Campus Champion

Teaching means giving your all for your students each day. But even among teachers, senior Ariana Silverman proved herself a Campus Champion when she saved a student’s life. Ariana was a student teacher at Oak Park Elementary School in Brentwood, N.Y., when a choking child in the cafeteria led her to perform CPR, dislodging the food from their throat. Having previously been CPR certified, she was ready to act when needed. Ariana says she wants to become a teacher because she believes every child deserves to feel loved, safe and seen in the classroom. She’s well on her way. 

SUNY Cortland is one of the nation’s highest-value universities, offering an affordable education that leads to good-paying careers, according to the latest rankings from the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 

The university was one of 479 schools across the country — about 16% of the total schools ranked — named Opportunity Colleges and Universities. The designation also marks Cortland as a Higher Access, Higher Earnings institution that can serve as a model for fostering student success.

“The majority of students apply to college with the hope it is a path to opportunity, and the job they’ve dreamt about,” said Timothy F.C. Knowles, president of the Carnegie Foundation. “This work is about ensuring that institutions are recognized when they empower students to reach their goals and succeed.” 

Median earnings data eight years after entry to Cortland for undergraduates who received federal financial aid was calculated at $56,579, compared to a national average of $34,410. About 21% of those Cortland students were from underrepresented groups. 

Cortland has also gained recent recognition by U.S. News, placing No. 17 in their Top Public University in the North ranking for 2025, and by College Factual, which included the university in its 2025 list of the top 10% of the nation’s best colleges. 

“Being named a university of opportunity is one of the best ways to describe SUNY Cortland,” said President Erik J. Bitterbaum. “For more than 150 years, our campus has helped graduates reach their greatest potential and make a difference in their chosen professions. Access, affordability and excellence have long been institutional hallmarks, and they continue to define the educational experience that students discover at SUNY Cortland.” 

The Carnegie Classification framework was created in 1973 to support research and policy analysis within higher education. The most recent version of the system measures schools in ways that include their size, the types of degrees they award and the fields of study in which students receive their degrees. 

Data collected by ACE and the Carnegie Foundation included statistics from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard and the U.S. Census Bureau.  

Institutions are measured on student access, defined by the number of Pell Grant recipients and students from underrepresented backgrounds, as well as on students’ post-attendance earnings eight years after enrollment. 

Two SUNY Cortland professors will join the State University of New York’s Distinguished Faculty, earning promotion to the system’s highest academic rank following their recent approval by the State University Board of Trustees.

The distinguished rank recognizes full professors who have demonstrated careers of excellence in research and scholarship, service and teaching.

The university’s honored faculty for 2025 are: 

• Distinguished Teaching Professor Caroline Kaltefleiter of the Communication and Media Studies Department.

• Distinguished Professor Mechthild Nagel of the Philosophy Department.

They are among 40 Cortland faculty members — current and retired — who have been named to the SUNY Distinguished Academy, which aims to promote academic excellence by highlighting the skills, expertise and talents of high-achieving faculty.

Caroline Kaltefleiter

For more than 23 years, Kaltefleiter has inspired SUNY Cortland students to become talented communications and media professionals while motivating them to make a difference in their communities through hands-on work. She is highly regarded on campus for her creative and memorable teaching methods that speak to student interests.  

“Dr. Kaltefleiter’s impact is seen and felt in unique ways,” wrote President Erik J. Bitterbaum. “These include transformative projects promoting community activism, countless hours mentoring students associated with our campus radio station and the successful careers of graduates reflecting values she embodies — communication, critical thinking and empathy among them.”  

Kaltefleiter joined the university’s Communication and Media Studies Department in 2001 as department chair and an associate professor, earning a promotion to full professor in 2011. She also served as program coordinator for the Women’s Studies and Gender Studies Program from 2004 to 2014. Kaltefleiter taught previously at Morningside University in Sioux City, lowa, where she served as department chair and associate professor. 

She holds an A.B.J. in broadcast journalism from the University of Georgia, an M.A. in mass communication from Miami University and a Ph.D. in journalism and mass communication from the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University.  

Kaltefleiter’s doctoral work and subsequent scholarship have addressed communication outreach within the Riot Grrrl network, a revolutionary musical, feminist, political and social justice movement that started in the 1990s. That research on alternative media in women’s and gender studies has also spurred student work grounded in advocacy and community engagement — creating a bridge between her scholarship and teaching. 

