President’s Newsletter

2025-11-07

Dear Colleagues,

The week began early with a trip to Elmira College on Sunday for an Empire Eight Athletic Conference meeting. The presidents met on Sunday evening, followed by a joint meeting with the Athletic Directors on Monday, where we discussed upcoming NCCA legislation and other matters. I also met with the Student Athlete Advisory Committee this week. It was great to listen to their concerns as well as hear about the things that are going well for them. They are great advocates for the Athletics Department, as well as for the whole university, and I was impressed by their leadership stance and their problem-solving approach to issues.

I had a series of one-to-ones this week with Cabinet members, as well as the AVP for Human Resources. Cabinet had a presentation from Residential Life on planned capital projects as well as their proposal for room rates for 2026-27. We also got an update on the Academic Momentum Project, with a list of areas for potential investment in this important SUNY project. I also spent time reviewing APT documents, as I did last week, and this morning I’m working at the REOC.

I had three open forums scheduled this week. The Academic Affairs open forum focused on the SUNY Academic Momentum campaign and the resources it will require, as well as the larger budget landscape. We also discussed policies and practices around faculty line replacement. On Thursday evening I met with the evening shift for Administration and Finance, and we discussed facilities upgrade projects, the need for whiteboard replacements and other equipment needs across campus, and the state budget forecast. We also had a good conversation around different recruitment processes to fill much needed vacancies in facilities teams. Later today I will hold a forum for the dayshift for Administration and Finance and I look forward to that discussion. Next week I will be meeting with Student Affairs and Advancement and Communications, with Enrollment Management’s open forum scheduled for early December. Each of these meetings provides me with good information and I hope it is also valuable for those who attend.

External work this week included a virtual Rotary meeting, a lunch meeting for Willow, and a Citizens and Scholars Presidential Forum virtual meeting, at which we reviewed plans for a communications campaign around civic engagement. I also had a virtual meeting with AASCU leaders to put the final touches on our women presidents’ conference programming for next week’s AASCU conference (I co-convene the women presidents’ group at AASCU). In addition, I met with a mid-career professional to discuss leadership mentoring.

I was privileged to attend the Ingersoll reading at the REOC on Wednesday and listen to Ama Codjoe read from her book of poetry. It was clear that the students in attendance were very engaged and moved by her work. It was also nice to see that we had to bring in extra chairs to accommodate the audience, which was gratifying to see.

This weekend I’m looking forward to the hockey home opener on Friday at 7 pm, at which we will also have a short ceremony to dedicate the new scoreboard. On Saturday, our volleyball and swimming and diving teams will be in action, and both our men’s and women’s soccer teams will be in the finals: the men at Geneseo and the women here on campus, following their successful matches on Wednesday. When I spoke to a student on the men’s soccer team on Wednesday before the match and said to him how sorry I was that the weather was going to be so awful to play in, he said to me, “Not every team gets to play today. We’re just excited to be in the competition!” I loved his attitude towards his sport and towards representing our university. The weather was awful on Wednesday, but the results were favorable for our teams, and I look forward to cheering them on in person for the women and virtually for the men.

I hope to see you in person at First Friday later this afternoon!