President’s Newsletter

Friday, March 27, 2026

Dear Colleagues,

It’s often been said that every week after Spring Break goes faster than the last, and the momentum towards the end of the semester has already started. We had a debate at Extended Cabinet about whether spring had actually arrived or not, but the calendar certainly says it has, and hopefully the warmer weather will continue to buoy us as we move into April next week.

I’m happy to announce that our Academic Momentum Plan has been accepted by SUNY, and we are preparing to launch a number of initiatives this fall to help with our 4 and 6 year graduation rates, completion of gateway math and English courses, full 30 credit timetables for incoming first year students, and work on FAFSA completion. My thanks to Erin Rickman and Rey Sia for leading our efforts, along with the whole Graduation & Momentum Task Force. We also had good news this week that we have additional funding to support our National Institute for Student Success (NISS) work for next year.

As far as regular meetings this week, I attended Senate, where we discussed the Campus Climate Survey results and met the candidates for office; it was pleasing to hear the candidates focus on shared governance in their campaign announcements. I also met with the Senate Presidents in our regular monthly meeting, and with BSG leadership as well. In addition, I had my semesterly meeting with the International Faculty and Staff Association leadership, and I will be meeting with the JPBC co-chairs for our regular quarterly meeting this afternoon. Of course, I also had my regular one-to-ones with cabinet members.

Extended Cabinet met this week. Our focus was on AI. We had an excellent presentation by Shawn Maher, a member of the Generative AI Institute Team. Logan Rath, also a member of the AI team, offered supplementary information from a Senate perspective. The conversation was a robust one, ranging from ensuring clarity for students in relation to assessment, to legal issues around FOIL, to the environmental impacts of data centers, to the need for additional guidance, based on the surveys of faculty, staff and students that the team conducted.

External meetings and events included a luncheon with students from School Number 8, called “Spring Into Reading” which Rochester Rotary sponsored, along with Rotary meetings and two interviews related to recent awards, one with the RBJ and one with Camp Good Days and Special Times. Later today I will be reaching out to recent donors to thank them for their support, as we get ever closer to our fundraising goal of $40M.

We have our first Accepted Student Day on Saturday. I know many of you will be working at the event, and I thank you in advance for your role in recruiting our incoming undergraduate students.

And finally, don’t forget to vote for Ellsworth in Mascot Madness! It’s been fun to see the student and community engagement in this annual campaign.