Kaltefleiter has made significant contributions to the field of girls’ studies, evidenced by her leadership of an international conference in 2010, “Reimagining Girlhood: Communities, Identities, Self-Portrayals,” which drew more than 150 participants from across the globe. “At that time, Dr. Kaltefleiter envisioned what could be achieved by bringing together a diverse and interdisciplinary group of scholars from around the world,” wrote Sharon Mazzarella, professor of communication studies at James Madison University, referring to the event as “instrumental to the overall ‘coalescing’ of the field.” 

Kaltefleiter’s publication titles underscore this career-long scholarship, and they include her 2024 book chapter, “(Re)Visiting a Girl Revolution: Riot Grrrl Zines, Liminality and Anarcha-Feminism” in The Routledge Companion to Girls’ Studies, which examines communication within the underground feminist punk scene including zines, independent record labels and radio stations used by members of the movement. In the past five years alsone, she has contributed to two edited anthologies, published five refereed book chapters, served as a book series editor and joined editorial boards for two journals. 

Her scholarship also has been shared through invited addresses and presentations in 10 countries including Denmark, Hungary and the United Kingdom. Students also have co-authored publications and conference papers. In 2019, Kaltefleiter and Karmelisha Alexander ’18 contributed the book chapter “Self Care and Community: Black Girls Saving Themselves” to Black Girls and Black Girlhood. 

Letters of support from former students and faculty colleagues address the student action projects that make Kaltefleiter’s lessons meaningful. These learning experiences take place through high-impact media campaigns and initiatives, including a multiyear effort from 2012 to 2016 that helped secure more than $1.2 million to help save the Wickwire Pool in the city of Cortland for community children and families. Other efforts have helped community members overcome challenges related to food insecurity and transportation while instilling a sense of civic and social responsibility in students.  

Since 2013, Kaltefleiter has served as executive director and faculty advisor for WSUC-FM, SUNY Cortland’s National Public Radio affiliate, where she helps equip students with communication and critical analysis skills that are valuable in any career. A media scholar and former broadcast journalist, she also has established “The Digital Divide,” an hourlong, student-produced broadcast that examines current topics in media and digital culture.   

In 2023, Kaltefleiter was named a champion fellow by the University of Vermont’s Center for Community News, which has inspired podcasting projects to help students understand the importance of local reporting. This experience has proven student-centered and valuable to the larger community.  

Kaltefleiter also earned SUNY Cortland’s Faculty Connection Award in 2008, the Stephen J. Barnes Outstanding Faculty Member Award in 2010 and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2017.  

“As a teacher-scholar, Dr. Kaltefleiter’s interdisciplinary approach goes beyond communication and media to history, gender and women’s studies,” Bitterbaum wrote. “Her assignments and course structures frequently respond to lived experiences of the moment, from social justice-related topics to the limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic. And perhaps most importantly, her work spurs excellence in others.” 

Mechthild Nagel 

Throughout her 26-year career at SUNY Cortland, Nagel has earned a reputation as a respected scholar in the field of philosophy, more specifically in the aesthetics of play and the areas of feminist theory, Africana studies and critical prison studies. Colleagues praise her interdisciplinary sophistication, social consciousness and international appeal. 

She holds a B.A. in philosophy, Chinese and Latin from Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, in Freiburg, Germany, an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She was named an assistant professor in 1999, earning promotions to associate professor in 2002 and full professor in 2006, while also making significant contributions to the university’s Africana Studies Department for many years. 

Her scholarly output covers nearly 70 refereed journal articles and book chapters, 21 book reviews, six encyclopedic entries and 10 books in total, including seven anthologies and three monographs. She also founded and serves as editor-in-chief for Wagadu, an open-access journal on women’s and gender studies that has published 24 volumes since 2004. 

She also is the sole author responsible for making updates to “Feminist Perspectives on Class and Work” in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy as well as a reviewer for 29 journals and 14 academic presses and a constant source of expertise when it comes to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion across the state, the nation and the globe. Nagel also has contributed to the planning and organization of 13 conferences across the world, including multiple statewide diversity conferences and others dedicated to the philosophy of play in Spain and Czech Republic. 

