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.

Members of the Class of 1987 gathered for a silver anniversary reception with President Deborah F. Stanley during Reunion Weekend 2012 at Shady Shore. Celebrating the 25-year class anniversary are, first row, from left: Kimberly Morella, Kitty Sherlock Houghtaling, Francine Maltz Dorfman, Nancy Brown Corbin, Kimberly Cockayne Brooke, Karen Coney Coplin and President Deborah F. Stanley. Pictured second row, from left, are: Pilar Di Pietro, Laurie Harrison Kennen, Marcie Benjamin Brasier, Kristine Kuehnle, Suzanne Vernon Vienneau and Lisa Marceau Schnorr. Pictured third row, from left, are: Carol Jones Quirk, Jean Linnenbach Klein, Regina DeBottis Sheehan, Courtney Grace DeWitt, Liz Gocs and Stu Rothenberg. Pictured fourth row, from left, are: Henry N. Seymour, James D. Hewitt and Doug Steuerman. Pictured fifth row, from left, are: Andrew Wojnowski, David Smith, Keith Chamberlain, Wendy Cobrda and Dennis O’Toole.

Members of the Class of 1962 gathered for a golden anniversary reception with President Deborah F. Stanley during Reunion Weekend 2012 in the Sheldon Hall Lower Lobby. Celebrating the 50-year anniversary were, first row, from left: James Anderson, James Balducci, David Bates, A. David Bird, Donald Blauvelt, Monica Boivin Carroway, Frank Cleary, Patricia Crosson Cleary, Patricia McCarthy Coughlin, Mary Reilly Crabbs, Lester Crowell, Janice Bartow Curro, Marilyn Fragetta Daluisio, Peter Dankelman, Gail Freeman Dembin and Lawrence Fagen. Pictured second row, from left, are: Mark Montoney, Jean Moser McKay, Christopher Maniscalco, Marguerite Boyle Lowenthal, Eleanor Koch Link, Diana Schoff Lawlor, Roberta Bonacci Lang, George Ladd, Donald Kline, Jack James, Anne Petrak Horner, Martin Holland, Anne Dunn Herb, Edward Heinrich, Ronald Harrison, Edwina Foster and Phyllis Maguire Fanizzi. Pictured third row, from left, are: Colette Chapman Ozarowski, Marie D’Amore Petrelli, Michael Picciano, Lois Glick Reiter, Kathleen Haggerty Ross, Arleen Statnikoff Rudoy, Clayton Sauberan, Nancy Tuma Sauberan, Frederick Scharf, Rosemary Bushneck Shanahan, Michael Shramek, James Stahlman, Joanne Clark Szalay, Robert Thole, Marjorie Pfluke Trudeau, Donna Fry True, Peter Vignogna and Beverly Brown Wilkins, Robert Thole, Marjorie Pfluke Trudeau, Donna Fry True, Peter Vignogna and Beverly Brown Wilkins.

The New York State Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust (LECET) celebrated a milestone — 15 years of generous support to Oswego’s Presidential Scholars Program. Bill Shannon, business manager for the Upstate New York Laborers’ Council and LECET representative, presented a check for $25,000 to President Deborah F. Stanley in the autumn. “We believe in the importance of education and in maintaining strong relationships with our community,” said Shannon. He added that the trust is happy to support the Presidential Scholars program, which makes a high-quality education possible for many students, like the children of LECET’s members. Stanley thanked LECET for their continuing support of the program, saying “LECET’s unprece-dented longevity of commitment to partnering with SUNY Oswego not only benefits our Presidential Scholars, but also the people of our state and region as these dedicated students take their Oswego degrees out into the world and do great things.”

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

New York State Assemblyman William Barclay presents President Deborah F. Stanley with a State Assembly legislative proclamation recognizing SUNY Oswego’s Sesquicentennial anniversary.

Now we are embarking on a new era of faculty/student collaboration. Oswego professors share their labs and studios with current undergraduates who contribute substantively to scholarly and artistic pursuits, and often present the results alongside their professors at conferences around the country and the world. Academic departments create capstone experiences to help students put their classroom learning into action. We have sought out external funding to help undergraduates study abroad. According to the Provost’s Office, we achieved a 23 percent increase in faculty-led student undergraduate research experiences during the 2010-2011 academic year, thanks in part to the donor-funded Summer Scholars program. We have also seen a 45 percent increase in campus grants to students for research and creative activity.

These types of opportunities are at the heart of the Oswego experience, and we are proud to make them possible for our students.

Deborah F. Stanley
President

Her career took her to the soaring cathedrals of Europe in search of medieval stained glass windows, but as a teacher, Professor Emerita of Art Helen Zakin was always more comfortable in the intimate seminar rooms of Tyler Hall.

“I always enjoyed working with students in small classes,” said Zakin, who especially liked teaching interdisciplinary courses in medieval studies for the Honors Program.

Professor Emerita of Art Helen Zakin

“In order to teach large classes, you have to be a bit of an actor or actress, a real performer,” Zakin said. She preferred the interaction of working with students one-on-one, where she could see who needed extra help, or draw in those whose attention wandered.

It’s a type of care she experienced from her dissertation adviser at Syracuse University, medieval art historian Meredith Lillich. Although there was no e-mail in the mid-1970s, Lillich would send copious handwritten notes by post while traveling all over the world. Since joining the Oswego faculty in 1970, Zakin had many female role models, ranging from Presidents Virginia L. Radley and Deborah F. Stanley to former Vice President Patti Peterson and Professors Marilynn Smiley and Rosemarie Imhoff. She tried to pass that mentorship on to students and to other faculty members in her work as department chair from 2002 to 2007.

While she doesn’t enjoy the impersonal nature of teaching online, Zakin says the Internet has opened a world of possibilities for the art historian. “At the Pierrepont Morgan Library online, you can get into the manuscripts, page after page,” she says. “You can see the [stained] glass in Shropshire Cathedral, panel by panel.”

But for Zakin, nothing compares to traveling the world, studying art in its own setting. A noted expert on medieval stained glass, she is a member of the Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi, a prestigious international organization that catalogs stained glass. Throughout her 40-year career, she visited hundreds of cathedrals and museums, and attended conferences or presented papers
in most countries in Europe. Her 2001 book catalogued French stained glass in American Midwestern collections. In 1992, she spent six weeks researching the stained glass holdings of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. With her husband of 40 years, ceramicist and Oswego Art Professor Emeritus Richard Zakin, she has traveled to Turkey, Spain, Italy, Poland and France among other European nations, as well as the United States.

While traveling, she took photos to share with her Oswego classes. In Pisa, Italy, she photographed underdrawings for frescoes, revealed by World War II bomb damage.

For all her globe hopping, the St. Louis native has no desire to make her home anywhere but in Oswego, thanks to the area’s rich heritage. “There are layers and layers of history in this town that one could peel away, and that fascinates me,” she said, pointing to the city’s role in major historical movements like abolitionism and the Underground Railroad.

Since her retirement from the college in 2009, Zakin has kept busy exercising her mind and body with Spanish classes, reading, yoga and jogging. She volunteers for political campaigns and the Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music. Her newest passion is gardening. Zakin, who received her bachelor of fine arts degree in studio art, still enjoys painting and photography.

She remains grateful for the opportunities she received at Oswego, her first and only faculty post, which she held for four decades. “There’s a certain intimacy about this place, I know I wouldn’t find anywhere else,” she said.

— Michele Reed