President’s Newsletter

Friday, March 7, 2025

Dear Colleagues,

As part of our continued efforts to accomplish goal four of our strategic plan, To be a Great University at Which to Work, SUNY Brockport is participating in the Great Colleges to Work for Survey. The data that we receive from this survey will be analyzed by the committee that is tasked with assessing our progress and will inform their recommendations to President’s Cabinet. Many of you will have received a Great Colleges to Work for Survey over the last week. If you have, I would kindly ask that you please fill it out so that we can receive the best data possible and learn from your experiences working at our university.

This has been another busy week, with internal meetings including regular one-to-ones with senior leaders, a Senate meeting, and a meeting regarding REOC. I also had the opportunity to interview one of the Dean candidates for the School of Business and Management. I also finished reviewing APT packages for the year, and recorded a video for our upcoming Day of Giving.

SUNY meetings included a joint Chief Diversity Officer, Chief Student Affairs Officer, Chief Academic Officer and Presidents’ meeting with Chancellor King; a Comprehensive College Presidents’ meeting; and a Future of Healthcare Workforce Taskforce meeting. Next week I will be attending an event in Albany to celebrate Women’s History Month.

Externally, Mike Andriatch and I continued our legislator advocacy meetings, and meetings with donors. Cabinet met and reviewed new policy proposals, and College Council had one of its four meetings of the year. The agenda for College Council focused on the comprehensive fundraising campaign and student engagement.

Also this week I attended a webinar with New York university and college presidents hosted by Attorney General Letitia James, where she discussed recent communication from the U.S. Department of Education on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. After the meeting, the attorney general sent a memo that included additional legal guidance.

Yesterday I traveled to New York City for an Alumni and Friends event, and today we have a joint Foundation and Alumni board meeting.

After a tough loss to SUNY Geneseo in the Empire 8 championship game last weekend, our women’s basketball team earned its first invitation to the NCAA Tournament in 16 years. The team has traveled to Virginia to play Elizabethtown College this afternoon at 4:45 pm in the first round of the tournament. You can watch a live stream of the game online. On Saturday Brockport will host the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association’s East Regional Championship, which I’m looking forward to attending.

There remains a lot of uncertainty at present regarding the higher education landscape, and I know that this is difficult, especially as information can be difficult to come by. Please know that we are working closely with SUNY on a number of fronts, and I hope to be able to offer you additional clarity soon.