President urges students to be good neighbors

10/22/2021 

Dear students,

I am writing today, particularly for our off-campus students, about being good neighbors in the Cortland community.

Last week, the Cortland Standard, our local newspaper, published a story, “Good deed gets dumped on.” It was about Angela Thurlow, 91 years old, who has lived in the same house on Tompkins Street for 60 years and was a long-time SUNY Cortland employee. She put a garbage can in front of her home to deter people from discarding pizza boxes, plastic cups and beer cans on the sidewalk or in her front yard.

Not only did that garbage get dumped on her lawn, someone stole the trash can. 

This is no way to treat the people who live and work alongside us in this city. We must be better neighbors.

Many of you come to Cortland from other parts of New York, or other states or countries entirely. And you may think of Cortland as a place where you come to study for a few years before you continue your life’s adventure somewhere else.

I encourage you to think of Cortland as your home, too, and of yourself as part of the greater Cortland community.

If you do decide to go downtown this weekend, please leave your trash at the establishment or in one of the garbage cans on Main Street, or hold onto it until you get home. 

Let’s take pride in our community and do our part to make our neighbors proud of SUNY Cortland and its students. We owe that to people like Angela Thurlow and others who strive to keep Cortland such a welcoming place for so many.

All the best, 

Erik J. Bitterbaum 

President