April 16, 2025
Butternut Valley Room, Hunt Union
SUNY Oneonta
DRAFT
Present
Mr. Joe Bernier
Dr. Diane Georgeson
Ms. Stacie Haynes
Mr. Gary Herzig
Mr. Alec Hodge
Mr. Will Rivera
Presiding
Mr. Gary Herzig
University Administrators
- Mr. Paul Adamo, Vice President for College Advancement
- Ms. Karen Brown, Assistant Vice President for Enrollment
- Mr. Dirk Budd, University Police Chief
- Ms. Dia Carleton, Chief Human Resources Officer
- Dr. Alberto Cardelle, University President
- Dr. Tracy Johnson, Vice President for Student Affairs
- Ms. Lisa Miller, Senior Communication and Marketing Officer
- Dr. Enrique Morales-Diaz, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
- Ms. Julie Piscitello, Vice President for Finance and Administration
- Dr. Bernadette Tiapo, Vice President for Equity and Inclusion
- Ms. Karyn Wendrow, Chief of Staff and Director of Executive Communications
- Ms. J. Caroline Williams, Director of Community and Government Relations
Presenters, Invitees, Observers
- Ms. Linda Drake, Executive Director, Center for Volunteerism and Community Engagement
- Mr. Mark Farrell, Instructional Support Technician
- Ms. Juliette Devenpeck ‘28, Empire State Service Corps member
- Mr. Ryan Hooper, Director of Athletics
- Dr. Keith Jones, Presiding Officer of the Faculty and Chair of the College Senate
- Mr. Michael Kush, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students
- Mr. Jason Ostroski, Associate Vice President of Student Affairs, Student Engagement
- Ms. Ashley Romero, incoming Student Association president
Call to Order
Mr. Herzig called the meeting to order at 2:33 p.m.
Approval of Minutes
Mr. Bernier made a motion to approve the minutes of January 22, 2025. Dr. Georgeson seconded, and the minutes were approved by unanimous vote.
Chair’s Report
Mr. Herzig started out by thanking Dr. Cardelle for his very positive commentary piece, titled “Why Would Anyone Want to be a University President?”, which ran in The Daily Star on April 12, 2025. He then read a resolution recognizing graduating senior Mr. Alec Hodge, outgoing Student Association (SA) President, for his distinguished service as the SA representative on the University Council during his tenure as president in 2024-25, and welcomed the new Student Association president, Ms. Ashley Romero.
President’s Report
Dr. Cardelle introduced Ms. Linda Drake, Executive Director of the Center for Volunteerism and Community Engagement, and Mr. Jason Ostrowski, Associate Vice President of Student Affairs, Student Engagement, for a university “mission story” about the Empire State Service Corps.
Mr. Ostrowski gave an overview of the new SUNY Empire State Services Corps program, which was launched at the start of the fall semester and now enrolls 464 students from 31 campuses across the SUNY system. The program was created to bridge the gap for students who were interested in community service but could not afford to take time away from paid employment to volunteer. Students are paid $16/hour for up to 300 hours of service.
SUNY Oneonta students expressed great interest in the program, with about 10 percent of the applications SUNY-wide coming from Oneonta. The university had seven positions originally but was given additional positions based on this strong response. During the 2024-25 academic year, 50 students have been involved in the program – 31 at sites on campus and 19 off campus.
The ESC program partnered with the AmeriCorps program, which provides an additional bonus to students who complete the 300 hours of service, in the form of a $1,500 educational award to apply to undergraduate or graduate school. So far, 18 students are enrolled in this program, Ostroski said.
The program is facilitated through the university’s Center for Volunteerism and Community Engagement. Ms. Drake, executive director of the center, gave an overview of the SUNY Oneonta and community partner host sites, which include seven local schools, two local soup kitchen/food banks, Gilbert Lake State Park, the Village of Cooperstown and ReUse Otsego. She said so far, Oneonta ESC students have collectively contributed a total of 8,389 hours of service to the community.
Ms. Devenpeck, a sophomore who is majoring in Psychology with the goal of pursuing a School Counseling master’s degree at SUNY Oneonta after graduation, shared her ESC experience working in the guidance counseling office at Laurens Central School. Ms. Devenpeck and fellow ESC member Ms. Alex Garcia, ’25, received the “Cohort Champion” and "Excellence in Service, Going Above and Beyond” awards, respectively, at the inaugural ESC summit this spring.
Dr. Cardelle gave several updates, including:
- Challenges in higher education: regulatory uncertainty due to changes at the federal level, including questions about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and possible reductions in Pell Grants; changes to accreditation requirements for colleges and universities; reduced enforcement of student rights and accountability through a reduction of staff at the Department of Education; international recruitment; and research funding.
- State budget: extended until 4/17/25; sticking points center around the total amount of the budget and whether there will be income tax increases and policy proposal changes.
- Positive news highlighted in local media: our 4+1 MPH program with U Albany, our accelerated PharmD program with University at Buffalo and an event earlier this spring hosting the AIDS quilt on campus, organized by a Women’s and Gender Studies student as part of an independent study project.
- Noteworthy student accomplishments: Two anthropology students were accepted into a renowned paleoanthropology field school in Kenya; our investment management team ranked highly in a global competition; and the OnMark marketing club ranked in the top 15 among more than 300 students at a regional American Marketing Association competition.
