President’s Newsletter

Friday, December 12, 2025

Dear Colleagues,

This is the last of my newsletters for the semester, so I’ll cover both this week and next. It was lovely to see so many of you at the holiday party on Tuesday. BASC did a great job with the food and the decorations, and the atmosphere was excellent. I enjoyed the conversations I was able to have with groups and individuals (and I appreciate the recommendations for TV shows to watch during the holidays!).

This week offered the opportunity to enjoy a number of events, from the get together we had with Cabinet and assistants on Wednesday to the REOC holiday celebration later today. It is good to take a break near the end of the semester and visit with colleagues. I enjoyed a Gathering of Gratitude celebration held by Willow this week, after the Willow Board meeting where I was honored to be elected Chair for a two-year term. I also attended a virtual United Way board meeting this week.

We had the last Senate meeting of the semester, with all resolutions passed. We also had a presentation by a student senator articulating advocacy efforts around student space, which Senate will respond to next semester. Other regular meetings included one-to-ones with three senior leaders and our regular Cabinet meeting, which focused on funding for Athletics as well as final review of our emergency response plans and a policy review.

In addition, as part of our commitment to professional development, Cabinet collectively reviewed the commitments we had made as part of the fall Campus Leadership Summit. Those of you who attended the summit will recall that one exercise we did was fill out a one-page document outlining key take aways, as well as planned commitments to self, peers, direct reports and Brockport, which we collected in self-addressed, sealed envelopes and then sent back to individuals through internal mail. It was gratifying to see areas we had made good on our commitments, as well as good to remind ourselves of other things we still wished to achieve. The commitments I made were around asking myself, “Who do I need to thank today?” In addition, I committed to asking harder questions of my team and leading to the end of my term as president. I firmly believe professional development is worth it and that from every opportunity we can take something away that will be of use.

I attended a SUNY Accessibility Advocates and Allies Faculty Fellows Virtual Symposium on Monday, and Dr. Jess Sniatecki presented on our efforts for Strive for 85 in relation to Title II accessibility efforts at Brockport. Dr. Sniatecki is so well thought of in SUNY that they have appointed her as the facilitator for the next cohort of AAA Fellows. A number of SUNY deadlines are approaching as we conclude the academic year, and I’m pleased to say we were able to submit grant applications for accessibility funds, for EOP high impact practices funds, and Academic Momentum (AcMo) gateway courses funding. In addition, we submitted a number of compliance documents this week.

Later today I have the honor of swearing in four new University Police Officers before heading to the REOC to celebrate with the team.

Next week will be somewhat quieter. Cabinet will be meeting to review the Campus Climate Survey results as well as the plans for AcMo. In addition, I’ll be calling and meeting with donors and attending two Rotary meetings. I hope to put the final touches on my presentation for the Campus Leadership Summit.

I look forward to resuming my newsletters when the spring semester commences. Happy Holidays!