Cortland in the news

07/16/2019 

A pair of SUNY Cortland alumni made headlines last week for climbing all 46 Adirondack High Peaks in a record-breaking six days, 23 hours and 45 minutes.

Former soccer players Michael Jock ’10 and Lukas Wear ’13 ran, walked and climbed a total of 212 miles of rugged terrain during that time, losing a combined 30 pounds in less than a week. Talk about Red Dragon Strong!

Their accomplishment was a big story in both UpstateNY.com and The Watertown Daily Times. 

It was just one of many things that put SUNY Cortland in the news recently:

• The Cortland Voice shared a SUNY Cortland news release about a research project on possible therapeutic uses of “musical” shoes by Kinesiology Professor Jeff Bauer and SUNY Cortland senior Emma Madonna.

• SUNY Cortland’s Alumni Reunion itself made the news last week with The Cortland Voice running a College news release about this year’s community fireworks show, which marked the official end of both Reunion 2019 and SUNY Cortland’s yearlong celebration of its sesquicentennial year.

• The Hechinger Report, an independent, non-profit news organization focused on national public education issues, quoted SUNY Cortland senior admissions advisor and regional recruiter Alyssa Ackerman ’16 in a story about how colleges in states like New York, where the number of college-age people is shrinking, are increasingly looking to states like California, where the numbers of high-school graduates is growing, to meet enrollment goals. Alyssa was in California, recruiting students for SUNY Cortland when they spoke with her.

• Recently retired SUNY Cortland softball coach Julie Lenhart was featured by ESPN Ithaca radio as the main speaker at the station’s sixth annual Night of Champions honoring local scholar athletes. That same week, The Cortland Voice ran a SUNY Cortland news release about Julie’s replacement, new SUNY Cortland softball coach Molly O’Donnell M ‘16.

  

• Members of both the SUNY Cortland and Central New York communities were saddened by news of the death of Daryl Pace ’08, an Ithaca firefighter killed by cancer at the age of 36. Stories ran on CNYCentral.com (Syracuse television stations WSTM and WTVH) and in The Ithaca Journal. Because area firefighters said the cancer was work-related, the former outdoor recreation major will be memorialized as having been killed in the line of duty.

• Beth Klein, professor in the Childhood/Early Childhood Education Department and SUNY Cortland’s sustainability coordinator, was noted in a Cortland Standard story for her assistance in developing the curriculum for Truxton Academy. The academy is a new public charter school scheduled to open in Homer this fall. It plans to connect science learning with local agriculture.

• Distinguished Service Professor Bob Spitzer, chair of the Political Science Department, was quoted in a Washington Times story on the current struggles of the National Rifle Association.

• Nan Pasquarello’s move from serving as SUNY Cortland’s Title IX coordinator to its Career Services Office director was reported in The Cortland Voice.

• Benjamin Wilson, assistant professor of economics, was noted by the nonprofit, independent news site Common Dreams as one of 100 noted academics who signed a letter supporting presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders’ plan for free college tuition and student debt cancellation.

• SUNY Cortland’s Musical Legacy Project put Kevin Pristash ’85, M.A. ’91, director of Corey Union and campus activities, in the local media spotlight, with an interview on radio station WXHC and a story in the Cortland Standard prior to the unveiling of the Legacy Project’s sculpture in Corey Union during Reunion 2019. Kevin played a major role in the year-long initiative to recognize an era when top performers like Grateful Dead and Billy Joel played on campus. The effort culminated in the two-story, wall-mounted piece unveiled during Reunion: