Newsletter — Office of the Provost

Monday, August 25, 2025
Volume 3, Issue 1

Happy First Day of Classes!

I want to begin by thanking all of you who attended the Academic Affairs Kick-Off last week. It was great to see so many of you and to celebrate the start of the semester. The start of the fall semester is one of my favorite times of the year, because it is when there is a flurry of excitement and activity on campus. Each semester is a new beginning for students, faculty and staff; a new beginning with opportunities that can bring a wide range of feelings.

The fall 2025 semester sees our University implement broad changes in Academic Affairs, as we introduce our new Colleges and Schools. This restructuring, and the leadership, are in place, and we now have a College of Arts and Sciences, a College of Education and Health, a School of Business and Management, and a brand-new School of Nursing. It is an exciting time at SUNY Brockport.

Another change that warrants mention, is that I am now serving as Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. I have included my speech from Kick-Off that includes information about myself and my leadership style. I don’t plan to make any radical changes this academic year. I do plan on learning more about the various units and individual people in our division and how best I can support the campus. The Divisional goals for the year are largely to build on the good work that is being done. Our division was busy last year, and a lot of great things were accomplished. You can learn more from our Divisional report, it highlights some of those accomplishments. I really appreciate everyone’s hard work that contributed to a successful year.

I look forward to leading Academic Affairs as we build on our accomplishments. I hope that you are looking forward to the year ahead of us as much as I am. One item I would like to draw your attention to are the recent updates to Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Updates to Title II

Recent updates to Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990, 2008) have set specific requirements for the accessibility of web content and mobile applications, which will necessitate compliance with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) by April 24, 2026. These regulations will apply broadly to web and mobile content created, utilized, and sponsored by SUNY Brockport. The University has adopted WCAG 2.2, Level AA as the target technical standard for digital accessibility. There are limited exceptions to the new Title II rules, however, exceptions generally do not apply to digital content in active use for courses or other university programs and services.

This fall, Jessica Sniatecki (Assistant Dean for the College of Education and Health and SUNY Accessibility Advocates & Allies Faculty Fellow) will be launching a “Strive for 85” campaign to encourage faculty to revise to their course materials to maximize digital accessibility. Faculty who attain an overall course accessibility score of 85% or greater will earn an incentive to recognize their efforts – their choice of a Brockport sweatshirt or travel mug. More details will be provided very soon!

To help equip faculty with the knowledge and skills necessary to improve the accessibility of their courses, Jay Harwood (Student Accessibility Services), Shari Hardenbrook (Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching), and Jess will be offering an Introduction to Digital Accessibility Road Show for academic departments. This 60-minute interactive presentation will equip faculty with knowledge on basic digital accessibility considerations under ADA Title II and practical skills to remediate electronic documents for accessibility. To arrange training for your department, please email digitalaccessibility@brockport.edu. All academic departments should schedule training for their faculty during the Fall 2025 semester. Smaller departments can be trained concurrently if desired.

I wish you all the best for a wonderful semester.