News Detail
08/21/2013
Students begin returning to SUNY Cortland on Friday, Aug. 23. In all, College officials expect approximately 7,200 students to be enrolled for the fall semester. Classes begin on Monday, Aug. 26.
On Thursday, Aug. 22, the campus will open its 16 residence halls, the West Campus Apartments and Leadership House to approximately 100 new residential students who did not attend the summer orientation program.
With the exception of some upper class members and returning students occupying the new Dragon Hall residential facility, the majority of new residential students will move in the following day. Most returning residential students will occupy their rooms Saturday, Aug. 24, through Sunday, Aug. 25.
Between Friday and Sunday, access will be limited on Prospect Terrace and from Graham Avenue to Neubig Road, which winds past the SUNY Cortland residence halls to the Broadway intersection. Traffic will proceed one-way, in a westerly, downhill direction from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. during this time. On Friday, university police will limit traffic solely to first-year or transfer students moving into the residences. Neubig Road will be closed to traffic from 5 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. during all three move-in days.
 |
| Move In Day is all about getting everythng settled in at the residence hall for the student in your family so he or she can have an enjoyable and productive semester. |
Parents or guardians who are helping their new or returning student move into a residence hall should approach from Graham Avenue, quickly unload their vehicle, and proceed immediately to the Park Center and Professional Studies Building parking lots. Bus service will be available between the parking lots, Corey Union and the residence halls. Faculty, staff and others with business on the campus are encouraged to park at Park Center and the Professional Studies Building and use the bus service.
Faculty and staff are invited to join the Welcome Team that includes many early returning fall varsity athletes and helps new students move into the residence halls from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. There are two shifts each day: 8 a.m. to noon and noon to 4 p.m. Volunteers can choose to sign up for one or two shifts. To sign up today, faculty and staff may log in to their online myRedDragon account, select the Faculty/Staff tab and look for the Welcoming Team Signup link on the lower left. Volunteers will receive a “Dragon Haller” t-shirt for making the move-in process welcoming and easy.
On Thursday, Aug. 22, all faculty, professional and classified staff members are invited to attend SUNY Cortland President Erik J. Bitterbaum’s annual opening address and faculty meetings at 8 a.m. in the Corey Union Function Room. The president will speak and senior administrators will introduce new faculty and staff members and report on their respective areas.
 |
| Enlisting the help of a cart, one family helps their daughter with her move into a residence hall for the fall semester. |
Marking the start of another academic year, the Fall 2013 Academic Convocation begins at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 25, in the Park Center Alumni Arena. The hour-long ceremony is designed for all first-year and new transfer students. All SUNY Cortland faculty and professional staff are encouraged to attend.
Welcome Week will offer a number of events geared to help new students connect with the campus community and assist them in their transition and adjustment to college life. For more information about Welcome Week events, contact Campus Activities and Corey Union at 607-753-5574.
On campus, the truly unprecedented level of facility changes continues. Portable trailers in various locations will continue to provide the campus community with temporary faculty and staff office and classroom space for the coming year.
Contractors are on time to complete for the fall semester the College’s newest, 229-bed residence hall. Named Dragon Hall, the facility is located at the end of Hayes and Hendrick halls facing Casey and Smith Towers. Inside it resembles the eight-year-old Glass Tower Hall at the opposite end of the quad. The residence will offer many of the same student amenities while demonstrating environmental sustainability.
Also completed is Phase I of a campus-wide electrical infrastructure upgrade, involving the improvement of a substation near the Route 281 entrance.
The two-year project to install individual boilers in each building and retire the less energy efficient, central steam plant located behind Old Main will be finished before the heating season begins.
At the Bowers Hall site, the College’s primary science facility after one year continues to undergo expansion and renovation of the Bowers I wing. A new planetarium building is rising beside the main buildings. The entire project is slated for completion in January.
The Dowd Fine Arts Center has undergone more than a year of mostly internal renovations and is set to be finished and reopened for the spring semester. The large, new addition on top won’t include classrooms but it will bring air conditioning to the building, which now houses a dance studio. Until it reopens, the classes, concerts and gallery exhibitions that normally occur within will continue to be held elsewhere on campus, and, in the case of Dowd Gallery programs and exhibitions, off campus at the Main Street SUNY Cortland facility.
Work that began last fall continues on the crown jewel of the planned campus construction, the new $56 million Student Life Center. Located on the site of the former Carl “Chugger” Davis Field near the heart of campus, this multi-purpose building will greatly expand student recreational, club and social life opportunities when it is finished as expected by December 2014 to open in January 2015. The road that ran past the construction site, Pashley Drive, was closed for extensive renovation part of last year. The recently reopened thoroughfare no longer features parking but is serving all traffic as well as cyclists with a new bike path.