Campus Invited to Comment on Cortaca

02/18/2014 

All members of the SUNY Cortland campus community will have opportunities in the coming weeks to share their thoughts about Cortaca weekend with the joint community and college commission charged with finding solutions to related behavioral problems.

All faculty and staff members are invited to a special public meeting scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday, March 21, in the Corey Union Exhibition Lounge. Release time will be granted with supervisory approval.

All students, meanwhile, are invited to a second public meeting aimed at gathering student thoughts and ideas about preventing destructive celebrations related to Cortaca, Spring Fling or any other event. This meeting will be held at 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 27, in Sperry Center, Room 105.

“Students have already provided some great insights, and we think it’s important to hear the thoughts of all students — including those who participated in the Clayton Avenue celebrations,” said Leighmarie Weber, president of the Student Government Association and a member of the commission.

The meetings are part of a series of public sessions held by the commission to get input from community members, students, businesses and landlords to inform its deliberations and final report.

The commission, created by SUNY Cortland President Erik J. Bitterbaum and Cortland Mayor Brian Tobin, is charged with investigating last fall’s Cortaca weekend and recommending ways to prevent bad behavior in the future.

Because of their unique perspective as both community members and college educators, commission members felt it was also important to hear the ideas of SUNY Cortland’s faculty and staff. An invitation from committee co-chairs Kim Pietro, SUNY Cortland’s vice president for institutional advancement, and Bruce Tytler M ’88, former Cortland mayor and a member of the College Council, was sent to all faculty and staff last week.