Campus Champion

Hugh Anderson M ’17, assistant director of study abroad, has been instrumental in advising and supporting students who pursue opportunities around the world. Hugh’s own love of travel started at a young age, having dual citizenship with the United Kingdom through a father from Northern Ireland. This background inspired him to join the International Programs Office in 2011, starting his current position in 2023. Study abroad participation at SUNY Cortland has increased by 13% since last academic year, due in large part to Hugh’s work leading information sessions, reviewing academic plans and helping students select programs for academic and personal fit.  

The political satire of “The Taming” explores light-hearted conflict and the U.S. Constitution through the lens of a beauty pageant when it opens the 2025-26 season for SUNY Cortland’s Performing Arts Department. 

Performances take place at the Dowd Fine Arts Lab Theatre, and tickets for all four shows are sold out. 

• Thursday, Sept. 25 — 7:30 p.m. 
• Friday, Sept. 26 — 7:30 p.m. 
• Saturday, Sept. 27 — 7:30 p.m.
• Sunday, Sept. 28 — 2 p.m.

Written by playwright Lauren Gunderson and directed by Deena Conley, SUNY Cortland associate professor and chair of performing arts, the plot of the two-act play sees a conservative politician’s aide, a liberal activist and a beauty queen locked in a hotel room together with one mission: to rewrite the U.S. Constitution. 

With a plot that lets the cast and audience take a humorous look at modern day society and some of the most famous Founding Fathers, “The Taming” promises a look at politics presented in a light-hearted manner. 

“Through their conversations, opposing views and occasional moments of seeing eye-to-eye, the audience is taken on a witty, smart and thought-provoking journey,” said Benjamin Wells, production and publicity manager. 

A smaller cast of three actors balances well with the much larger group needed for “The Rocky Horror Show,” which follows in late October, according to Wells. A typical theater season at Cortland is two plays and two musicals to give students a wider skillset. 

With a shorter-than-normal five weeks from the first day of classes to opening night, auditions for the roles were held last spring to give the actors more time to prepare.   

The abbreviated rehearsal time for “The Taming” ahead of “Rocky Horror” is an added challenge for the cast and crew, but not one that senior Savina Janetti, assistant stage manager, has found to be too difficult. 

“Watching the show come together every night has been a joy,” Janetti said. “It’s so refreshing to see a comedy that is centered around women and politics. Being assistant stage manager has allowed me to fully watch the whole process and see a show start from reading at table out of scripts to full set pieces, blocking and costumes.” 

Senior Emily Reilly, who plays political aide Patricia, said she couldn’t imagine a better show for her final bow at the university. 

“I have deeply enjoyed getting to bring Patricia to life and watching these three very different characters find common ground in an extremely humorous but real way,” Reilly said. “Learning a new dialect — southern — for this show was a fun new challenge that I welcomed, and I think helps bring the dialogue to life.” 

The majority of crew members on the production are in their roles for the first time and learning new facets of what it takes to bring theater to life in front of an audience, according to Wells. 

“The experiences they gain behind the scenes not only give them important knowledge and skills beyond those required for performance, it also helps our majors gain more empathy for the importance of these roles,” he said. 

Tickets for future productions can be purchased at SUNY Cortland’s Box Office website.

More information on the SUNY Cortland Performing Arts Department and its upcoming productions is available online. 

Eight SUNY Cortland Entrepreneurship Center student interns this fall are partnering with the city and county of Cortland to collect and analyze information on community quality-of-life markers like housing repair needs, housing stock availability and the conditions of sidewalks.

The diligent investigations by these undergraduate interns on every city street during the semester promises to produce data to support ongoing municipal grant applications that fund a host of city activities.

The county planning department has developed a housing survey application that interfaces with its geographic information systems (GIS) database. The student interns, majoring in various disciplines, will walk the city neighborhoods scanning and inputting data that can then be analyzed to support future grant applications from the city.

The city of Cortland has long accessed Community Development Block Grant funding to support repairs for low-income households. Having a citywide housing condition survey will allow government officials to expand grant applications in hopes of gaining access to funding to both low- and moderate-income households.

The GIS mapping application can be accessed via cell phone, allowing the student interns to collect data on the conditions observed at each property in the city, uploading their information as they walk the neighborhood.  

The city also hopes to use the information gathered by the interns in a more wholistic approach to address sidewalk conditions.

Students are gaining their hands-on experience under the tutelage of Kathleen Burke, SUNY distinguished teaching professor in the university’s Economics Department and the Entrepreneurship Center’s director.

The students are using a computer application developed by the County Planning Department to gather information on all housing within the city. The app feeds information into the planning department’s GIS database, which the planners will use later to share the survey findings with the community.

“They will work in pairs to collect the data, and we hope to have it all collected before or just after the October break,” Burke said.

Burke’s marketing interns are following along to photograph their work to post on the SUNY Cortland Entrepreneurship Center’s Instagram account.

“In terms of timeline — I am having all of the Entrepreneurship Center’s eight interns collect the data since they have to be outside traversing every street in the city,” Burke said. “We want to get it done while the weather cooperates.”

When that part of the project is done, two center interns who completed Burke’s Econometrics course last spring will remain on the project to analyze data with the city and county planning departments. Econometrics is the branch of economics concerned with the use of mathematical methods, especially statistics, in describing economic systems.

“The city is very excited to have this opportunity to work with the Cortland County Planning Department and Dr. Burke’s interns,” said Cortland Mayor Scott Steve. “This type of positive collaboration benefits all of our organizations.”

The Butterfly House opened with little fanfare this past summer at Antlers, the less remote of two Adirondack camps comprising SUNY Cortland’s William H. Parks Family Center for Environmental and Outdoor Education at Raquette Lake, N.Y.

Six monarch butterflies — Danaus plexippus — arrived at the screened, gazebo-like structure in the form of black-yellow-and-white banded caterpillars. Spinning themselves into a glossy, mint green chrysalis state, they literally hung around for a couple weeks before emerging one by one to perch on the wooden beams gently flexing their new wings. Staff bid them goodbye the next day as they departed aloft on a long, multigenerational trip to Florida or Mexico.

During their stay, the monarchs refreshed themselves on the nectar and fresh leaves of an assortment of herbs planted in soil both inside and outside the Butterfly House: common milkweed, Wild bleeding heart, Joe-Pye weed, Seaside goldenrod and Scarlet bee balm.

A few inquisitive humans, mostly Antlers campers staying nearby through SUNY Cortland’s educational and alumni recreational programs, visited the brand-new campus structure between the Main Lodge and Cedars.

In the future, other insects in the order Lepidoptera shared by butterflies and moths are expected to use the friendly accommodations, said Rhonda Jacobs Pitoniak ’01, M ’16, director of the Parks Family Outdoor Center.

“According to the Adirondacks Forever Wild Page, the park has 74 species of butterflies and moths,” Pitoniak said. “The ones we see the most around here are the monarchs.”

However, Painted Ladies, Tiger swallowtails, Cecropia silk moths, Luna moths and both White and Red Admirals — all large and showy celebrities of the moth and butterfly world — are expected to make brief Butterfly House appearances.

Steven Broyles, SUNY distinguished teaching professor emeritus of biological sciences, conceived of this unusually porous shelter with its removable screened side and ceiling panels.

“It’s something that Steve talked about for a long time that would be helpful for the Field Biology class,” Pitoniak said. “But it would also be good for visitors of any kind, whether they were college students, middle school, high school students or families.”

Alum Daniel Scheffer ’96 made a gift to support construction of the butterfly abode.

Broyles, who retired in 2024, said Scheffer took his Field Biology course in the 1990s although Scheffer’s chosen field in which he ultimately graduated was physics.

“As a natural scientist, Dan had great curiosities about everything,” Broyles said. “He was a marvelous student and friend. I remember he was energetic, intelligent and funny.”

When Scheffer let Broyles know in 2019 he planned a major gift to benefit the Field Biology class, the professor realized the size of the gift offered great potential.

“One of my goals was to create something that would work for onsite science education that could also invite the community to visit the Cortland facility at the Antlers,” Broyles said. “Dan was supportive.”

