STUDENTS DURING LAST SUMMER’S HOLLYWOOD POV had the opportunity to learn from the experiences of Janice Simcoe ’83, who was happy to share her unique

Simcoe, standing third from left, hosted Oswego’s Hollywood POV students at Disney’s Yellow Shoes Creative Group.

point of view from her exciting role with one of the world’s best-known brands.

As the account director for Disney’s Yellow Shoes Creative Group, Simcoe handles marketing and promotion of the entertainment giant’s parks and resorts.

Simcoe works with the internal creative team to create an experience that is appealing and exciting for everyone. “I spend half the day in the office, and half the day in the park.”

“There is an effect that people get in our parks that they don’t get anywhere else,” said Simcoe, “It’s exciting to see how people react.”

While she was at Oswego, Simcoe was very interested in both business management and advertising. “I love the strategic side of the business, but I also love being close to the creative.”

A broadcasting major, Simcoe originally aspired to break into a career in production. She landed her first job as an administrative assistant at a small-time ad agency, eventually becoming manager of advertising administration at Fisher-Price in Buffalo.

Since then Simcoe has worked out of each of Disney’s three major resorts over the past 13 years, including a stint in Paris. She said her experience in Oswego’s London exchange program gave her confidence she could be comfortable spending three years overseas.

Her time at Oswego powered her career in many other ways as well.

“Oswego gave you the opportunity to try so many things,” Simcoe said. “The experience is very hands-on.

“You can try things and decide what you want to pursue,” she said.

“I would never have predicted where I was going from Oswego,” said Simcoe. “I wanted [Hollywood POV students] to see what happened to someone who was in their shoes.”

Hollywood POV allows students to get inside access to the entertainment industry. The highly competitive 3-week summer course concludes with 10 days of field experience in Hollywood, an opportunity for students to network and gain insight into show business.

Janice Simcoe ’83, account director for Disney’s Yellow Shoes Creative Group, presents a commemorative poster to Rebecca Wellner ’12. Disney made individual posters for each student in Oswego’s Hollywood POV program.

Last year 18 students had the opportunity to visit entertainment icons such as Nickelodeon Animation Studios, The Academy of TV Arts & Sciences, Warner Brothers Studios and more.

Since the program’s inception in 2005, students of all majors have been provided with visits to “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” “Scrubs,” FX network and dozens of other household name productions.

Simcoe advised the visiting students to “Try different things to see what works and what you love,” emphasizing how careers often start in the most unusual places. “Just start somewhere and be enthusiastic,” Simcoe said. “Be a positive force.”

—Tyler J. Edic ’13 and
Shane M. Liebler

I stole. It’s hard to believe those two little words follow a man around for 28 years like a shadow but they do. Do the right thing and you forget it in a day, do the wrong thing and you regret it for years. And you can try to justify what you did; rationalize it away but the harder you push it away, the more it sticks. I’ve found guilt seldom has anything to do with courtrooms and trials because in the end we are all our own judge and jury. As long as you know what you did there’s no getting away with it.

It was 1984, the fall of my junior year at SUNY Oswego. Like a lot of college kids I took loans, paid my own way and was broke all the time.

John Gray ’85

Money was as rare as free time and as anyone who has ever struggled can tell you there are weeks where you literally have to watch every penny if you want to eat. It was a week like that, that led me down the road to perdition. I had exactly ten dollars in my pocket which had to last me six days. Whenever I was this broke, I’d go to the store in the student center and buy a bagel for fifty cents. The bagels were huge and filling so they were a nice substitute for lunch. I went to the counter, handed the guy my ten dollar bill, took the bagel and change and turned to go. I counted the money before putting it in my pocket and realized the clerk made a mistake in my favor. He gave me change for twenty dollar bill not a ten.

When times are tight and money falls into your lap the voices of your better angels are easily drowned out by the sounds of a growling stomach. You start to talk yourself into doing the wrong thing. I told myself in that moment that this school had overcharged me for so many things. They had fees on top of fees for courses and services I’d never use. Heck even the laundry machines in my dorm must have stolen from me. Soon enough you convince yourself that you are entitled to that extra ten bucks the guy gave you. They won’t even miss it.

I knew it was wrong to keep it but I was young, broke and stupid, so I took it. For the next few days I found myself avoiding that store for fear the guy might realize what he’d done and ask me about it. Even when I did eventually go back I hung my head and found it difficult to meet his eyes when he rang me up at the register. To the casual observer I’d gotten away with it but the truth was I hadn’t. That ten dollars owned me now and wouldn’t let me go.

