Welcome Center
Presentation Room
SUNY Oneonta
Also via Zoom
Present
Mr. Joseph Bernier
Mr. Patrick Brown
Dr. Diane Georgeson
Ms. Debra Parisian
Mr. Daniel Sniezek
Presiding
Mr. Patrick Brown, Chair
College Administrators
Mr. Paul Adamo, Vice President for College Advancement
Dr. Alberto Cardelle, President
Dr. Franklin Chambers, Vice President and Special Assistant to the President for Student Advocacy and Ombudsman
Mr. William Henn, Interim Chief of University Police
Ms. Danielle McMullen, Chief of Staff
Ms. Julie Piscitello, Vice President for Finance and Administration
Dr. Bernadette Tiapo, Chief Diversity Officer and Interim Vice President for Student Development
Presenters, Invitees, Observers
Mr. Edward Aluck, Alumni Representative
Ms. Karen Brown, Executive Director Admissions and Senior Enrollment Management Officer
Dr. Keith Jones, Presiding Officer of the Faculty and Chair of the College Senate
Dr. Eileen Morgan-Zayachek, Associate Provost for Academic Programs
Call to Order
Mr. Brown called the meeting to order at 4:30 p.m.
Approval of Minutes of Nov. 16, 2021
Upon motion of Mr. Bernier, seconded by Ms. Parisian, Council approved by unanimous vote the minutes of the Nov. 16, 2021 meeting.
Chair’s Report
Mr. Brown deferred his report.
President’s Report
President Cardelle extended his best wishes for 2022, noting that the spring semester would start the next day. He shared that Ms. McMullen’s report, later in the meeting, would describe the college’s plan for managing COVID, and that Ms. Brown’s report, also later in the meeting, would include detailed information about the number of newly enrolled and continuing students. The president added that inter-collegiate athletic competitions resumed in early January and that Ms. McMullen’s report would address a change in the college’s athletic event spectator protocol.
President Cardelle shared that the college had begun hosting campus-wide dialogues aimed at continuing efforts to address the increasing pressures on faculty, staff and students around mental health. He announced that Dr. Chambers had filled the newly created student ombudsman position and said that the college would continually assess its impact on the campus and students’ wellbeing.
The president referred to a packet of information describing upcoming speakers. He added at the college will host spring commencement May 21 and that it will include ceremonies at 9 a.m., 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.
President Cardelle highlighted the work of the college’s International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) team on developing a field-deployable genetic testing system to help farmers identify diseases. He also noted that Newsweek had published an opinion essay from Dr. Shenna Mason of the English department, adding that Dr. Mason has a forthcoming book titled, “Decolonizing the Raci(al/st) Imagination in Literary Studies: An Interrogation and Critique of Antiracist Discourse.” The president noted that the college foundation supports these types of work.
The president reported on his recent meetings with boards of the college foundation and alumni association. He lauded the attainment of 99% of the target for the Grow. Thrive. Live campaign 18 months ahead of schedule and listed some of its goals as: raising funds over the next 18 months to create 25 new endowed scholarships and student support funds; endowing the Student Emergency Fund (SEF) to have an endowed principal of $1 million, which would create a naming opportunity; increasing the percentage of endowment that is unrestricted to enhance the college foundation’s flexibility to support more programs and/or increase current programs such as student research and faculty development; and continue building toward an endowment and net assets worth $100 million.
The president discussed SUNY Oneonta’s leadership in COVID testing and vaccinating. He outlined the activities of the college’s PLACES Institute in surveying and gathering data on the pandemic’s health and sociological effects, for example its impact on stress and the role of television watching on vaccine hesitancy. He shared that this research led the college to fund a $5,000 campaign to counter vaccine hesitancy locally and praised the college, especially Ms. Mullen for leadership in managing COVID by becoming one of the state’s first community testing sites.
The president discussed the college’s need for a plan to prepare the campus for continued successes, and for leadership to meet its challenges. He announced the scheduling of dialogs over the next six weeks to identify short-term strategic opportunities, and also a series of community breakfasts broken down by groups to organize the college’s work with the community in workforce development, collaborative scholarship and research, and overall regional development.
The president presented an overview of the new Interim Chancellor Deborah Stanley, who served as president of SUNY Oswego for 26 years. He stated that his belief that Interim Chancellor Stanley has the governor’s and state assembly’s support and his hope to work closely with her while a national search for a chancellor takes place.
