SUNY Oneonta’s 2023-24 academic year is off to a successful start, with the campus community welcoming 20 new faculty members and nearly 1,700 new students from 14 states and seven countries. More than 1,300 first-year and 300+ transfer students make up the new student group, an increase of 18 percent over fall 2022. The newest Red Dragons include 120 students enrolled through the Educational Opportunity Program, the largest EOP class in university history.
Campus buzzed with anticipation and positivity Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Aug. 23-25, as the new first-year and transfer students moved into their residence halls. Student, faculty and staff volunteers wearing “Red’s Squad” shirts checked students in, kept traffic moving and helped unload belongings, moving them into Golding, Tobey, Littell, Wilber, Hulbert and other halls.
Once they were settled in, members of the Class of 2027 began to get acquainted with campus during orientation. They connected with Dragon Guide peer mentors, learned where to find everything from academic tutoring to Starbucks, and got tips for success from faculty and staff.
On Saturday, members of the Class of 2027 officially joined the SUNY Oneonta community by participating in Academic Convocation and Pass Through the Pillars.
“That Mindset is Dead”
Designed to welcome new students into the scholarly community and give them a sense of belonging and unity, the convocation ceremony featured several campus speakers and faculty members as well as a special bell ringing, using a bell from the university archives that was rung by a freshman back in the Oneonta Normal School days to signify the start of the new year. First-year student Izzy DeJesus was chosen to ring the bell on behalf of her classmates.
In his speech, President Alberto Cardelle encouraged students who may be feeling nervous about this new adventure.
“Many decades ago, when I sat where you are, the person talking said look to your right and your left – only one of you will make it through college,” Cardelle recalled. “Well, that mindset is dead here at SUNY Oneonta.” He then asked students to take out their phones and take a selfie with the people around them to look back on as “a reminder that not only will one of you or two of you be successful but all of you in this picture can be successful.”
After taking a class photo on the hillside overlooking the upper quad, new students walked between the pillars of Old Main – the university’s first building – and into a welcoming, cheering crowd, signifying the beginning of their journey at Oneonta. They will pass back through in the opposite direction as seniors, the day before commencement.
Looking Ahead
The academic semester officially kicked off with the first day of classes, Monday, Aug. 28, and a celebratory campus-wide picnic on the library quad. There are more than 3,000 returning students.
In addition to the development of the university’s next strategic plan, there will be a number of exciting moments to look forward to this semester, including the reopening of the fully renovated Alumni Hall, which offers a mix of offices, classrooms, study and meeting spaces and is home to the departments of Business, Economics and Political Science, and the Division of University Advancement.
For its 2023 Common Read, SUNY Oneonta has chosen Clint Smith’s award-winning book, "How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America.” Smith will visit campus on Oct. 23, 2023, to deliver the Mills Distinguished Lecture, which is free and open to the public.