President’s Newsletter

Friday, November 22, 2024

Dear Colleagues:

This week’s newsletter will be relatively short as I have been away at a conference and returned early Thursday morning. I attended the annual American Association for State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) annual conference with other leaders from higher education. The meeting’s theme was Building Bridges: Uplifting Communities Through Collaboration.

As you may know, AASCU is leading our Student Success Equity Intensive, and is the major advocacy body with the federal government for regional comprehensive universities like Brockport. I have recently joined the AASCU Student Success Committee, and we had a meeting of the committee during the conference to plan our activities for the year. I also took part in a special session for women presidents. Some of the other sessions that I attended included information on the federal legislative landscape, on the relationships between campuses and local communities, and on talking across political divides. SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. was a panelist on the opening plenary that explored the role of Systems in supporting higher education, and there were SUNY sessions on a variety of topics including a very informative session on educational links with Cuba. I always find myself refreshed by opportunities to connect with other higher education leaders who often grapple with similar issues or concerns that we face at SUNY Brockport. I am grateful to have a group of such dedicated colleagues with whom to engage.

Cabinet had another budget meeting yesterday to review priorities in relation to our strategic plan, and we discussed potential investments in areas such as personnel, long-term planning and analysis, and initiatives that support enrollment, retention and student belonging. We have a series of budget retreats scheduled over the next few months as we plan for academic year 2025-26 and beyond.

This will be my last newsletter before the Thanksgiving break. I hope you will get to spend time with family and friends, and I look forward to resuming my newsletter the first week of December. I am grateful to all of you for the work you do to support SUNY Brockport and our students.