Her 2023 monograph, Ludic Ubuntu Ethics: Decolonizing Justice, was nominated for the 2024 North American Society for Social Philosophy Book Award. In 2024, she co-authored Reframing Diversity and Inclusive Leadership: Race, Gender and Institutional Change, a text that strives to address challenges related to racism and sexism on college campuses as well as the crucial role that educational leaders can assume in advancing social justice. This monograph also was a finalist for the 2024 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award in its education category. 

“Dr. Nagel is well-suited to lead conversations on inclusive leadership because she possesses a unique cross-cultural perspective,” wrote Bitterbaum. “While topics such as critical race theory and Black feminism have received significant mainstream attention in recent years, Dr. Nagel has studied them for decades in the U.S. and abroad.” 

For many years, Nagel’s scholarship has explored the potential of “Ubuntu,” the Zulu word that describes a vision of shared humanity. She coined the term ludic Ubuntu ethics, which examines justice and provides an alternative to a popular duty-based approach in philosophy by drawing on African and Indigenous peace-building philosophies. The ability to combine interests in prison studies and the aesthetics of play made Nagel the first social philosopher to explore these areas together. 

Suad Joseph ’66, a distinguished research professor of anthropology at the University of California, Davis, refers to Nagel as “a world leader at the intersection of philosophy and criminal justice” and a scholar whose work appeals not only to philosophers but Africanists, anthropologists and critical criminologists. International colleagues point to her groundbreaking and engaged work on the prison industrial complex, and they commend her willingness to study criminal justice through face-to-face interaction with those who have been imprisoned.  

Nagel has delivered 38 invited talks and 11 keynotes across 16 countries while earning three international fellowships throughout her career: as a German Academic Exchange Service visiting professor at Hochschule Fulda; a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen, Germany; and a research fellow in the Continental Philosophy Department at Czech Academy of the Sciences in Prague. 

Her individual honors include the Transformative Justice Scholar-Activist of the Year Award from the Save the Kids Organization in 2022 and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activities in 2016. Institutional recognition for her scholarship includes the 2003 Excellence in Research and Scholarship Award; 2009 Outstanding Achievement in Research Award; 2012 Excellence in Research, Scholarship and Outreach Award; and the 2022 Dr. Peter A. DiNardo ’68 and Judith Waring Outstanding Achievement in Research Award. 

A business startup created by SUNY Cortland students to help college athletes secure money-making opportunities, placed among the elite at this year's New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC). 

One of six teams to make the final round, Michael Echevarria, Kyle Germain and Chris Judge's business plan for NIL Finder took first in their category of Learn, Work, Live, and won $10,000, before coming up just short against the overall $25,000 winner from Columbia University. 

Cortland’s trio of student entrepreneurs was the only team from a comprehensive SUNY school to make its way through regional competitions to last week’s state finals at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., where they went against other business concepts from Columbia, Clarkson University, Cornell University, Skidmore College and Binghamton University, one of SUNY’s four big research universities.  

The idea behind NIL Finder is to provide the services of a manager, agent and advisor to more easily secure name, image and likeness (NIL) deals for collegiate athletes while boosting their profiles on social media.  

"(NIL Finder) worked hard to create an exciting start-up business in the area of collegiate athletics, focusing on the Name, Image, and Likeness deal space,” said James Wilson, a lecturer in the Economics Department who worked with the students behind mentored NIL Finder and other startup projects in his entrepreneurship  class this semester. 

Name, image, likeness has become a significant term in college sports, as students have recently been allowed to profit from deals that use their high profiles commercially. 

The pitches student teams made to the judges included business rationale, market opportunity and financial considerations. 

“This has been a great experience for all involved and evidence that great things are happening in entrepreneurship study at SUNY Cortland,”  Wilson said. 

He noted that the competition began with 370 teams at the regional level and said that the experience gained through participating in the contest was valuable for Echevarria, Germain and Judge. 

“The team was also able to network with venture capital investors and other teams at the competition, landing several important contacts and an invitation to attend an exclusive Entrepreneurship Bootcamp sponsored by NYSTAR in May.”  

The New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation (NSTAR) is a state agency that supports economic development through innovation, research and technology. 