President Cardelle summarized the aspects of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s state of the state address that related to higher education, which includes proposals to: increase SUNY’s enrollment from the 370,000 to at least 500,000 by 2030; grow the student body system-wide to reflect the state’s socioeconomic, geographic, and racial diversity; prepare students for in-demand jobs and upwardly mobile careers; ensure a world-class student experience; recruit faculty and staff to support and teach students; continue to provide affordable degrees and credentials to all kinds of learners; and advance regional economic development.
The president recounted elements of the state’s 2022-2023 executive budget. He noted its similarity to the state’s 2021-2022 enacted budget. He drew attention to the $550 million in critical maintenance funding, the same amount the state provided this year; $425 million in new, flexible capital funding that can be used for new construction, programmatic, or critical maintenance projects; expansion of the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) to part-time students; elimination of the SUNY “TAP Gap”; restoration of TAP awards for incarcerated individuals; and $184.1 million in operational support to university-wide programs.
Chair’s Report (continued)
Mr. Brown reflected on the governor’s proposed state budget, noting that it would provide substantial increases in support to the university centers in Stony Brook and Buffalo, which may financially disadvantage SUNY Oneonta. He shared that this approach to public higher education funding in unprecedented in New York and that he expects that this will be the subject of legislative debate.
In response to a question from Dr. Georgeson, Mr. Brown affirmed that the flagship model the governor espouses has been in place in other states and has some support in New York.
Spring Re-Opening
Ms. McMullen updated Council with regard to student COVID booster vaccination rates, adding that many students have taken advantage of the on-campus COVID booster clinic and that the spring semester student pre-screening requirement has been successful. She shared that a group with representatives from the campus, City of Oneonta and Otsego County meets bi-weekly to discuss COVID.
Ms. McMullen noted that COVID management on campus is shifting to a more tactical group based on incident command structure, which has allowed several employees to refocus on the primary responsibilities of their positions.
In response to questions from Dr. Georgeson, Ms. McMullen clarified the college’s strategy for COVID surveillance testing, which last semester included pool testing about 650-750 students weekly.
In response to a question from Mr. Brown, Ms. McMullen confirmed that the college is maintaining one residence hall quarantine and another for isolation.
Dr. Cardelle added that the college is following SUNY guidance with regard to testing.
Enrollment Update
Ms. Brown referred to several handouts distributed to Council members. She shared that spring enrollment this year is lower than spring enrollment 2021 by more than 1,000 students, adding that the persistence and retention rates have decreased. She attributed this in part to the pandemic, financial stressors, and mental health challenges.
Ms. Brown stated that enrollment management has become a focus across campus and that established committees and new collaborative partnerships are working to strengthen the college’s position. She discussed declining enrollment from community colleges, decreasing sizes of graduating high school cohorts and smaller numbers of high school graduates attending college, overall.
Ms. Brown noted that SUNY Oneonta was a SUNY leader in attracting applications as recently as a few years ago and that university centers have grown and have greater flexibility to do so.
Ms. Brown indicated that the number of first-generation applicants has increased. She noted that the college has received more applications from some geographic areas, notably Albany, Otsego County and Bronx. She forecasted that attracting transfer students will be a challenge, and added that the college has begun to offer scholarships to transfer students.
Ms. Brown identified the lack of a community college located nearby as a challenge to attracting transfer students and outlined some initiatives underway to entice transfer students to attend SUNY Oneonta.
Ms. Brown outlined revisions to the college’s scholarship program and strategy, which she hopes will improve recruitment. She outlined plans for on-campus events this spring and protocols for safety.
In response to a question from Mr. Bernier, Ms. Brown clarified that the academic profile of the incoming class is typical of the historic average for SUNY Oneonta.
Mr. Sniezek suggested strengthening relationships with community colleges and investigating how to attract international students.
Community College Articulations
Dr. Morgan-Zayachek recapped SUNY’s Seamless Transfer initiative, adopted in 2015, which defined pathways for New York community college students to transition to the state’s four-year public campuses without any negative academic impact. Ms. Brown demonstrated how the web-based tools for Seamless Transfer work. She reviewed the articulation agreements in place now and others under development.
Dr. Morgan-Zayachek described programming underway now to enhance relationships with community colleges and noted that community college representatives appreciate the sharing of data related to transfer students’ success at SUNY Oneonta.
ACT Report
Dr. Georgeson had no news to report. Mr. Brown shared that the ACT Subcommittee on Strategic Planning submitted its report on the powers and duties of college council members to the Executive Board, which tabled it.
Good of the Order
Upon motion of Mr. Bernier, seconded by Dr. Georgeson, Mr. Brown adjourned the meeting at 5:45 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Hal Legg
Special Assistant to the President