03/17/2009
SUNY Cortland has obtained a federal grant for $247,000 to develop academic programs that will train tomorrow's community leaders and help keep young people in the state after graduation.
U.S. Rep. Michael A. Arcuri (D-Utica, N.Y.) secured the Congressionally directed funding for the Building Community Leaders project, which will underwrite a three-year initiative to develop a leadership program for the next generation of community leaders. Included in a fiscal year 2009 funding bill, the grant passed the House of Representatives and the Senate and is part of the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act signed into law by President Barak Obama on March 11.
"The next generation is the key to our success as a region and anything we can do to keep our young people here and engaged in the community is critically important," Arcuri said. "The Building Community Leaders project at SUNY Cortland will help to build the next generation of business and civic leaders."
Students in this program will develop the self-awareness and confidence to seek out and assume leadership roles in Cortland, their own communities, New York state and the nation.
"Our project will be unique in targeting leadership skills to meet community needs," said Richard Kendrick, the Sociology/Anthropology Department chair and director of the College's Institute for Civic Engagement. "Many colleges and universities have leadership programs of various types, but we will be among the first to develop a program that focuses on the knowledge and skills to develop new leaders for community and economic development."
SUNY Cortland students will be involved in the program through a set of common experiences that may include workshops, service projects, internships, retreats, credit-bearing courses, and community problem-solving experiences.
"We're going to engage in a process of bringing people together who have an interest in developing this program," Kendrick said. "We're still working out whether the result of the grant will be courses, workshops or something else and how we will tie this to students' experiential learning through service-learning, internships or other experiences. We will bring together the various individuals and organizations on campus who are already doing work in this area."
The College already offers leadership development opportunities that would dovetail with this grant, Kendrick noted. For example, the Cortland College Foundation, working with the Student Government Association and the Division of Student Affairs, has helped establish endowed scholarships for student leaders and an endowed fund to support ongoing student leadership programming. Student Affairs hosts an annual Leadership Retreat at Raquette Lake and an annual Leadership Awards Banquet on campus. A handful of student leaders are selected each year to live in the Judson H. Taylor Student Leadership House on campus.
In addition, the College has long championed civic engagement as a way to prepare all its students for their future roles in society. The momentum gained by the College is reflected in two recent awards. For a third consecutive year, SUNY Cortland has received federal recognition for its community service by being named to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). Additionally, SUNY Cortland was recognized by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching with its 2008 Community Engagement Classification, the only State University of New York college or university to be so recognized.
"I hope we can use the funds to bring together our leadership and civic engagement programs in a way that will strengthen and enhance our programs in both areas," Kendrick said.
In 1999, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded SUNY Cortland $400,000 to support its Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) project. The program has allowed the College to share its intellectual resources with the community to help improve the local social and economic outlook. Department of Sociology/Anthropology Distinguished Service Professor Craig Little originated that initiative.
The Building Community Leaders project adds to that 10-year-old community/college partnership model, explained SUNY Cortland President Erik J. Bitterbaum.
"Through our existing Institute for Civic Engagement and our Main Street SUNY Cortland downtown outreach facility, student leaders will be exposed to ideas, debates, research and problem-solving strategies to lead community revitalization efforts both in the Cortland community as students and in their own New York communities after their graduation," Bitterbaum said.
"One of the president's five goals is to make SUNY Cortland a leading partnership institution within SUNY for its engagement with the community," Kendrick added.
"I am proud to see these funds return to Cortland to help keep our young people here in upstate and prepare them for success," Arcuri said. "Our outstanding local colleges and universities are our region's most valuable asset."
Kendrick credits the project's fruition not only to the congressman and his staff but to the Cortland Downtown Partnership, the Mayor's Office and College entities including the SUNY Cortland President's Office, the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, the Division of Institutional Advancement and the Division of Student Affairs.