NIL Finder hopes to begin full business operations this summer. 

Less is more, especially when it comes to packing up and moving at the end of the semester. But what about all that unwanted stuff?  

Well, one Red Dragon’s trash is another Red Dragon’s treasure.  

Starting on May 5, SUNY Cortland’s Sustainability Office will once again partner with the community nonprofit Cortland Reuse to encourage students to donate their leftover things to be used by others and kept out of Cortland’s landfill. 

The three-year partnership will also be doing more to help next semester’s incoming students become the new owners of some of these cast offs.  

During move-in weekend, Aug. 21-23, students will be able to shop at a low-price Cortland ReUse pop-up in the Student Life Center, Room 1104.  

“Many of the donated items are specific to college life,” said Matt Brubaker, campus energy manager and co-creator of the partnership with Beth Klein, SUNY distinguished service professor of science education and the university’s sustainability coordinator.  

“It only makes sense for these items to go back to Red Dragons instead of students buying all new items, introducing them into the supply chain.”  

More details about the time of this event will be shared closer to move-in weekend.  

The campus pop-up is just one of the new partnership initiatives aimed at encouraging students to move in and move out of their housing in a more sustainable way: 

• Starting May 5th donation totes and bins will once again appear in each campus residence hall. But these totes won’t look like the containers from previous move-outs. There will also be bins available to donate un-opened and nonperishable food to benefit the Cortland Cupboard, giving departing students another opportunity to help out their fellow Red Dragons. 

 “In a true spirit of reuse, we built a new set of collection bins out of old doors and other items donated,” said Carrie Narrow, executive director of Cortland ReUse. “We are really excited to have these in the Residence Halls to show students there is no limit to the power and creativity when giving an item a second life.” 

• Starting May 12, a new donation collection area will be set up in the lobby of the Student Life Center will be available to off-campus students, encouraging them to join on-campus residents to move out more sustainably.  

“We’re all familiar with trying to manage busy schedules at the end of the semester,” said Megan Swing, Cortland's energy and sustainability engagement coordinator. “So, we are hoping to make donating a little bit easier by having a collection tote in a frequently visited spot on campus.” 

• A new graduation gown donation program will allow graduating seniors to help support future graduating Red Dragons. After commencement, there will be donation bins by the east-facing exit of Park Center and by the tennis courts for newly minted alumni to donate their gowns to the Cortland Cupboard if they’d like.  

Those who aren’t quite ready to part with their gown right after the ceremony, can mail their gowns to Megan Swing at Facilities Management, SUNY Cortland, P.O. Box 2000, Cortland, NY 13045.  

”An alum reached out who had benefited from the Cupboard in the past and wanted to give back,” said Lauren Scagnelli, health and wellness program coordinator and chair of the Cortland Cupboard, “They wanted to donate their cap and gown to a student in need. It was so thoughtful and sparked further conversation around sustainability.” 

 Swing shares her excitement for this addition to Cortland’s end-of-the-year reuse initiatives,  

“To me it seemed like a win-win,” she said. “We get to help Red Dragons as they are transitioning from students to alumni and extend the life of the gown.” 

Almost all items that students may leave behind when the school year ends are welcome, even if they don’t fit into Cortland Reuse’s normal operations, including:  

• Unopened nonperishable food. ReUse uses the food to first help restock the SUNY Cortland Cupboard food pantry, then gives the remainder to Seven Valleys Food Rescue and Cortland County Mutual Aid. Students should not include any perishable items in the donations.   

• Clothing, linen and textiles. Some clothes may be sold at ReUse, with the rest given to Thrifty Shopper and other groups that serve the local homeless population. Bedding and pillows go to Mutual Aid.  

• Foam bed toppers. This item is a uniquely common one at SUNY Cortland compared to other places ReUse collects from, 

Karen Diescher M ’07 is the new director of the SUNY Cortland Child Care Center, a campus institution that is a source of child care for the community and hands-on learning for Cortland’s students.  

A longtime center employee who has been recognized for her achievements as an educator, Diescher said she’s looking forward to heading the licensed, accredited nonprofit. 

“I chose to pursue the director position because I am proud of the high-quality care that the center provides the campus,” Diescher said. “I want to continue to help the center grow and be a vital part of our community.” 