Long after I graduated from Oswego that ten dollars I took kept turning up in my mind, like a stone in your shoe. I couldn’t understand how such a small stone could cause such a large ripple in the pond that was my conscience. Then in 1994 I went to see the movie Quiz Show and had a moment of clarity. Toward the end of the movie there’s a scene where Rob Morrow tells a story about an uncle who cheated on his wife and never got caught. Many years later he came clean about what he’d done and everyone in the family asked him why in God’s name he confessed, after all he’d gotten away with it. He said, “It was the getting away with it that I couldn’t live with.”

So why am I telling you this story now; confessing to a petty larceny I committed 28 years ago? Same reason I guess. I haven’t been to confession at church in a long time but I do believe you can talk to God and ask for forgiveness whenever you want. So there I was sitting at a red light on Route 9 near Hoffman’s Playland in Latham when I had a short yet long overdue chat with the big guy. I said I know I can’t go back in time and give the money back but please know I’m sorry, I learned from it and I’ll never do something like that again.

The light turned green and then something very odd happened. I put my directional on and pulled into the Stewart’s shop to grab a cup of coffee. I handed the clerk a ten dollar bill, took the change and turned to go. Anyone in the store that day would have seen me stop and smile because for an instant it was 1984 again. In my hand wasn’t change for my ten dollar bill but a twenty. I looked up toward the ceiling and said under my breath, “Thank you for the second chance.”

The manager was pleasantly surprised when I told him of his error and handed back the ten dollars extra he’d given me. “Wow, thanks,” he said. He probably thinks I’m this rare good guy who did the right thing when in reality I’m just the dummy who did the wrong thing 28 years ago and has paid interest on the debt ever since.

I haven’t been back to Oswego since graduation but a part of me will be visiting soon. The store in the campus center will soon receive an envelope with a ten dollar bill attached to a newspaper column telling this tale of avarice and absolution. I’m sure that guy who gave me the wrong change is long gone but when it comes to one’s eternity and passage at the pearly gates, the sheep that got away needs all the help he can get. •

Reprinted with Permission of the Troy Record.

John Gray ’85 is the news anchor at News10 ABC in Albany, N.Y.   He also is an award-winning columnist for the Troy Record newspaper and Capital Region Living Magazine. While he resides in the Albany area  helping raise his three children and his dog Max and has traveled extensively, he still insists he has never seen a sunset prettier than those outside of Onondaga Hall on Lake Ontario.

Ed. note: SUNY Oswego gratefully accepted John’s donation last autumn. 

OSWEGO alumni magazine welcomes submissions for consideration for “The Last Word.” They should be no more than 600 words and should reflect upon the writer’s Oswego experience. Send to alumni@oswego.edu.

One of the most common requests we get from alumni is that they want to reconnect with former classmates, teammates, floor mates, fraternity brothers, etc. So, more than 10 years ago in the “PFB” era (aka pre-Facebook!), the Oswego Alumni Association was one of the early leaders in establishing a password-protected online alumni community called OsweGoConnect to offer a secure place for alumni to connect and network with other alumni.

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new and improved OsweGoConnect that will offer additional exclusive benefits and services available to all alumni, quick links to our social media networks, upcoming event information and registration, job postings and networking opportunities with our 77,000+ alumni network, as well as the updated alumni directory to help you find your Oswego friends. It’s a quick and easy — and free to all alumni — way to always stay connected to Oswego!

For instructions on how to log in the first time, see page 34. All alumni who register before Oct. 1, 2013, will be entered into a drawing for all kinds of cool Oswego stuff and a grand prize of a 16GB iPad 2 or Kindle Fire HD!

We are also still recruiting alumni ambassadors to help us re-establish our regional alumni program. Please visit oswegoconnect.org or email alumni@oswego.edu to
volunteer to help plan events in your area. Also, take a minute to fill out the survey on our website to let us know what kinds of Oswego events you’d like in your area.

With the help of this year’s creative and enthusiastic Reunion Planning volunteers, the “theme” for Reunion Weekend 2013 is “Back to the Future.” When you return to campus, you will be truly amazed at the fabulous new facilities like our Campus Center complete with hockey arena and convocation center right in the heart of campus, the Village townhouses, the renovation of Romney Field House into an indoor practice facility, our renovated Old Main, Sheldon Hall, as well as the rising Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Innovation and Engineering and the new building at Rice Creek Biological Field Station. Please join us at Reunion Weekend or any time throughout the year to check out all that’s new.

