President’s Newsletter

Friday, March 14, 2025

Dear Colleagues,

The week began with a trip to Albany to attend an event at the Chancellor’s residence to celebrate Women’s History Month. A number of legislators and government officials were in attendance, along with SUNY presidents and SUNY staff. Next week I’ll be attending an event at the Governor’s residence, and in two weeks’ time I’ll be returning to Albany for a SUNY presidents’ meeting. Luckily I’m able to have several telephone meetings during the long journeys there and back.

Mike Andriatch and I finished our legislator meetings this week. The one-house budgets have now been published, and the good news is that a lot of SUNY’s major priorities appear to be supported across the board. There is still a long way to go before the budget is finalized, but these early indications are very positive. April 1^st is the budget deadline, but in recent years the budget has been delayed beyond this point.

Other meetings this week included a meeting with SUNY to discuss the ACE program, a meeting with John Tebeau, the President and Publisher of Buffalo Business First, who wanted to talk about Brockport’s enrollment management success, and a Willow Executive Committee Meeting. I also set aside an hour this week to call recent donors to thank them for their gifts.

Cabinet met twice this week, and our major agenda item was our enrollment projections for the next five years. I also met with several cabinet members and senior leaders for our regular one-to-ones. This afternoon we have an in person UUP Labor Management meeting.

The second School of Business and Management dean candidate was on campus this week and I interviewed him. That search will wrap up after Spring Break, with two more candidates scheduled to come to campus.

We had our Town Gown meeting on Thursday. We got updates on the 200 years of the Erie Canal celebrations, including dedications of the pedestrian bridge on June 13 and the Low Bridge High Water Festival on June 14. In addition, we got an update on the Morgan Manning House. The Morgan Manning House Museum intends to repair the house, which will take several years and will require additional donations. An event is planned for the afternoon of April 13 at Whitehall Mansion on Lake Road for interested individuals to find out more about the cause of the fire, progress towards recovery, and other matters. Details of that event are still being finalized.

This weekend, we have students competing in the National Indoor Track and Field Finals which are being held at Nazareth University, and during Spring Break, our women’s gymnastics team will travel to Minnesota to compete in the Nationals. It was exciting to see them win regionals right here on campus.

Don’t forget to vote for Ellsworth in the SUNY Mascot Madness competition! First round voting ends at 2 pm today and you can vote once every 12 hours.

Spring Break is upon us, and I know many of you will get a chance to take your own breaks from campus. I look forward to the second half of the semester and will resume my weekly newsletter in two weeks’ time.