Graduate Commencement Set for May 20

04/29/2011 

The SUNY Cortland Commencement ceremony for students earning master’s degrees and certificates of advanced study is scheduled for Friday, May 20, at 7 p.m. in the Park Center Alumni Arena.

The College will award 296 master’s degrees and 24 certificates of advanced study. After the ceremony, a reception for the graduates and their guests will take place in the Corey Gymnasium.

An academic procession will open the Commencement. Distinguished Teaching Professor of Geography David Miller, who chairs the Faculty Senate, will carry the mace.

Faculty members will carry the four multi-colored gonfalons representing the College, the School of Education, the School of Professional Studies, and the School of Arts and Sciences. The gonfalon bearers are, respectively: Joseph Governali, chair of the Graduate Faculty Executive Committee and professor and graduate coordinator of health; Lin Lin, associate professor of childhood/early childhood education; Donna Videto, professor of health; and Jerome O’Callaghan, associate dean of the School of Arts and Sciences.

Marina Gorelaya will perform the processional and recessional music.

Provost Mark Prus will offer a welcome, and Bonnie Jean Harding of Cortland, N.Y., a candidate for Master of Science in Education: Teaching Students with Disabilities, will provide remarks on behalf of the graduates.

A 2004 graduate of Paul V. Moore High School in Central Square, N.Y., Harding earned a B.S. in childhood education (grades 1-6) from SUNY Oswego in 2008.

This spring, Harding served as a student intern working among children with special needs in the Franklin S. Barry Elementary School in Cortland. Last summer, she was a counselor for grades kindergarten through third in Barry’s Child Developmental Center.

President Erik J. Bitterbaum will deliver the charge to the graduates. Presenting the degrees and certificates will be Dean of Arts and Sciences R. Bruce Mattingly and Interim Dean of Education and Dean of Professional Studies John Cottone.

Nancy Niskin Sorbella ’82, the president of the SUNY Cortland Alumni Association Board of Directors, will welcome these newest graduates into the ranks of the College’s more than 62,000 alumni. Commencement marshals will be Michele Gonzalez, associate professor of literacy; Susan Rayl, associate professor of kinesiology; Kimberly Rombach, assistant professor of childhood and early childhood education; and Hailey Ruoff ’98, assistant director of instructional technologies and design services.

The Graduate Commencement Committee is co-chaired by Virginia B. Levine, executive assistant to the president, and Ruoff.

Committee members include: Sila Argyle, supervising janitor, custodial services; Darci Bacigalupi, special events coordinator; Marley S. Barduhn, assistant provost for teacher education; Mary Kate Boland, assistant director of leadership and community development, campus activities; Terence Cahill, College Store director; Mark DePaull, university police assistant chief; Tracy Frenyea, academic advisor and coordinator of graduate student support; Michele Irvin Gonzalez, associate professor of literacy; Rena Janke, associate professor of biological sciences; Peter McGinnis, professor of kinesiology; Joy Mosher, associate professor of childhood/early childhood education; Mary Murphy, University Police lieutenant; Veronica Ripp, graduate student representative; Brad Snyder, associate director of classroom media services; and Arnold Talentino, Honors Program coordinator.