President’s Newsletter

Friday, February 27, 2026

Dear Colleagues,

I’m still smiling about the news that we received the SUNY Shared Governance award. It is such a fundamental part of our goal of being a great university at which to work, and it’s another example of the reason that Brockport will be an attractive proposition for a new president. Next week is the closing date for first consideration for the Brockport presidency, so if you know of good candidates, please make them aware of our campus’s successes! In addition to that welcome news, we were also recognized this week as a Voter Friendly Campus for our commitment to nonpartisan student voter engagement.

Another highlight of the week was attending Dr. Brittney Cooper’s talk on Thursday evening. As our 2026 MLK speaker, she presented a keynote address, “The Beloved Community.” In response to a student’s question about how to build a community, she offered, “Show up in a place, do a thing you love, and you can build community.” The words were simultaneously simple and profound, and I appreciated her thoughtful attention to the audience’s questions.

This week we had our quarterly College Council meeting, where we passed a resolution to become a University Council, as befits our university status. This was unanimously approved. We also had presentations from each of the deans of our colleges and schools, and an update on the Campus Climate Survey result from Dr. Davis.

Erica Linden and I had more advocacy sessions this week, meeting with Senator Brouk’s representatives and, later today, we’ll meet with Assemblyman Jensen. Other external meetings this week included two meetings with Willow leadership and a Rotary board meeting.

Internally I met with Senate Executive, as well as with Tammy Gouger and Jennifer Senter to discuss Title VI procedures. I also had one-to-ones with five cabinet members and got caught up on Senate resolutions. In addition, I hope to complete my review of APT files today, well ahead of the March 9 deadline.

Cabinet met to discuss a proposal around a new funding model for athletics as well as course fee requests. In addition, cabinet members with offices on the Seventh Floor of Allen met with Tim Durfee, our Emergency Manager, as well as with our assistants, to formulate our own preparation plan in relation to critical incidents.

In terms of student engagement this week, I attended the very exciting Empire 8 semifinal game for men’s basketball and look forward to attending the final, which Brockport is hosting at 2 pm on Saturday. Also on Saturday I will be attending the Student Leadership Conference and hope to go along to gymnastics, having sadly missed their Senior Day last weekend.

As I look out the window at snow, I remind myself that March is just around the corner, with the hope that warmer weather will follow. I hope you have a relaxing weekend in store!