At the same time, the things we have all loved throughout the generations of Oswego alumni remain the same. Our beautiful sunsets, our friendly and talented students, our embracing of service to our communities and our deep-rooted Oswego friendships are things we all share in common.

We are excited to welcome you virtually to the new OsweGoConnect alumni community and in person on campus or in your local area. Wear your Green and Gold proudly and drop us a note through OsweGoConnect to let us know what’s new. We look forward to seeing you and hearing from you soon!

ONE DAY LAST WINTER MY DAUGHTER texted me, “Check out this cool website! Is this where Grandpa worked?” I followed the link to pictures of the abandoned rug mill in Amsterdam, N.Y., where my father ran the boiler for more than a quarter century, and scrolled through photo after photo of the ruins. There were the stairs my father climbed on his way to work. Here was the control panel, now rusted, that regulated the mighty boilers. A photo hangs in my living room of my father standing in front of the same dials. My father died seven years before Katie was born, but now she — and I — could share his world in a way never before possible. I recognized the photographer’s name: Rob Yasinsac ’99 was one of our “40 Under 40” alumni from the Summer 2005 issue. The next morning I excitedly showed the website to Associate Editor Shane Liebler. Within moments he found photos of the East Town Theater in Detroit, where his father heard the J. Geils Band and saw Emerson, Lake and Palmer play their U. S. debut for $2 on “new band night.” We knew we had to share Yasinsac’s photos with all 77,000 Oswego alumni through the magazine. Only a handful of the images could be printed in these pages, but you can visit Rob’s website, www.hudsonvalleyruins.org, for a look at the lost factories, churches, theaters and homes of a bygone America. Maybe you’ll see a memory from your own past!

President Deborah F. Stanley

Dick Shineman met his wife, Barbara Palmer Shineman ’65, M ’71 at Oswego, and together they became two of our college’s staunchest advocates. As Oswego faculty members, both taught generations of students, he in chemistry and she in education. Over the years their roles on campus grew and evolved, their bond to the institution only strengthening as they moved into retirement and stayed active with the Oswego Alumni Association, Emeriti Association, Oswego College Foundation and a wealth of campus activities. Their generosity as donors is as yet unmatched and reached a pinnacle recently with the largest single gift in our college’s history.

A few months after Dick Shineman passed away in 2010, we broke ground on our new science complex. Next fall we will open this marvelous facility — the Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation. When our history and our future come together in this way, it is a magical, radiant moment. I invite you to share in this special moment and take inspiration from what you read here of the two Shinemans — their devotion to education and to a bright and robust future for SUNY Oswego.

Here are 35 artists who were able to fashion careers and make a living doing what they love. Their stories inspire our current students, and I hope, you as well. But read deeper and you see it’s true for all our feature stories, as well as class notes and profiles.

Tom Niziol ’77 took the passion he honed for winter weather on the roof of Piez Hall to a national audience. Dr. Richard Shineman pursued his passion for chemistry as founding chair of our chemistry department and a leader in the sciences faculty at Oswego. His wife, Dr. Barbara Palmer Shineman ’65, M ’71 has been a passionate educator and supporter of Oswego. Now her generous gift of $5 million ensures Dick’s influence will continue on for generations of students in the discipline he so loved.

As we begin a new calendar year and look at all our blessings and dreams, I hope you find that your Oswego education has served you well, and fuels your passion for life.

Another priority is the relaunch of a robust, national regional alumni events program. Due to staffing constraints in recent years, we had scaled back our regional event programming. We are now fully staffed in the Alumni Relations Office and we are inviting you to join us in coordinating regional Oswego events throughout the country (athletic, social, educational, cultural, community service and career networking events).

Oswego Alumni Ambassadors are being recruited now who will help us identify event ideas, venues, speakers, encourage attendance of fellow alumni and assist in staffing regional events. You can help Oswego alumni and friends to stay connected to each other in your own community and learn about the latest happenings at SUNY Oswego at the same time. We invite you to consider signing on as volunteer in your area!

Our volunteer Board of Directors of the Oswego Alumni Association, led by President Keith Chamberlain ’87, is an elected body of alumni who represent all of our 77,000-plus Oswego graduates. The board of directors is actively involved in serving both the college and our alumni. The mission of the Oswego Alumni Association is to inform and interest a diverse constituency in the life of the college to create a partnership that encourages involvement, enhances loyalty and serves the current and future needs of the institution and alumni.