Diescher’s work at the center began in 2005. She was the teacher in the three-year preschool classroom until January 2024 when she became interim director. She was selected as the permanent director this March after a full search process. 

Diescher previously worked as a substitute teacher after getting a degree in elementary education from SUNY Oswego and a graduate degree in literacy from Cortland. Diescher also uses her decades of experience to be an adjunct instructor at Cortland, teaching early childhood education courses. 

During her career, Diescher twice won the national Terri Lynne Lokoff Child Care Teacher of the Year Award, made to celebrate the achievements of exceptional child care professionals and bring attention to the role these teachers play in the lives of their students. 

“I love watching the children grow and develop skills and I enjoy supporting families navigate the challenges of parenting,” she said. " I have a passion for spreading the word about the importance of quality child care and the value of early education.” 

The SUNY Cortland Child Care Center began in 1993, with a professional staff that collaborates with the university’s Childhood/Early Childhood Education Department, giving students a chance to gain field experience in their future career. It serves students and staff of the university, state employees, alumni and members of the wider Cortland area. 

SUNY Cortland, itself with a long history as a teachers’ school, has the largest comprehensive teacher education program in New York state, and the tenth biggest among public institutions in the United States. 

According to Kate McCormick, chair of the center and associate professor of early childhood education, the search committee was impressed with Diescher’s education background, history as an early childhood educator, and her understanding of child care regulations and policies that create the best care and education environments for children. 

In her new role Diescher said she wants the Center to continue to be a place relied on for exceptional child care, while giving students hands-on experiences in early education and supporting staff in their growth. 

“I do not have plans to make any policy changes, but I do want to ensure that the policies that we have in place align with a play-based learning philosophy that the center is known for.” 

It’s a method, built from activities made with the children’s own interests in mind, that is the most effective way for them to learn, according to Diescher. And she’s seen it scale well to the older students who work at the center. 

“I actually do think that our little students and our big students learn in similar ways,” Diescher said. “I see the excitement in the college students when they are in the classroom, learning through real experiences.” 

It was an experiment. When SUNY Cortland junior biochemistry major Bradley Blake mixed the sciences with social networking, he set off a chain reaction that bound together about 20 future Red Dragon scientists into a new chapter of a national organization for Black chemists and chemical engineers.

His solid academic credentials — a 3.5 grade point average — and buoyant personality made him the perfect inaugural president of the Cortland chapter of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE), which launched about a year ago with 12 original members. Today, 10 of the members are recognized by the national organization.

“I like hanging with my friends,” said Blake, whose cheerful message to classmates about science research is “Just try it, the water will be fine.”

“It’s an outreach club so our main goal is outreach, which we haven’t done as yet,” Blake said. “Next semester we plan on traveling to different inner city schools and spreading the joy of chemistry while representing Cortland.”

Outside the classroom, laboratory and his busy campus life, Blake enjoys running a group that encourages students of color and friends to test their comfort level in the challenging world of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

“It has helped me in many ways, the first being responsibility and time management,” Blake said of his role as NOBCChE Cortland chapter president.

Blake, who is underwriting his own education, also has served as a Dragon Hall resident assistant, a peer tutor with Cortland’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) and a Corey Union summer conference assistant.

“I’ve struggled with taking on more than I can bear at times,” Blake said. “Being in a presidential role has allowed me to gain experience in planning and overall leadership.”

Since the northeast chapter inception, Cortland members have attended two conferences, last fall in Orlando, Florida, and this past April in College Park, Maryland. There, they mingled with peers and Black luminaries in chemistry and presented posters explaining their research.

“Bradley is very ambitious and industrious,” said NOBCChE faculty advisor Julius Green, a SUNY Cortland assistant professor of organic chemistry. Blake was Green’s research assistant in summer 2024 and through the 2024-25 academic year.

“He’s very quick at grasping difficult concepts and mastering some hard techniques,” Green said. “I’ll use the word ‘hard worker’ because he can get work done in one sitting that typically would take an undergraduate a week to do.”

Blake currently is training to manage Green’s two other student lab assistants this coming summer and next academic year.

“I think I’ve been doing chemistry for so long now that I understand what the expectations are as a lab manager,” Blake said. “But Dr. Green will be tying up the loose ends, giving me the full gist of the lab manager role.”

