President’s Newsletter

Friday, May 3, 2024

Dear Colleagues:

This week we had our last College Council meeting of the year. We heard a report from Brockport University Senate President Dr. Cathy Houston-Wilson, which outlined the many accomplishments of Senate this year, including receiving and acting on 113 proposals! This is an impressive feat and offers clear evidence of the importance of shared governance and shared decision making on campus. I want to thank Cathy for her year as president. We also welcome Dr. Skye Paine to Council as the incoming Senate president. Dr. Sara Kelly offered an update on strategic enrollment management, and Mr. Mike Andriatch gave a final presentation on the eclipse planning and outcomes. I was delighted to hear yesterday from Ms. Sarah Stanton that SUNY Brockport was recognized by the statewide CSEA Health and Safety Committee for all of the planning and safety measures that were taken for the solar eclipse. As Sarah wrote, “It was mentioned that we are great with planning for major events and should be seen as an example of a SUNY campus that takes pride in the safety of all members of our campus community.”

The SUNY presidents met twice this week, once for our regularly monthly Zoom call and once to focus sector by sector on the budget news. We also had our Budget Town Hall this week, which also included an enrollment update and an update on capital planning. Our five-year financial model is strong, particularly because we learned this week that the state is investing even more in SUNY Brockport, with an additional $2.2M coming our way to support a good percentage of faculty and staff pay raises, more funds for student internships and the expansion of research opportunities. We will also be able to continue to reduce the effects of mandatory fees for graduate students who work on campus.

Over the summer, Cabinet will work on continuing to right size our budget, in particular looking at where there is a difference between our budget and what we actual spend, as well as on vacancies. The Chancellor shared the following: “Remarkably, the past two years together represent the largest two-year infusion of Direct State Tax Support in SUNY in at least 50 years.” I am so grateful that the state and SUNY are both investing in our success, and I am thankful that we have remained vigilant about our budget over the last several years so that we are in this strong position.

Our COSAC annual luncheon was held this week to celebrate our administrative staff on campus, and there were a number of gatherings in support of our students’ success. Tonight we will have the Umoja Ceremony starting at 5pm in the Seymour Union Ballroom, and on Saturday both baseball and softball will have their Senior Day celebrations. I had the honor of working out with our ROTC cadets this morning, something that I will no doubt regret tomorrow as I discover muscles I haven’t used for a while!

Dr. Lorraine Acker, Dr. Damita Davis and I met with a group of students this week to discuss their concerns regarding conflicts across the world. It was both an emotional and productive conversation. Many of the students have been deeply impacted by these conflicts and feel that the pain they are feeling too often goes unnoticed. They expressed a desire for more community conversations on issues that affect the student body beyond campus. I am hopeful that we can bolster our successful EDI Student Advisory Board during 2024-25 so that student voices can continue to be central to our work across campus. We will continue to review the issues that the students raised.

The final First Friday of the year is this evening at Alumni House starting at 4pm, so please come along if you are able to—and better yet, bring a colleague with you!

I hope you have a pleasant weekend ahead.