The alumni association also serves Oswego by engaging alumni to volunteer their talent and experience in ways that are beneficial to the college and, most importantly, our current students. Our strategic plan strives to offer alumni meaningful engagement opportunities and experiences both on and off campus, as well as through our growing number of social media channels, including Facebook and LinkedIn.

Our online Honor Roll of Appreciation (see page 9) recognizes the more than 760 volunteers who supported Oswego programs and students last year. To all of you, we offer our hearty Thanks!! We look forward to your continued involvement and encourage others to join us in our programming efforts.

Until we see you again on campus or on the road . . .

Betsy Oberst
Executive Director, Oswego Alumni Association

Eli Fleurant ’76 is a poet, philosopher, lecturer, inventor and historian. He created Diaphanism, a philosophy of reason, harmonic social-interaction, positive emotion and well-being. He received a master’s at St. John’s University and has taught at CUNY and Hoftsra University.

He lives on Long Island and teaches modern languages at SUNY Farmingdale.

He is working on two books: Toussaint Louverture and the Panorama of Haiti: Before and After the Quake and Diaphanism: The Formula of Happiness.

Eli Fleurant ’76

Sandy and Mr. Mangrove

Neither oaths, nor sciences

Or man’s stratagem

Dared to halt her fury and rancor.

Before her fierce raid,

She rallied the towering of the ocean,

Emboldening her measure,

Inflating her lungs;

Her bloated cheeks

Gusting the wind

Rushing the monster waves to shore.

There she was, Sandy the savage lover

Lingering, wrecking, taunting.

The tide bursted, ripped free.

Flood, deluge, everywhere!

Then came night;

A tenebrous abyss

Filled the latitude.

And souls espoused nothingness,

The unknown and dark spirits of the elements.

Trees and prides hitherto tall and mighty

Thereon surrendered hubris and heightening.

Fear, tears, anger

Simmering in the torments of the night.

Sneers, curses and prayers

Met with deaf ears.

Mayhem reigns everywhere.

The tempest roars with no yield or pity.

Apocalypse seemed impending.

Sandy the furious nymph,

With her veils, her wretched kisses and rough kicks

Shattering pines, oaks and elms …

Abruptly, she veered to court Mr. Mangrove.

Oohh! Mr. Mangrove!!! She mocked.

Mr. Mangrove, a stern and robust timber

With luring brow.

Sandy paused, stared and stormed with vigor.

The Stoic Tree defied the strike.

In time, the fearless lover, tamed and beguiled

Unwinded her fury and lust

At the shrine of the wooden Centaure.

Eli Fleurant ’76
Oct. 29, 2012

As I write this, 10 faculty members from our School of Business have just departed for Turkey, where they plan to make new professional connections that will down the road benefit our students. This is just one example of the kinds of projects going on in this dynamic school, which we feature in this issue of the magazine with stories reviewing its 20-year development and profiling one of our most accomplished business alumni, Bob Moritz ’85.

President Deborah F. Stanley

SUNY Oswego recently received our most positive Middle States reaccreditation review in memory (see p. 3), and our School of Business radiates the sense of vibrancy and success you would expect from a vital part of our strong institution. Commitment to students, internships, field experience and service — these are areas that shone in our institution’s reaccreditation review, and they are all particular strengths in our School of Business.

The external team of evaluators appointed by our accreditor commended Oswego for our culture of assessment, and our business school in many respects led the way on campus in marshaling metrics to guide academic planning and development. They commended us for our international programs, and our business school is in the forefront of establishing dual degree programs with Chinese universities, bringing international scholars to campus, leading entrepreneur research abroad and exploring new opportunities for overseas partnerships. They commended our capital improvements, and, indeed, the renovation of Rich Hall as a home for our School of Business was one of the first big successes in our ongoing campus-wide renewal program.

We have recently launched the SUNY system’s first multidisciplinary cooperative education program, and accounting in the School of Business was our pioneer. The school’s MBA program joins hands with other disciplines on campus to offer five-year joint degrees, the newest to win approval involving Oswego’s renowned broadcasting program.

The School of Business partakes of the vigorous, can-do spirit that permeates SUNY Oswego and that characterizes so many of our alumni, as you can see in stories throughout this issue. Enjoy!

Deborah F. Stanley

President