President’s Newsletter

Friday, February 7, 2025

Dear Colleagues,

This week’s newsletter will be a little shorter than usual as it has not been a usual week for me. I was scheduled to attend a conference in Austin on education technology and leadership, but unfortunately I had to cancel due to catching a rather nasty bug. I have been primarily working from home this week as a result, trying to keep my germs to myself.

Nonetheless I’ve been able to have remote one-to-ones with members of the senior team, an interview with a dean candidate, and a meeting with the leaders of the International Faculty and Staff Association, which I found very valuable. We discussed a number of issues including how to support our international students as we grow our numbers in this area. In fact, there is an OEDI Brown Bag Lunch and Learn coming up on February 14^th dedicated to just this topic, which I hope you’ll be able to attend. Please see the Daily Eagle for more information.

Cabinet met virtually to discuss SUNY initiatives such as the ACE program (see this link for more information: https://www.suny.edu/asap-ace/) and to provide updates to each other on divisional priorities and activities. It is clear that the semester has gotten off to a busy start, and I am grateful for all of the work that is being undertaken to support our students and our colleagues. I was also able to attend the virtual JPBC meeting, where we discussed the recommendations of a working group on Investment Funds and discussed the composition of the committee given the new Schools and College structure that will be in place next year. This topic was deferred for more discussion.

We hope that you can join us next week for a town hall that the two Presidential Task Forces, one on food and the other on student transportation priorities, is offering. Attendees will be able to hear and respond to the findings and draft recommendations from both efforts. There will be two opportunities to attend. The first is at 3:30 pm on Tuesday, Feb. 11 in-person in McCue Auditorium. The presentations and forum will be repeated at 9 am on Friday, Feb. 14 on Microsoft Teams. 

I hope many of you will attend First Friday at Alumni House today from 4pm. I will skip this month’s get together but hope that many of you gather to celebrate community and the beginning of the academic year. In six short weeks, it will be spring….or so Punxsutawney Phil has predicted.