Campus News

Patricia Wright, who served SUNY Cortland for 30 years, retired on Jan. 22. She has been designated senior staff assistant emerita.

James J. Starzec, who served the College for more than 33 years, retired on Jan. 7. He has earned the designation of professor emeritus of psychology.

SUNY Cortland recently awarded $15,750 in scholarships to 18 students to help offset the cost of their studies abroad this summer and fall. The students, who will study in Greece, Spain, Ireland, France, Italy, Puerto Rico, Australia or England, won $750 or $1,000 scholarships. The awards, offered through the College's James M. Clark Center for International Education, are based on several criteria, including high academic achievement, financial need, involvement in extracurricular activities, a personal essay and letters of recommendation. SUNY Cortland offered two kinds of scholarships for study in a foreign country, the Overseas Academic Program Award and the Uschald Study Abroad Scholarship.

The SUNY Cortland Alumni Association will present its highest honor, the Distinguished Alumna/Alumnus Award, to three graduates during the Alumni Reunion Weekend luncheon in Corey Union on Saturday, July 18. The recipients are Rosa LaSorte Rich ’55, the late retired Cmdr. John W. Clark ’59, and Distinguished Young Alumna Jené Lupoli Luciani ’99.

SUNY Cortland and the Tully (N.Y.) Central School District have joined forces to expand video conferencing opportunities for children in schools throughout Central New York to experience unique tropical wildlife in Belize.

The SUNY Cortland intercollegiate athletics program finished first in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Commissioner’s Cup standings for the 2008-09 school year.

When Jaime Atencio traveled to Australia for a 13-and-a-half-week student teaching abroad program at the University of the Sunshine Coast in June 2008, he fell in love with the people, schools and the continent situated between the Indian and Pacific oceans. On June 7, Atencio, a 2009 SUNY Cortland graduate, who majored in physical education, will board a plane headed for Mountain Creek State Primary School in Queensland, Australia. He will spend the next 18 months in a fellowship program teaching physical education to kindergarten through seventh grade at the same school where he student taught last year.

Ten new AmeriCorps volunteer positions will be filled starting as early as July 1, almost doubling the AmeriCorps program, which assists with outreach and community revitalization and improvement programs in Cortland County. The AmeriCorps positions will be funded by a one-time $99,944 federal grant, said the project director, Richard Kendrick, who chairs the Sociology and Anthropology Department and directs the College's Institute for Civic Engagement. The money was awarded to SUNY Cortland and the community by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), with funds from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

"Techno_Culture," an exhibition of works from artists utilizing numerous forms of electronic technology in their creative process, opened on May 28 in the Dowd Gallery at SUNY Cortland. The opening was highlighted by a live performance by one of the featured artists, Jesse Stiles. The show runs through Friday, June 26. Gallery summer hours through September are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays and by appointment. Group tours are also available.

Paula N. Warnken of Cortland, N.Y., who served SUNY Cortland for 16 years, will retire on Aug. 27. She has been designated associate provost emerita for information resources. Since joining the College in 1993, she has been responsible for providing leadership and strategic direction for all technology and library services, developing policies, setting priorities and providing resources to fulfill the institution's instructional and administrative goals.