Blake was born on the Caribbean Island nation of Jamaica. When he was 11 he immigrated to the New York City neighborhood by that name and now lives in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., having become a U.S. citizen last year.

“My love for chemistry came from my mother, who told me I was going to become a doctor,” Blake said.

“I’ve been working since I was 14,” Blake said, describing various service industry after school jobs. “In high school, I used to go to class from 7 to 2. Then my shift at work started from 2:30 to 10 p.m. and I did that five times a week.

“Because I migrated from a different country, I didn’t really have a plan for what high school or what college I wanted to go to,” he said.

Blake nevertheless arrived at SUNY Cortland having passed nine high school Advanced Placement courses, mostly in STEM fields or scientific writing.

As a sophomore, Blake conducted summer microbiology research with Christa Chatfield, professor of biological sciences.

“Bradley did research with me as an LSAMP summer fellow in 2023 and for research credit in 2023 before switching his research interest to chemistry — where he found his real intellectual joy,” Chatfield said of Blake’s participation in the Cortland chapter of the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program.

“He is really dedicated to discovery and was very excited to share his research at a conference,” Chatfield said of Blake’s first STEM foray to the annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists, a mixture of professional development and scientific presentations occurring in Phoenix, Arizona.

Blake’s enthusiasm was contagious.

“He walked around repeating the names of all the chemicals over and over all week before his poster presentation,” Chatfield said. “I think we all could recite them by the end of the trip.”

“I found that it was what I loved,” said Blake, whose research work involves examining potential DNA-binding compounds in Green’s lab.

“Right now, he’s been doing pure chemistry,” Green said of Blake. “I’ve had him do a little bit of synthesis but mostly I’ve had him focus on what’s called UV-visible and fluorescent spectroscopy. It gives you information about the electronic structure of the compounds that we are synthesizing.”

For his upcoming eight weeks of full-time summer research in Green’s lab, Blake will be supported by the Zipp Summer Research Fellowship.

While at Cortland, Blake’s full-time summer laboratory work and conference experiences also were underwritten by the Undergraduate Research Council, the Chemistry Department, the Cortland College Foundation, the Cortland chapter of LSAMP, local fellowships and external grants including the National Science Foundation and Organic Syntheses.

In his short academic career, Blake has presented seven research posters and delivered one professional presentation, most recently presenting a poster of his research during Transformations 2025. He said seeing his name included in a published research paper would really synthesize his academic experience.

“I think I aspire to innovate,” Blake said. “I want to make my mark in chemistry or biology in some way, any way that I can. … I don’t aspire to gain anything, but more so like to give something.”

“I do think this club would help advance our members’ careers in science,” he said. “It leans in on a very nonscientific aspect of the profession which is networking and communication. We’re teaching skills you can’t get from a textbook, which are vital.”

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SUNY Cortland’s seniors and graduate students will advance to the next stage in their lives during Commencement weekend, Friday, May 16, and Saturday, May 17, in Park Center Alumni Arena.

The university’s graduate Commencement ceremony will take place on Friday. Three undergraduate Commencement ceremonies will be held on Saturday.

The undergraduate ceremonies will begin at 9:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday. The graduate ceremony starts at 7 p.m. on Friday. A reception immediately following the graduate ceremony will take place in Park Center Corey Gymnasium.

A total of 1,555 seniors applied to graduate during the 2024-25 academic year and most of them plan to don cap and gown to receive bachelor’s degrees during the three undergraduate ceremonies. More than 5,000 of their guests are anticipated.

The university also will award 336 master’s degrees and 40 Certificates of Advanced Study, with many planning to attend the ceremony with their guests.

“Commencement is always a time of great joy at SUNY Cortland, especially for our graduates and their families,” said President Erik J. Bitterbaum. “It marks the culmination of years of dedication, perseverance and sacrifice. These ceremonies are not only a celebration of academic achievement but also a gateway to the exciting opportunities that lie ahead.”