Additionally, SUNY Cortland’s Division for Institutional Advancement wrote a successful grant application from the John Ben Snow Foundation and Memorial Trust, a Manlius, N.Y.-based nonprofit, to cover hiring the first Butterfly House steward to serve in the role this past summer, Autumn Stoia, and another through next June 2026.

Parks Family Outdoor Center staff plan weekly summertime tours for the public.

“It’s a both formal and informal way to share environmental education,” in terms of the student versus the public experience of the facility, Pitoniak said. “It’ll give a student employee the opportunity to learn how to improve their interpretive skills and talk with the public of all different ages.”

Joe Westbrook, lead campus architect in the university’s Facilities Planning, Design and Construction Office, designed the facility.

“It would mimic a gazebo because there were so many around Antlers originally,” Pitoniak said.

“We came up with the exterior footprint in conversations between me and Steve and Joe and Deb (Faylo, assistant director of outdoor education, who manages Antlers),” Pitoniak said.

Wes Lamphear, owner of the builder, West Structures Construction Co., helped design the unique interior design of screens attached to removable panels for the sake of their preservation in winter storage.

Stoia, volunteers and staff members researched all the ideal plants to attract and feed butterflies, bought the stock, prepared the soil for and installed the garden, leaving the insects only about two weeks to safely metamorphosize inside the shelter.

The recent monarch visitors represent possibly the great-grandchildren of butterflies that started the trip from Mexico, with parents stopping perhaps in Tennessee or Kentucky to lay a set of approximately 100 eggs along the way.

“This is the northern-most reaches for them,” Pitoniak said.

“On Monarchwatch.org, there’s actually a map that shows their migration,” Pitoniak said. The site features stickers that citizen scientists can use to attach to a butterfly’s wings and help scientists track the monarch’s travels.

The university only gives its guests at the Butterfly House a short-term accommodation.

“We don’t keep butterflies more than a day or two after they hatch because we want them to continue their natural cycle,” Pitoniak said. “It’s a way to preserve and help some butterflies through to adulthood to, hopefully, start the next cycle.”

“We would like to thank Daniel for his gift to support the construction of the butterfly house at Antlers, our iconic facility in the Adirondacks,” said Rich Coyne ’07, M.S., the university’s vice president for institutional advancement.

“This project exemplifies Cortland’s dedication to enhancing the quality of life through environmental, educational, arts and cultural endeavors.”

Coyne continued, “Through the power of donor philanthropy and the generosity from the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust, Cortland continues to provide students unique experiential learning opportunities relative to their area of study.”

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In response to growing student requests for screen-free recreational reading, SUNY Cortland will launch Red Dragons Read, a new campus initiative that brings four shareable bookcases into high-traffic academic buildings. 

These freestanding bookcases will be filled with a collection of recreational titles and be placed near student lounges and coffee spots in Moffett Center, Old Main, Bowers Hall, and the Education Building. The effort aims to support student wellness, encourage screen breaks and foster a stronger culture of reading across campus. 

The program is expected to begin later in the fall semester. Donations from staff, faculty and students are requested to help kick off the program, and they can be dropped off any time Memorial Library is open.

Once it starts, participants are asked to return a book when they take a new one. 

“Students repeatedly told us they want paper books as a way to unplug and recharge,” said project coordinator Jenifer Phelan, assistant librarian for Memorial Library. “Red Dragons Read offers that outlet, right here on campus.”  

Research shows the benefits of recreational reading are significant, Phelan noted, and range from stress relief and better sleep to improved academic outcomes and stronger mental health. The initiative also aligns with SUNY Cortland’s commitment to wellness, academic achievement, sustainability, and student engagement. The program could expand to more campus buildings. 

Selections will be from all genres including fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, romance, graphic novels, and popular nonfiction, chosen with help from students. Faculty from several departments on campus have also signed up to assist. Phelan said the program is looking for more partners and is collecting gently used recreational reading books in all genres. 

Initial campus funding will be used to purchase new books from student-suggested authors and titles. Ongoing book donations from campus community members will help sustain the program. Bookcases already have been donated, and Memorial Library is contributing signage. 

