Spring 2023 Columns is available online 

06/02/2023 

With Commencement 2023 recently behind us, we’d like members of the SUNY Cortland community to turn their attention to the amazing accomplishments of those students after they leave campus to join the world.  

There are now more than 88,000 people with Cortland degrees, so there’s a lot going on. And one of the best ways to catch up with them is by reading Columns, SUNY Cortland’s biannual alumni magazine. The latest edition is now available online, and all alumni, students, staff, faculty and friends are encouraged to take a look. 

Cortland graduates everywhere work for a better world and the Spring 2023 Columns gives a sample. From reimagining education to supporting local news coverage to helping people with mobility disabilities, Red Dragons are improving people’s lives.  

Among the stories you’ll find: 

Bringing it back home 

Kevin Younis ’94, a top New York state economic development official, brokered an historic, $100 billion business deal to build a semiconductor plant the size of 40 football fields in the Central New York region where he grew up. Directly employing 9,000 people, Micron’s new facility represents the largest private investment in New York state and will change the economic landscape of the region. 

From pain to purpose 

In the decade since Mary Joy Greene Sherlach ’78 was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Bill Sherlach ’80 has helped lead a national movement against gun violence, winning historic cases against the nation’s largest gun maker and conspiracist influencer Alex Jones.  

Fighting news inequality 

Jin Ding M ’13, an immigrant from China who knows first-hand the importance of giving people a public voice, is strengthening America’s ability to uncover important stories about marginalized groups.  

Preserving paradise 

Tom Olivo ’79 lives retirement with a mission, working to preserve Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula, a remote jungle with a unique ecosystem recognized by National Geographic as the most biologically intense place on the planet.  

Cortland’s “Ted Lasso” 

Former NFL coach Paul Alexander ’82 is now leading a professional American football team in Europe.