This year, the 10 most popular majors at SUNY Cortland are:

• physical education (210)
• early childhood and childhood education (161)
• business economics (134)
• exercise science (127)
• psychology (121)
• sport management (108)
• inclusive childhood education (76)
• communication studies (67)
• criminology (62)
• speech and hearing science (53)

This year’s undergraduate Commencement speakers are Girish Bhat, a professor in SUNY Cortland’s History Department honored in 2010 with a SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching; Diane L. Gill ’70, a widely respected scholar on social psychology and physical activity and recipient of this year’s SUNY honorary doctor of humane letters; and Beth Klein, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor and professor in SUNY Cortland’s Childhood/Early Childhood Education Department.

Bhat, the coordinator of the Honors Program from 1995 to 1999, will present at 9:30 a.m. during the first ceremony. A specialist in Russian history, his course topics span law, the history of women in Europe and the Silk Road. He has advanced Cortland’s study abroad efforts, particularly in Southern India, and helped establish the continuing exchange partnership with St. Aloysius (Deemed to be University) in Mangalore.

Gill, whose teaching and scholarship has helped the world better understand the connection between physical and mental health, will speak at the 2:30 p.m. ceremony. A kinesiology professor at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Gill’s textbook, Psychological Dynamics of Sport and Exercise, was lauded as fundamental within sport and exercise psychology. She has led the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity.

Klein, who received a 2016 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service, will speak at the 7 p.m. ceremony. As campus sustainability coordinator, her advocacy helped the university earn silver honors from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) in 2025. Klein provides her teacher candidates with nature-based learning opportunities as they prepare to teach their own outdoor classrooms.

Sigal Keren ’23, M ’25 of Staten Island, N.Y., who graduates in May with a Master of Science in Communication Disorders and Sciences, will deliver the Graduate Commencement speech.

The president of the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association during the 2022-23 academic year, Keren has a 3.93 grade point average. She served as her department’s student facilitator for the Cortland Experience (COR101), a first-year seminar designed to aid new students. Sophia’s Garden, an institute located in the Center for Ethics, Peace, and Social Justice (CEPS), presented her with a teaching assistant award of excellence. Keren has worked part-time as a graduate assistant and as a student technology assistant. After graduation, she departs for Aventura, Fla., where she will work for a private practice serving a wide range of speech and language disorders. In the future, Keren hopes to specialize in the areas of augmentative and alternative communication and autism.

SUNY Cortland has graduated more than 90,000 students, and this year’s class will join the ranks of alumni who reside in all 50 states and nearly 60 other countries. Flossie Bell Lomax ’86, M ’90, C.A.S. ’96, Ed.D., president of the SUNY Cortland Alumni Association, will address the university’s newest alumni after all Commencement ceremonies.

Details on all 2025 Commencement ceremonies, including links to live video streams of the events, are available on SUNY Cortland’s Commencement website.

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Five non-traditional/adult students at SUNY Cortland have been elected to membership in Alpha Sigma Lambda, an international honor society honoring the academic achievement of undergraduate students over the age of 24.  

The SUNY Cortland chapter, Lambda Omicron, has elected members to the honor society. The induction ceremony, which celebrated its 26th year at SUNY Cortland, was held Tuesday, April 22, in the Park Center Hall of Fame Room. SUNY Cortland has inducted 718student members over the past 25 years.

Alpha Sigma Lambda national standards indicate that students elected to membership are in the top 20% of all students at SUNY Cortland age 24 or older who have completed 24 credits of work at SUNY Cortland with a grade point average of 3.2 or better. For the inductees to be in the top 20% of students at SUNY Cortland this year, they needed to have a minimum grade point average of 3.86 or higher.  

Evan Mills, chapter councilor and academic success advisor for non-traditional student support, hosted the induction ceremony. SUNY Cortland President Erik J. Bitterbaum welcomed the students. Professor Raymond Collings, Psychology, was the faculty guest speaker. Aformer non-traditional student, he also is an honorary member of Alpha Sigma Lambda, Lambda Omicron. Collings welcomed the candidates and spoke about the valuable insights and perspectives non-traditional students bring to each of their classrooms.

Students who have been elected to membership in 2025 are:

Florencia Loda

Anjuli Latchmansingh

Sierra Brown

Matthew Torto

Mya Parker

Additionally Judy Stoddard ’24, M ’10, a senior academic counselor in the Educational Opportunity Program, also was recognized as a new member, having been unable to attend the 2024 Lambda Omicron induction ceremony.

For more information about Alpha Sigma Lambda, visit www.alphasigmlambda.org.