For more information or to get involved, please contact Phelan at jenifer.phelan@cortland.edu.  

SUNY Cortland continues to honor Latiné Heritage Month with a series of educational, cultural and social events running through Wednesday, Oct. 15.

“Each year at SUNY Cortland, we observe Latiné Heritage Month, also known as National Hispanic Heritage Month, from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of people whose heritage come from Latin America,” said organizer Jose Ortiz, assistant professor of foundations and social advocacy.

The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on Sept. 15 and ending on Oct. 15. It was enacted into law on August 17, 1988. The day of Sept. 15 is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Campus events, which may be updated, include:

• A presentation on the history of the game of Dominoes will be given at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 9 in the Corey Union Voice Office. Sponsored by La Familia Latina and the Caribbean Student Association, the evening starting will continue with a tournament in this tiles-based game.
• A Celebration for Latiné Heritage Month will take place on Friday, Oct. 10. Hosted by La Familia Latina in collaboration with the Caribbean Student Association and Ritmo Latino, the event runs from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Corey Union Exhibition Lounge.
• A Chips and Salsa social will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 15. Organized by Ritmo Latino in collaboration with the Spanish Club and Mu Sigma Upsilon Inc., the gathering will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Exhibition Lounge.

For more information, contact Ortiz or River Vooris, assistant director of multicultural life and diversity.

“Counted Out,” an illuminating and timely documentary that investigates one of the biggest crises of our time through an unexpected lens, math, will be screened on Tuesday, Sept. 30, at SUNY Cortland.

Hosted by SUNY Cortland’s School of Education and the New York State Master Teachers Program, the 2025 film produced by Reel Link Films will begin at 6 p.m. in Old Main Brown Auditorium. The two hour event will include a discussion following the screening.

Admission is free, but participants must register in advance by filling out the online form. Two hours of Continuing Teacher and Leader Education (CTLE) credits are available for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade teachers.

The documentary has been featured in many international film festivals, reviewed by major media outlets and discussed on national podcasts.

Watch the ‘Counted Out’ trailer and learn more at countedoutfilm.com.

“Ultimately, ‘Counted Out’ is a film that poses a question fundamental to democracy: if we can’t understand a system that governs us, how much power do we actually have?” said the film’s director, Vicki Abeles.

“In our current information economy, math is everywhere: the people we date, the news we see, the influence of our votes, the candidates who win elections, the education we have access to, the jobs we get. It’s all underwritten by an invisible layer of math that few of us understand, or even notice.”

In her quest to understand math’s critical role in people’s lives, the director uncovered a movement of scholars, activists and educators who also see math as more than an academic subject.

For the documentary, she interviewed:

• Rebecca Galicia, a mother whose traumatic experience with math in school derailed her career ambitions and access to the economy.
• Glenn Rodriguez, a former prisoner whose parole was blocked by an unfair algorithm. He got his freedom by reverse-engineering the algorithm to reveal its flaws.
• The late Bob Moses, before his passing in 2021. The legendary civil rights activist and architect of the Mississippi Freedom Summer also was founder of the Algebra Project.
• Educator Karim Ani, founder of Citizen Math, an online math resource that supplements math lessons for grades 6-12.
• Julia Angwin, who co-founded and was editor-in-chief of The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the impact of technology on society, and recently founded Proof, a nonprofit news studio investigating the most important questions of our time.
• Roger Antonsen, a logician, mathematician, computer scientist, author, public speaker, science communicator and artist; and many other noted mathematicians.

“For them, math is a tool for understanding and harnessing the beauty, wonder and possibility of the world we live in,” Abeles said. “And our lack of access to that tool is, in their view, the critical civil rights issue of our time.”

Through a mosaic of personal stories, expert interviews, and scenes of math transformation in action, “Counted Out” shows what’s at risk if America keeps the status quo.

“Do we want an America in which most of us don’t consider ourselves ‘math people’?” Abeles said. “Where math proficiency goes down as students grow up? Or do we want a country where everyone can understand the math that undergirds our society — and can help shape it?”