, Dec. 13.

There are two routes to access the pantry. Using the entrance beside the Bowers Hall greenhouses and take the stairs down and through the double doors. Inside the vestibule, take the stairs on the left down. A more accessible path is to use the entrance by the parking lot loading dock and take the elevator to the left when you head in. Go to floor “B” for basement and upon exiting, turn right and head down the hall.

Students are welcome to stop by without an appointment. However, they won’t be able to swipe their student ID card to get into the pantry at its new location, Scagnelli said.

“At Old Main at first, we won’t have the hardware for the door meter,” Scagnelli said. “We don’t have a definite date yet for that to begin but we hope when the spring semester comes around students can do that.”

The ID card access feature originated during the COVID-19 pandemic to help keep people at a safe distance from one another. The remote setup, which allowed the pantry to remain open on an honor system without the need for staff, offered privacy and convenience that the board wants to continue.

A combination of board members and soon-to-be-recruited volunteers will keep the cupboard open during its new, 20-hours a week schedule  this semester.

“We’re hoping to eventually expand the hours to what the building open hours are,” she said. “We want to be able to staff it so that people who are student teaching or who had class all day could still come in later.”

Old Main offers the pantry triple the space it occupied at The Interfaith Center, with plenty of room for its more recent, monthly Filled Fridge Friday program. That gives students access to refrigerated food and perishables that would otherwise be wasted, donated by SUNY Cortland Auxiliary Services and, since last fall, the Seven Valleys Food Rescue.

Plus, there’s space to add a large freezer, so the cupboard can supply students with frozen food.

“We’re excited that this is going to be a so much bigger space,” Scagnelli said.

The new location’s footprint is so large that fully one-third of the space is expected to eventually accommodate a complementary student service, the Student Government Association’s donated career clothing closet, Dragons Dress for Success.

Facilities Operations and Services management and staff are playing a particularly supportive role in remodeling the new space in advance with fresh paint and newly installed shelving, she said.

“I think that I can speak for the board and say we’re really appreciate of everyone on campus that’s been supportive of this move,” Scagnelli said.

Use of the SUNY Cortland Cupboard has greatly increased, from 64 student visits in its first Spring 2018 to 565 visits last spring, Scagnelli said. Between the last two full academic years in particular, student use of the pantry exploded by 74 percent. The board does not know whether that data represents a few or many students using the pantry.

“Between 20 and 50 percent of students are facing food insecurity on college campuses,” Scagnelli said. “The range is broad because it depends on the different needs in certain communities.”

According to her, the SUNY Cortland Cupboard’s most recent program, Swipe Out Hunger, involves donations of campus meal credits by generous students and SUNY Cortland Auxiliary Services to those less fortunate. With a set allocation of those meal points added to their ID card per semester, students who request this option get a chance to eat an occasional, fresh-cooked meal on campus alongside classmates. Last spring, 559 such meals were eaten by 121 students.

“None of these things are meant to be the sole thing in keeping them fed but one of many ways,” Scagnelli said.

The board, in addition to Scagnelli and John Suarez, who directs the College’s Institute for Civic Engagement, includes Chief of University Police Mark Depaull; Michael Discenza, head golf coach and academic coordinator; Residence Hall Director Alyssa Estus in Cheney Hall; Alyssa Jenkins, area coordinator in the Residence Life and Housing Office; student board member Sasha Machmuller; Jason Page, assistant professor of recreation, parks and leisure studies; and Samantha Shaffer, assistant director of student conduct.

“All the board members are amazing, they are doing a great job, and also we have so many partnerships that help us,” she said.

Follow the Cortland Cupboard on Instagram.

The 1906 death of Grace Brown, made famous through her love letters and the fictional retelling in An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, is steeped in the history of Central New York.  

Now, Mark Reynolds, costume designer for SUNY Cortland’s Performing Arts Department, and Crystal Lyon ’09, a Cortland artist and university alum, found success with a new version of the tale at Dowd Fine Arts Center’s Lab Theatre.

“Love, Billy” was  performed to sold-out audiences from Thursday, Nov. 2 to Sunday, Nov. 5 as a workshop co-production between the university and Cortland Repertory Theatre. Billy was a nickname of Brown's, who liked to hum the song “(Won’t You Come Home) Bill Bailey.” Tickets are sold out for all performances.

"What a thrill it was to watch the actors play to sold out houses," Reynolds said. "Hearing the conversations in the hallway after each performance validated that this story is still relevant to a modern audience. It was an exciting and fulfilling weekend of performances."

Reynolds, who wrote his first-ever script for the show, came together with Lyon, owner of Living Illusion Studio at the Cortland Corset Building, out of a shared interest in the history of the murder of Brown by Chester Gillette, who lived in Cortland. The creative team first met through Cortland Repertory Theatre, where Reynolds is a board member and Lyon was the house manager. 

“It isn’t my writing, but my ability to help discover and give a voice to both Grace and Chester by returning their humanity within their letters,” Lyon said. “Seeing how Mark was able to then take my breakdown of the letters and direct the cast into speaking the written words in a way that we felt was how the words were meant to be delivered in spoken word is surreal and powerful.” 

Now, they've managed to put their own perspective on a story that's been told for more than a century in forms as varied as books, movies and an opera. 

“They don’t necessarily focus on who the humans were that this tragedy happened to,” Reynolds said. “So we decided, on a whim, that we would love to hear their letters out loud.” 

After moving to Cortland in 1905, the 19-year-old Brown met Chester Gillette, who had also moved to Cortland to work in his uncle’s factory. Falling for each other, Brown became pregnant at a time when the reputation of a woman would be ruined if she gave birth out of wedlock.  

As she reached out for help from Gillette, he became more distant — having met another woman. The relationship between the two would end in her death, as Brown was discovered drowned after a trip together to Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks.  

Gillette was found guilty of murder at trial and executed. Brown’s discovered letters were used as evidence for the defense and prosecution. 

Lyon and Reynolds took time to read the correspondence between Brown and Gillette and found their own story to tell, different from Dreiser and others. 

“By reading through these letters, we found there’s all sorts of myths and lore connected to what happens on Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks, and that seems to be what people remember,” Reynolds said. “But when you investigate and explore these letters deeply, you get to understand their relationship in a different way. And that’s truly what we are accomplishing with ‘Love, Billy.’” 

This production, as a workshop, helped Lyon and Reynolds fine tune their script. 

“We have been researching independently and comparing notes, asking challenging questions, and exploring the possibilities of what may or may not have happened between Grace and Chester to lead to her untimely death,” Lyon said. “The creative space is always respectful, and empathic, and most importantly, we both wanted to tell as true a story as possible and challenge what we believe we know through a modern lens.” 

The emotional issues involved, like young love and unexpected pregnancy, were relevant long before Brown’s death and remain so today. The student cast, Reynolds said, worked with the topics wonderfully.  

Six different actors, sophomore Emily Reilly, freshman Ann Marie Thorell, senior Shea McMahon, junior Olivia Goodman, sophomore Brianna Lockwood and sophomore Savina Jannetti performed as Grace Brown in parts of the play, while senior Andrew Barrett was cast as Chester Gillette. 

“The actresses playing Grace really opened their hearts up to her story and found relevance in what Grace says to their own lives,” Reynolds said. “It’s so incredible to watch young actors connect to their material in such a way. The actor playing Chester Gillette is so specific about his research and his feelings. He’s fascinating to watch. So, their connection to the story has been beautiful to see.”

From celebrity portraits made from recycled trash to ransom notes crafted with cut-out magazine letters, the art of collage — assembling different individual items to create a new whole with its own unique identity — has long been a part of modern culture.

Artists Maximo Tuja, who also goes by the name Max-o-matic, and Dominick Lombardi, have curated a visual exploration of more than 70 contemporary pieces of this increasingly present art form that will be exhibited in SUNY Cortland’s Dowd Gallery starting on Monday, Oct. 30.

Titled “Altered Logistics: Contemporary Collage and Appropriation Art,” the exhibition will be on view through Friday, Dec. 8, featuring multi-national artists from creative techniques including sculpture, mixed media and digital collage.

An opening reception and exhibition tour will be held in the gallery from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 2. Refreshments will be served. The event will host some of the local artists participating in the exhibition. An artist’s walkthrough will start at 5 p.m.

The exhibition is free and open to the public, as are the opening reception and all exhibition-related events.

Lombardi is a New York resident, artist, author and curator whose solo work comprised Dowd Gallery’s 2019 “High + Low: A Forty-five Year Retrospective” exhibition. For this latest project, he collaborated with Tuja, a Barcelona-based artist and image maker.  

“Altered Logistics” explores how the technique of collage has been used in visual art and how it has evolved to become common in the narrative reality of contemporary society.

“As I understand it, collage is already much more than an artistic technique,” Tuja states in Lombardo’s recent essay “Art of Collage,” published at Culturecatch.com.

“In our present society, collage has long been embraced as a means of engaging with reality,” Tuja continues. “From memes and social media feeds to music production, fashion and even our own identities — which often comprise a blend of diverse elements drawn from various contexts — the collage mindset subtly permeates our lives.”

Visit the Dowd Gallery website and social media for detailed information about yet-to-be-scheduled programs and events linked to “Altered Logistics.” They will include:

• Panel discussion. The event will focus on “Contemporary Collage.”
• Online discussion. Participants will meet on Webex to share their thoughts on the way collage has evolved in creative method.
• Contemporary collage workshop.

The gallery is in the Dowd Fine Arts Center on the corner of Prospect Terrace and Graham Avenue in Cortland. 

Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday with extended hours for programming until 7 p.m. on Thursdays. Visit the Dowd Gallery website for details about exhibiting artists, upcoming events or gallery availability. For more information, contact gallery assistant to the director Scott Oldfield ’06 at 607-753-4216.

“Altered Logistics” is supported by the Art and Art History Department.

TOP IMAGE: Canadian artist Kevin Mutch’s 2023 digital collage color print is titled “The Artist’s Brain Paints a Picture.”

SUNY Cortland will host the university’s annual Veterans Day Ceremony on Monday, Nov. 13, at 3 p.m. in Old Main Brown Auditorium.

The event is open to the public. The Human Resources Office supports release time for employees to attend the ceremony without charge of accruals, and parking will be available in the Miller Building lower-level parking lots. 

Monday’s program will feature a slideshow tribute to local veterans, remarks from campus leaders and a reception after the ceremony in the Dorothea Kreig Allen Fowler ’52, M ’74 Grand Entrance Hall. Veterans Day falls on a Saturday in 2023, with classes in session at SUNY Cortland on Monday.

Campus community members are encouraged to submit the name and photo of a veteran who they want to see featured in the event slideshow through Thursday, Nov. 9. Submissions can include the friends or family members of campus community members or the larger Cortland community as well as SUNY Cortland students, employees or alumni.

Contact the university’s Campus Event Management Office at events@cortland.edu or 607-753-5453 with questions.