- New Campus Initiatives: This month, the university opened a new Interfaith Prayer Room in the Hunt Union and hosted the inaugural summit of the SUNY Institute for Local News, aimed at increasing collaboration between communication and journalism programs with local news outlets seeking greater capacity to cover news in their region.
- Upcoming Events: The university will celebrate its first cohort of graduates from the new Direct Support Professional microcredential workforce development program on May 10. The Powered by You 72-hour giving celebration started today and will continue through April 18, seeking 1,350 individual donors (in recognition of the university’s 135th anniversary) in order to unlock an additional $70,000 in challenge gifts.
Athletic Department Impact Report
Dr. Cardelle introduced Mr. Ryan Hooper, Director of Athletics. Mr. Hooper gave an overview of the Division III athletic program, which includes 480+ student athletes competing on 21 varsity teams (11 women’s and 10 men’s). The goal of the Athletics Department is to “recruit, retain and develop students as exemplary student athletes,” Mr. Hooper said, and our student athletes are very involved in leadership programs, community service and engagement activities, and student clubs. They excel in the classroom, with a cumulative average GPA of 3.15 for the fall 2024 semester, and they have strong retention and persistence rates. Mr. Hooper said the graduation rate for student athletes is 80%, higher than that of the overall student population.
The Athletics Department also hosts 75 interns each year, who work with coaches, athletic trainers and other areas, getting valuable experiential learning to prepare for a variety of careers.
Mr. Hooper discussed the high level of engagement with athletics among SUNY Oneonta alumni and mentioned several collaborations with University Advancement and Alumni Engagement, including alumni panel discussions, Alumni Weekend activities and the Evening with the Red Dragons and Athletics Hall of Fame Induction events.
Mr. Bernier asked questions about the SUNYAC membership and whether SUNY Oneonta will develop policies around Name Image and Likeness (NIL) activities and Mr. Hooper said both are in flux; only a handful of students have asked about NIL so far, but the university is preparing for it so that we will be ready.
Hazing Policy Preliminary Review
Dr. Cardelle introduced Mr. Michael Kush, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, to discuss the campus’ current Hazing Policy, which will be reviewed later in the year in addition to other proposed changes to the Student Code of Conduct, which require University Council approval.
Mr. Kush gave an overview of the Stop Campus Hazing Act, which has several new requirements for college and university campuses related to reporting of hazing incident statistics, implementation of hazing prevention policies and transparency in reporting on findings concerning any student organization found to be in violation of the institution’s standards of conduct related to hazing.
Hazing policies must be in place by June 23, 2025, and institutions must have a process for documenting violations of the institution’s standards of conduct related to hazing by July 1, 2025. The Campus Hazing Transparency Report must be publicly available by December 2025, and hazing statistics must be included in the university’s annual security report by October 2026.
Mr. Kush said SUNY Oneonta is ahead of the curve, with strong policies and practices already in place, and then shared slides outlining the policies.
Dr. Georgeson asked if the university has a mechanism of communicating with local law enforcement about off-campus incidents and UPD Chief Dirk Budd said there is. Dr. Georgeson also asked about the timing for the Council to approve the policy by the June deadline. Dr. Johnson said we simply need to show that the updates are in progress and asked Council members to begin reviewing the policy in preparation for final approval in September.
Mr. Rivera said he would like to see SUNY Oneonta’s policy “go beyond the loopholes of the current penal law” to include additional forms of hazing. Mr. Kush said he appreciated the feedback and pointed out wording that encompasses new forms of hazing that are not specifically listed.
Mr. Bernier asked if there have been any hazing incidents reported this year and Mr. Kush said there have been none.
Enrollment and Community College Partnership
Ms. Brown gave an overview of enrollment projections for Fall 2025, including:
- tracking ahead in deposits for first-year enrollment;
- flat in transfer enrollment
- FAFSA numbers are coming in strong;
- most SUNY schools are seeing positive numbers this spring;
- numbers are going to change and evolve over the next few weeks; and
- we’ve seen increases in graduate enrollment over the last several years and are about 20% ahead in deposits for fall 2025 graduate programs.
Ms. Brown then gave an overview of the new Center for Community College Partnerships, which is funded by a grant from the American Talent Initiative and was established in fall 2024. Over the past 10 years we’ve experienced a 40 percent decline in our transfer enrollment, she said, citing our location as a challenge as the majority of our students come from two hours away, and students are increasingly interested in attending college close to home. She said a coordinator for the center has been hired and we’ve begun working with three community college partners to develop “Red Dragon Complete” dual admissions agreements that will allow students accepted to those colleges to be directly admitted to SUNY Oneonta at the same time, providing a direct pathway and becoming part of our community early on. One of our goals is to increase enrollment of Pell-eligible transfer students by 30.
ACT Report
Dr. Georgeson, ACT Representative, said she had nothing new to report other than the date for the annual conference, Oct. 15-17, 2025, in Albany.
Good of the Order
Ms. Williams gave a quick plug for the May 6 start-up business pitch competition, which will have student teams from both Hartwick College and SUNY Oneonta pitching innovative start-up business ideas they developed in collaboration with an entrepreneur in residence.
Adjournment
Mr. Herzig adjourned the meeting at 4:02 p.m.