President’s Newsletter

Thursday, September 11, 2025

Dear Colleagues,

This week’s message to campus is a little earlier than normal given that I am taking some personal days at the end of the week. Nonetheless, it has been a busy week, with one highlight being the Distinguished Professor Luncheon, where the conversation ranged from discussions of political and historical research to the expansion of nursing at Brockport. We also discussed AI in the classroom and in relation to writing exercises. I am always energized by speaking with our distinguished professors. In addition, we had our annual Emeriti Reception this week. It is good to catch up with our retirees and to let them know a little bit about current projects on campus. Our Annual Report has just been published, so it was great to share those highlights with them. Also this week, the Writers Forum kicked off their series this week with a reading by Sarah Freligh.

This week also included the first Senate meeting of the year and offered a good orientation for new members. It was heartening to see the number of new senators; I am grateful for your involvement in shared governance.

I was able to spend a day at the REOC on Tuesday and enjoyed speaking with REOC and Brockport Downtown employees. In terms of external meetings, I had a Rotary committee meeting and luncheon, a Willow Executive committee meeting, and the SUNY Legal Accountability Committee.

I met with the new editor of The Stylus editor, Lucy Crounse, this week and had my regular one-to-one with the provost. Mike Andriatch and I also met with Scott Turner to discuss the agenda for the next College Council meeting later this month. This week’s Cabinet meeting focused on divisional annual reports as well as preparations for our upcoming campus climate survey. I was able to attend the annual Hazen Wellness Fair in the Union. It was good to see so many students, faculty and staff taking part.

I attended the 9/11 commemoration ceremony this morning, which is an event that is always an important one on our community calendar. I am grateful to Mike Andriatch for attending this evening’s event on my behalf.

At last week’s First Friday event, I had a great conversation with Steve Jurek about our Washington Program and the tremendous opportunities it provides our students. While the program is frequently associated with political science, remember that it is open to all students. If you know of a high performing student who is looking for an excellent experiential learning opportunity, you may wish to consider encouraging them to learn more about all that the Washington Program has to offer.

I will be back next week, and in the meantime, I wish you a pleasant weekend in advance.